Interview experience at Navi for a software development engineer role
Interviewing at Navi was an intense and insightful experience. The process was structured to evaluate both problem-solving skills and practical backend engineering capabilities. Here’s a detailed walkthrough of my rounds, the challenges I faced, and what I took away from the experience.
🔹 Round 1: DSA + Problem Solving
The first round was focused on data structures and algorithms. I was asked to solve two medium-level DSA questions in a timed coding environment.
- Question 1: Min Cost to Connect All Points (Leetcode)
- Question 2: Count ways to make sum of odd and even indexed elements equal (GFG)
Both problems tested algorithmic thinking and edge case handling. I was able to solve them correctly within the given time.
🔹 Round 2: Machine Coding + System Design Discussion
This was the most critical round — a practical, real-world simulation.
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We were given 1.5 hours to implement an Inventory Management System from scratch. It had to support:
- Adding an inventory
- Adding products
- Listing products
- Handling concurrency (race conditions)
- Writing unit tests for all implemented functionalities
After 1.5 hours, there was a 30-minute panel discussion with 3 engineers from Navi, where:
- We had to walk through and run our code
- Explain design choices and how concurrency was handled
- Talk about extensibility — how to add new features going forward
- Answer questions around scalability and trade-offs
I managed to complete the system design and implement concurrency control. However, due to time constraints, I couldn’t complete the unit tests. Unfortunately, I was rejected at this stage.
This round evaluated real-world engineering ability: clean code, concurrency, testing, and communication.
🔹 Further Rounds (From a Friend)
Though I didn’t reach these stages, a friend who went further shared the details:
✅ Round 3: Hiring Manager Discussion
- Brief High-Level Design (HLD) of systems you’ve worked on
- Technical deep-dive questions (e.g., how JWT authentication works)
- Behavioural questions:
- What if there’s a conflict between you and your lead?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
✅ Round 4: Cultural Fitment Round
- More behavioural and introspective questions:
- Why are you looking to switch?
- What’s the best and worst thing about your college?
- How would you handle team disagreements?
🧠 Key Takeaways
- Machine coding rounds are becoming the new standard practice for building end-to-end systems under time pressure.
- Concurrency control (e.g., mutexes, channels, locks) is a must-know for backend engineers.
- Always prioritise testability and readability, even under pressure.
- Communication is key — being able to clearly explain your design and thought process matters as much as the implementation.
- Behavioural rounds are real. Prepare stories and honest answers about your work style, challenges, and aspirations.
🙌 Thanks for reading!
If you found this helpful or have any feedback/questions, feel free to connect with me:
📧 Email: koliv5936@gmail.com
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/himanshu-koli-b26940201/
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