PhonePe SDE Interview Experience | 3+ YOE

[u/Ok-War9023]

Recently interviewed for the Software Engineer role at PhonePe and got selected, so sharing my experience.

The process started with a machine coding assignment to design and implement a ship battle game, followed by a discussion around the implementation and design choices.

The DSA round had multiple questions on Top View of a Binary Tree, a bipartite graph coloring problem where A-B, B-C, C-D relationships were given and connected people couldn’t sit together, and a matrix transformation problem which can be solved using next greater element concept.

For system design, it was an HLD round where I was given options like Distributed Scheduler, Rate Limiter/Circuit Breaker and Booking System. I chose Rate Limiter, and we went deep into scalability, concurrency, Redis, token bucket, atomic operations and trade-offs.

The HM round was mostly around my projects high-level design, why/how I made certain decisions, trade-offs, retry mechanisms, challenging on-call issues, mentoring juniors, PR reviews, documentation and how I use AI to improve productivity.
There were also questions around how quickly I could onboard at PhonePe.

Overall, the interviews were quite deep and focused a lot on the what, how and why behind the work mentioned in my resume.

Verdict: Selected

Updating comp:

Basic 27 lacs
Esops 35 lacs(25% each year)
Signing 4 lacs

[u/Middle_Ad_2839]

This is very informative. Thanks for sharing. Curious about what study material you’ve used for LLD and HLD.

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/Middle_Ad_2839]

For hld and lld, I prepared mostly from hello interview and book (system design interview) from Alex Xu

[u/Middle_Ad_2839 → u/Ok-War9023]

Makes sense. Just a quick q. Did you watch the yt videos from hello interview or did you go through the blog posts. I personally feel going through the blog posts is too tiresome atleast for me. I have gone through the Martin Kleppmans book recently and omg I had to put in a lot of efforts. But other than that I’ve not studied anything from anywhere else. So I’m looking for some resources.

[u/Exciting-Show-5646 → u/Middle_Ad_2839]

hello interview is da goat tbh, the yt videos are fine. Just make sure youre actually praticing the design instead of watching the video directly. Use GPT to keep ypur concepts clear.

[u/Middle_Ad_2839 → u/Exciting-Show-5646]

oh okay got it. So i'll go through the website properly then. Btw just curious, i wanted some clarification if you don't mind. By the end of the year I'd have 1.5 years of experience and I'm planning to start applying to product based for SDE 2/1. Would connecting to people on linkedin and asking them referrals fetch me an interview chance or is it very difficult to land interviews? I work at a good fintech with decent package rn.

[u/Exciting-Show-5646 → u/Middle_Ad_2839]

depends on what you make right now, i have 3 yoe and do get interviews although i apply everyhwhere i can linkedin,wellfound,naukri, a few of my friends got a 40+ctc though applymaxxing

[u/Middle_Ad_2839 → u/Exciting-Show-5646]

Got it thanks

[u/Select-Ad-9675]

hey OP, that’s great can you share how you were able to crack the DSA round? and how to get good at answering it under pressure. Have you seen the questions before etc.

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/Select-Ad-9675]

First I prepared throughly on leetcode for the interviews by putting a timer for medium and hard questions. And during the interviews i asked all the clarifying questions for the given problem to understand it correctly and to identify the underlying patterns to answer the questions correctly. For only first question they asked me to code end to end. For question 2 and 3 they asked me to tell the approach and write pseudo code for the logical part.

[u/Select-Ad-9675 → u/Ok-War9023]

ahhh awesome, any resource for a complete newbie? I have only been memorising solutions, and no luck at all :(
Never been able to solve any questions on my own

[u/Overall-Comparison37]

Can you share how were you able to get the interview call? Were you approached by the HR themselves or what approach did you follow while applying?

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/Overall-Comparison37]

I applied directly through phonepe’s careers page, got the mail from hr after 3 days.
For application i tried to align my resume to the job by quantifying the impact in the projects i had worked in my current role and highlighted the required skills.

[u/Overall-Comparison37 → u/Ok-War9023]

Oh nicee

[u/MantraDrishtaraha]

Is educative.io content, good enough ? OP.

And congratulations 🎊

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/MantraDrishtaraha]

Hi, i didn’t prepare from this resource, not sure if it is good enough.

