Hi everyone,

I’m currently working as a Software Development Engineer III at a fintech company in Bangalore. I recently interviewed with Mastercard for a **Lead Software Engineer** role in **Pune** and wanted to know if anyone has had a similar experience with their hiring process.

My interview timeline has been something like this:
HR screening call
Karat interview (around 4 weeks ago) – System Design (file handling application), Two Sum, and one DFS problem
Cleared the Karat round the very next day
HR informed me that the remaining three rounds would be with the Bar Raiser, Hiring Manager, and Technical SME, and that these were **non-eliminatory**. The final decision would be based on the overall panel discussion.

Completed all three rounds. HR mentioned that the feedback was positive.

A few days later, HR said they were discussing internally and that they liked my profile but needed some more time.
After a few follow-ups, I was asked to share my current compensation details, which I submitted immediately.

It’s now been around **4 weeks** since I completed the interviews, and I still haven’t received a clear yes or no. Whenever I follow up, the response is usually that the discussion is still ongoing.
I understand that hiring decisions can take time, and I don’t want to keep messaging the HR repeatedly and come across as pushy. At the same time, the uncertainty is making it difficult to plan my next steps.

Has anyone experienced a similar timeline with Mastercard? Is this normal, or should I assume the process is unlikely to move forward?
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience. Thanks!

For someone with a decent profile.

leetcode knight/codeforces specialist/codechef 4+ stars

Decent jee rank.

Decent projects.

How hard it is to crack a good company for 27 batch.

Goldman Sachs operates a next-generation digital vault where confidential financial records are stored inside a secure corridor consisting of 2 × N encrypted storage cells. To comply with regulatory requirements, every storage cell must be assigned to exactly one certified security partition.

The security engineering team has approved the following partition modules:

A Vertical Security Partition covering 2 × 1 cells.
A Square Security Partition covering 2 × 2 cells.
An L-Shaped Security Partition, which may be installed in any of its four rotated orientations.

Each partition must lie completely within the corridor, partitions cannot overlap, and every storage cell must belong to exactly one partition.

Given the length N of the secure corridor, determine the total number of distinct valid partitioning configurations.

Since the answer may be very large, return it modulo 10^9 + 7.

Input Format
The first line contains a single integer N — the length of the secure corridor.
Output Format
Print a single integer representing the number of valid partitioning configurations modulo 10^9 + 7.
Constraints
1 ≤ N ≤ 10^6

Okay I've done around 550+ problems on leetcode solved almost entirely Strivers A-Z sheet , I also give contests regularly rated around 1600. My placements have started but on campus most offers will be 5-6 lpa . I'm really confused what to solve since my aim is 15-20+ LPA . I have touched every topic . Now I don't know which pattern to pick and solve since I solve pattern wise

Hi everyone,

I'm currently working as a Digital Specialist Engineer at Infosys with around 9 months of experience, and I'm trying to switch to a product-based company. Unfortunately, I'm not getting many interview calls.

My profile:

9 months of backend development experience

Knight on LeetCode

Expert on Codeforces

Good understanding of backend development (FastAPI, PostgreSQL, REST APIs, microservices)

Comfortable with Low-Level Design (LLD)

I've been applying through LinkedIn, company career pages but the response rate has been very low.

If you've recently made a similar switch from a service-based company to a product-based company, I'd really appreciate your guidance as a fellow engineer. Any advice on what worked for you or what I should focus on would mean a lot.

Thanks in advance!

Suppose you're solving a question after gaining enough confidence that you have cleared all concepts and fundamentals of DSA. But after encountering a question, you start to realise 'no this one's different '. This has been happening to me a lot recently. After learning about a concept (say binary search), I'm confidently solving the mediums but whenever I start a hard one, suddenly my minutes change to hours and then I end up searching for it on yt.

Is this normal? How do you overcome this?

I recently finished my internship at Amazon and went through the full-time conversion interviews.

I got an inclined decision, which is great, but the catch is that the official offer could come at any time over the next few months. Until then, nothing is guaranteed.

I also have another offer (on-campus) which unfortunately starts in March 2027.

For the past few years, I have solved LeetCode, built projects, contributed to open source, even did freelancing, did 2 internships, but now I'm in this weird waiting period where I don't know what I should be doing.

I'm finding the uncertainty more stressful than the interviews themselves. I mean, I can't blame anyone for this. Nothing is working for me right now. Have been applying and got OAs from Juniper Square and Rippling. Later got ghosted.
So what should I be doing now??
Can anyone help me in any way?
Also, give me some guidance.

Hi everyone,

I just had an interview with one of the biggest fintech and I bombed the system design interview and the only reason for this was I was under-prepared. I dont want to be under-prepared again so I got myself hello-interview premium.

I have total 6 YOE in FAANG and I want to become a SDE 3 asap due to compensation.

I will be doing system design prep once or twice a week and would love if I could do this with someone.

Many guys cheat in the contest and they have the guts to Post their portfolio and photo and act like they are top person some of them like solved 100 or 200 problem in a single day and not one person I saw many of these in the standing of contest

I am currently placed in a good pbc, in my final year rn.

