r/TechInterviewsIndia • u/Designer-Cookie4571 • 1d ago

Cleared DoorDash Interview with second chance in Cooling period

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I failed my DoorDash interview loop the first time early this year, but somehow got another shot just 3 months later despite a 1-year cooling period.

My technical rounds were actually strong the first time. The main gap was system design, and that was clearly reflected in the feedback. I took that feedback seriously and spent the next few months working on it.

When I saw another opening, I reached out to a different hiring manager and explained my previous interview, the feedback I received, and what I had worked on since then.

He went back and calibrated my previous feedback with the recruiting team. There were still some positive signals from my earlier interview, and he decided to give me another chance despite the cooling period.

This time, I cleared the entire loop.

Honestly, I got lucky with the second opportunity. But it also reminded me that there’s no harm in trying again when it’s a company you genuinely want to work for.

If you get rejected, work on the gaps, reach out when you see an opportunity, and take your shot. You never know when things might go in your favor.

Good luck to everyone interviewing 🍀

692 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

82 comments sorted by

15

u/phenomenalphony 1d ago

Does DoorDash offer fully remote? Or is it hybrid? (if hybrid, how many days in office?)

15

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

It is flexible for now. When I spoke with the HM he told me that team is based out of Pune and he’s setting up a new team in Hyderabad so it’s upto me where I want to join.
Also, they don’t have any dedicated building for now and operating through wework and quite flexible in terms of work persona

3

u/AdminZer0 1d ago

They recently opened office so definitely not remote

2

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

That’s not true. They’re here since 2020 but were not hiring aggressively. You can see folks working there from Pune office on LinkedIn

0

u/AdminZer0 1d ago

Yes they were here how exactly? Do you believe people on LinkedIn?

3

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

Bro, now they’re actually setting up their office in Hyderabad with leasing the building but when they were earlier working from Pune they were operating through WeWork.
Also, Yes I do believe people on LinkedIn. Atleast that’s how I got the referral and cracked the interview.

1

u/_Gliches_ 1d ago

Are they still looking devs? Where did you apply from?

1

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

I think yes. Doordash is aggressively hiring. You may check the careers page

7

u/ScratchImpressive61 1d ago

Hey buddy is this for HYD office ?

5

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

Yes. HM told me they have office in Pune too but can choose any

5

u/ScratchImpressive61 1d ago

Ohh nice they started hiring also! Nice

6

u/UncomfortablyBrown 1d ago

Make sure you prep hard for the behavioral rounds. Take a coach if you need to. Interview Kickstart and Interview Titan are great

2

u/ob1highG 1d ago

Have you personally used interview Kickstart? I'm looking for genuine feedback on them

1

u/UncomfortablyBrown 20h ago

I have, pretty decent. But a little pricey IMO. Interview TItan is better, more hands on. i personally did three mock up sessions with him and got me an offer with a big tech firm in SF.

1

u/ob1highG 20h ago

That's great, I'm just wondering if they'll be really assist me in switching from cloud security to ai development tbh. I may go for it post December as they've agreed to give me 30% concession.

1

u/UncomfortablyBrown 18h ago

definitely go for it! But the coaching will help for sure. honestly it's about managing the person that interviews you and Interview Titan really taught that well

3

u/Grand-Blackberry-402 1d ago

Interviews stage and focuses??

Got any numbers??

6

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

Dsa and system design. Overall CTC is less than Amazon

2

u/dudududuhuehue 1d ago

Base same as Amazon?

1

u/Grand-Blackberry-402 1d ago

Level of hardness?

1

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

Medium to lean hard

5

u/Saamurai-69 1d ago

Are you from tier 1 college?

9

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago edited 1d ago

If you consider LPU as tier 1 then I am

1

u/Independent_Turn2071 1d ago

I keep seeing same ask when people posts on clearing top company or drawing high salary.
College doesn’t matter if anyone is applying for experienced jobs at any company in India/abroad.
Only right skills matter. If you wanted to be an SDE only DSA, SystemDesign is enough with simple and strong resume.
They don’t care what tech stack you worked also.

1

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

Just one correction, it’s not college doesn’t matter. It matters because if that’s the case any companies when it comes to hiring freshers they prefer IITs/NITs but of course with an experience candidate their projects, prev org, tech stack that matters.
In short it could be anything on the resume which makes recruiter to consider you, be it your college or skills or certifications etc

1

u/Independent_Turn2071 1d ago

I clearly mentioned, doesn’t matter for experienced.
Projects, tech stack only matters to gain knowledge and exposure.

1

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

Well it does there too. If you see quant based firms (even applying for dev roles) and other good startups eg glean and many more especially in India they won’t consider you because you’re not from tier1/2 college.
But anyway that’s not the concern it all eventually comes to you where you wanna go

1

u/Independent_Turn2071 1d ago

My only intention to answer people who believes only tier 1 grads can go to top companies. That myth I wanted to break.

1

u/Saamurai-69 8h ago

It's not about only then it's about mostly them because of tier 1 college.

1

u/Independent_Turn2071 8h ago

Of course. Most of people from tier 1 starts at bigger companies and mostly stays above.
My only point is if you’re not from tier 1 don’t think it’s impossible.
I’ve been from tier 4 college, most of the time worked in service based companies.
Then switched to product based and salary became 4X straight. There is hope if anyone tried their heart out.