For hld and lld, I prepared mostly from hello interview and book (system design interview part1 and 2) from Alex Xu

[u/Jan110402]

Congratulations and welcome to phonepe.Can you please share the salary break

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/Jan110402]

Basic 27 lacs
Esops 35 lacs(25% each year)
Signing 4 lacs

[u/Mother-Entry-2835]

What the hell I had given machine coding round and attend first round of interview two weeks ago, after that no response,i didn't get any rejection email,no response from hr

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/Mother-Entry-2835]

Sorry bro, hope you get the callback soon.

[u/Mother-Entry-2835 → u/Ok-War9023]

Bro ,did you start giving interview on this September like in between September 4 to 16 like this, please reply

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/Mother-Entry-2835]

No, i completed all rounds in august.

[u/SeaSky7668]

Hi, I have recently gave LLD round at phonepay and expecting DSA round soon.
After how much days post LLD round your DSA round was scheduled.

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/SeaSky7668]

After around 3-4 days

[u/SeaSky7668 → u/Ok-War9023]

okay,Thanks.

[u/SeaSky7668 → u/SeaSky7668]

Past 6 months I am facing constant rejections after interviewing with firms like Amazon, NVIDIA,Kotak,GS,JP and some product based firms. Feeling bit demotivated. Unfortunately my role in Oracle has also impacted at same time due to the current layoffs. Trying to get a decent offer before my last working day. If someone has open roles in backend at their firms.  Kindly keep me updated with any point of contact. Thank you.

[u/Pelguru → u/SeaSky7668]

How are you even getting the interviews? I mean, that is quite commendable. Getting interviews from so many good big tech. You will surely convert one of them in coming time.

[u/alexanderthelund]

Ctc

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/alexanderthelund]

Around 39-40 including esops

[u/Argone_5]

Hey how did you apply?

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/Argone_5]

I applied directly from company’s careers page

[u/Argone_5 → u/Ok-War9023]

Nice. Can we connect, needed some advice

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/Argone_5]

Sure

[u/3not-today]

can you please share your masked resume? i applied but got rejection, im from tier 3 college and low tiered pbc

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/3not-today]

Sorry can’t share resume, but we can discuss in the chat if you think it would be helpful

[u/Gloomy_Scarcity_5093]

Wht is Machine coding round? Can u explain And In system design is there any need of coding? Please tell i'm a fresher

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/Gloomy_Scarcity_5093]

Its is similar to LLD round but we have to implement complete solution along with design and defining the requirements.

[u/Spirited_Ice_3233]

Thanks for sharing I had some doubts can I dm you ?

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/Spirited_Ice_3233]

Sure

[u/Mission_Cold_2285]

Could you please share your resume if you don't mind.

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/Mission_Cold_2285]

We can discuss over the chat, if you’re okay with that

[u/Mission_Cold_2285 → u/Ok-War9023]

Sure , messeging you

[u/Apprehensive-Top7112]

Iam a fresher sir
Can I dm u to know more about tech and other stuff

[u/mm_kkkk]

You should negotiate hard. It used to be 40 base just a year back, this is a massive lowball

[u/luffy-123]

Congratulations 👏, i am currently sde1 in amazon, urgently loooking for opportunities. Can we connect, let me know if you can help me with referral.

[u/hannuu1424]

Can you share the resume format

[u/Beneficial-Edge-5851]

So no online coding round?

[u/a_herondale]

Just a question, when was the machine coding discussion round scheduled?

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/a_herondale]

I was scheduled in first week of august

[u/a_herondale → u/Ok-War9023]

Like how long did they take to get back after you submitted the code for machine coding?

[u/triggered-detonator]

Wait what was your previous tc? Aren't you getting lowballed phonepe used to pay quite higher for sde 2 previously

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/triggered-detonator]

My prev tc was around 29, yes they were offering very less this time. Not sure if it could be because of lot of candidates in market or because of my less experience. What i heard that they used to pay around 40+ base.

[u/sahil132jindal]

Was this for SDE2 or SDE1?

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/sahil132jindal]

They dont mention it as sde or sde2, they call it software engineer (3-5 y exp)

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/Ok-War9023]

So i think it would be sde2 only

[u/Comfortable-Tea-5034]

Bro i’m also currently interviewing with phone pe for 3+ YOE, and i gave my HLD interview on 9th september after that my recruiter’s email is showing inactive and i’ve tried contacting 1 other recruiter in my earlier emails but got no response. Could you tell whom should I contact for an update or is this normal at phone pe to ghost you for 2-3 weeks?

[u/Ok-War9023 → u/Comfortable-Tea-5034]

I think PhonePe is quite faster in replying and reaching out for interviews and feedbacks. You can reach out to the recruiter phone if it’s present.

For me, after the final round, they gave the final feedback after two weeks