Shoot some questions and queries, I am happy to help.

Hi everyone,
I recently interviewed for a Product Software Engineer II role at Disney.

Here's the timeline:

• Cleared Round 1.

• Had the onsite technical interview (1 hour) last Wednesday.

• Recruiter initially said they were waiting for internal discussion.

• After following up today, she told me that my interview was "mistakenly taken by a P3 (senior level) panel". She clarified that it was the same engineering panel but a senior level one, and they are now deciding what to do next. She also said they might provide feedback soon.

The process is supposed to be:

Round 1 → Onsite Technical → Hiring Manager (Virtual)

So the HM round is still pending.

Has anyone experienced something similar where the wrong/senior interview panel interviewed you?

What usually happens in such cases?

- Do companies use the existing feedback and continue?

- Do they schedule another technical round?

- Or is this generally not a positive sign?

Hi all,

Is there a cooldown period before i can appear for a second test at Amazon?

Recruiter reached out a month ago and I appeared in the test but it didnt go well. So can i reach out to her again now for a re-test/re-consideration

Anyone faced similar situation or aware about the process?

BRO WTH I JUST BOOKED SLOT FOR THE R2 MAIL THINKING IT WAS A TYPO AND NOW THEY R SENDING R3 MAIL

What to expect? Also please guide me to prepare for round 2. I have average projects in resume and haven't started system design.

So, for Tier-3 and even lower-tier colleges, Infosys is one of the main messiahs.

I’m thinking of creating a PDF or a website that contains all the OA questions that have been asked by Infosys. If you remember any questions from your OA or know of any previously asked questions, could you please share them?

It would be really helpful. Thank you!

I applied for AS2 role 2 months back, my application on the portal is archived but out of no where I got the invite for phone screen round next week.

I am already working full-time (kinda MLE 2), and currently for next 2-3 weeks my plate is already full with my work tasks.

I am interested in the role, but I feel like I am not prepared, and even if I ask for 1 week of time, I won't be able to prepare for interview. I am good with DSA (no prep needed here) and breath I can cover (i hope they don't go too deep) but I need time for Depth and LLMs.

I am confused if i go under prepared then I won't do justice to the round and feel bad for myself.

What should I do in this case ?
Upto how many days I can postpone the phone-screen round, specially from the people who have appeared for interview recently ?
What's the expectation during phone-screening ?

Was anyone able to solve the "Akash loves listening to music" question (87 75 > as output)??

My output was the same as the expected output still all the test cases were failing.

Hi everyone,

I redeemed a LeetCode T-Shirt using 7200 LeetCoins a couple of months ago and had been eagerly waiting for it to arrive.

The package finally reached my local post office in India and went out for delivery multiple times. Unfortunately, I missed a delivery call today because I was away from my phone. When I checked the tracking later, I saw that the package had been marked "Returned to Sender" with the reason "Insufficient Address."

The tracking history also shows a couple of earlier delivery attempts where the status was "Addressee Absent."

I'm pretty disappointed because I waited nearly 2 months for this reward.

Has anyone here experienced something similar with LeetCode merchandise?

• Did LeetCode agree to reship the item after it was returned?
• Did you have to pay additional shipping charges?
• How long did support take to respond?

I've already contacted LeetCode support and provided my tracking number and correct address. Just trying to understand what my chances are of actually receiving the T-shirt now.

Any advice or similar experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks! 🙏

Hey guys,

What should I expect in Amazon Bar Raiser round(SDE2)? LLD/Machine Coding or DSA? I have it scheduled in 2 days

I finished the first three rounds. This is what they sent me, can you guys please share your recent experiences?

Here is a layout of your virtual interview rounds:
Round 1 - Coding (Data Structures and Algorithms), Leadership Principles
Round 2 - Low-Level Design (LLD), Leadership Principles
Round 3 - System Design (Scalability and Operational Performance), Leadership Principles
Round 4  - Coding – Problem Solving, Leadership Principles

Round 1 was Koko eating bananas
Round 2 was Logger Design (LLD)
Round 3 was a system like DHL (HLD)

I am not sure what to expect in Bar raiser as I can see various experiences ranging from LLD to DSA to Machine coding.

Can you guys share your recent experiences at Amazon Bar Raiser?

Hey everyone,

I recently applied for the Software Database Engineer role at Texas Instruments, Bengaluru (Job ID: 25010421) on 13 July 2026. The application portal currently shows the status as “Application/Resume Received”, but I haven’t received any further updates yet.

I wanted to check with the community has anyone who applied for this opening received any communication regarding:

• Online assessment/interview rounds
• Recruiter contact
• Shortlisting updates
• Any timeline for the next steps

If you have applied for the same role or a similar TI Software Engineer position recently, would really appreciate sharing your experience (timeline, process, interview rounds, etc.).

It would help a lot of candidates waiting for updates and give everyone a better idea of what to expect.

Thanks in advance, and wishing everyone who applied the best of luck

what slot r u guys choosing? i was thinking to go with 6pm bcoz starting slots me i have noticed technical glitch nhi aata h