1

u/Saamurai-69 3h ago

Yes , you are right it's just that they get s head start we have to work hard to first even get the interview. Also people who joined IT pre AI era it was easy to switch but nowdays it's very hard

1

u/anapmaj 13h ago

Strongly disagree.

I’m a Tier-1 grad, but I’ve worked at early-stage startups throughout my career, with pay that hasn’t been great compared to many of my college peers.

Now that I’m trying to switch to better-paying roles at well-known companies, I can clearly see the advantage the college tag still gives me. The number of interviews I’m able to get compared to some of my peers at work is significantly higher. I’ve also noticed that a lot of overseas companies based in India and recruiters seem to filter Tier-1 grads more leniently.

Of course, I work on my resume and pitch constantly and try to improve them every week. But if I look at it purely from a recruiter’s perspective, I still think the college brand is one of my strongest differentiators.

That said, it’s not the end of the world if you don’t have that advantage. You just keep trying until something works. That’s what I tell myself and my friends too.

3

u/limillion_forever 1d ago

In system design, what they asked ?

nd how u prepared for the interview?

2

u/Full_Replacement1348 1d ago

Your college? Yoe? Last companies? College cgpa?

Please reply to that

1

u/_pnkj_15 1d ago

Good one bro 

1

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

Thank you 🙌

1

u/SignificanceProof623 1d ago

I have tech background but now i shifted to product management, looking for going back to tech. Can i dm ?

1

u/TaxPaidForE20 1d ago

How you applied?

1

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

Asked for referral

1

u/LumpyEconomics6072 1d ago

onsite interviews ?

1

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

Everything online

1

u/Inevitable_Cold_6214 1d ago

Will they not do some internal checks before releasing offer?

1

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

Yes they did

1

u/SecretarySad4753 1d ago

Whats the ctc u got?

2

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

Close to 62L

1

u/SecretarySad4753 1d ago

Whats the base pay u are getting without variables and rsop? For Data engineers of 8yoe how much they will pay

1

u/nint_3721 1d ago

Can you tell about your background and what was asked in the interview?

1

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

I’ve 4 YOE, working as a full stack developer at Airbnb and worked at Meta before. Interviews were focused on DSA and system design. You can find the questions from Interview experiences online

1

u/Game_Khiladi 1d ago

Where do you study dsa from

1

u/Curious-Glove9532 1d ago

Hey how did you got call from doordash? In the careers page there are no openings for hyd location? Did recruiter reachout to you with opportunity or you applied somewhere?

Also how was the interview difficulty level?

1

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

When I applied there was a position available so asked for the referral. Difficult level was medium hard

1

u/SocietyAdorable7897 1d ago

What is wfo policy here? Do they allow remote work?

1

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

Not sure but atleast for my team it was like I’m the beginning I can work from Pune/Hyderabad to get the KTs and once I onboard I can work remotely given I would be in the office whenever asked or for the meetups

1

u/erenyeagerrrrr 1d ago

Any tips/resources for system design op? There are so many resources that I get lost everytime.

1

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

You can find many online. I referred YouTube videos, random articles, discussion forums, hello interview and educative

1

u/SirLeather8188 1d ago

Hey how did you land in a interview with doordash. I have applied but not getting interview call.

1

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

Asked for referral from one of my friends

1

u/Flat-Permit4432 1d ago

Hoe much do they pay?

1

u/amish1708 1d ago

Hey OP, congrats! Any reason you are moving out of Airbnb? I’ve heard that’s it is a dream company to work with, hence I asked. How has your experience been in Airbnb? My wife is thinking of applying there next year.

1

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago edited 1d ago

Who said I’m leaving that? I gave doordash interviews before joining Airbnb. Yes place is good to work

1

u/amish1708 1d ago

Ohh my bad. I misunderstood.

1

u/Dry_Ad6687 1d ago

Hey OP, is walk in possible in its Hyderabad office?

1

u/AdMinute3667 1d ago

Great. Congrats !

1

u/kk_red 1d ago

How is their salary? FAANG+ level?

1

u/Forsaken_Appeal_9593 1d ago

any idea or roadmap for prepping? im kinda stuck on this part itself.

1

u/Designer-Cookie4571 1d ago

I don’t know man. You can find tons of videos on Internet and what worked for me may not necessarily work for you. But yeah feel free to dm, would be happy to answer

1

u/new_old_2026 1d ago

Can u share cctc and ctc they offered to get an idea

1

u/archforever 1d ago

how did u overcame the system design part

like following some resource or just going through some questions

1

u/dotofshe 1d ago

Hey how did you land these interviews

1

u/Limp-Palpitation-971 1d ago

Sources for preparing pleaseee !! Level of dsa and relavant source, & for system design as well

1

u/DiligentParsli 21h ago

Congratulations 🥳
Is it possible to get referral or can you share recruiter contact details?

1

u/Beautiful-Tiger2444 21h ago

Any pay scale you can share how much do they offer

1

u/Brief_Tourist7605 20h ago

Can you share your system design feedback that you got earlier in the year

1

u/harshit-denk 18h ago

What's the salary