Grab | SDE1-(G3) | June 2024 | Reject
Question Details
Current: Experience: 1.5 YOE Position: Ex-SDE-1 at FAANG Location: Banglore Date Of Interviews: May 31, 2024 OA The test was on Codility and had 3 questions. Don\'t remember them exactly but they were on Arrays, String...
Full Details
Current:
Experience: 1.5 YOE
Position: Ex-SDE-1 at FAANG
Location: Banglore
Date Of Interviews: May 31, 2024
OA
The test was on Codility and had 3 questions. Don\'t remember them exactly but they were on Arrays, String manipulation, Graphs. Solved 2.5 questions and was invited for the interview.
**
Round 1 Design Round**
1. How to migrate a database without facing downtime
2. API and Database design for Lottery system with defined probabilities for certain denominations.
Felt like this round went pretty well. The only feedback the interviewer gave was to be confident in my choices and not get confused.
**
Round 2 DSA**
This round was taken by an Indonesian interviewer whose English was not that great. Since I knew a bit of Indonesian I talked to him about Indonesia in their language (Kind of got carried away and wasted time here). He said he\'ll be asking 2 questions in this round.
- It was a Graph based question which can be solved with some modifications to DFS. But more than that the taking input was complicated and implementing it took a lot of time.
The problem with the interviewer was he doesn\'t know how to solve the question. I was actively trying to discuss my idea with him. He never paticipated in the discussion. He was like just take the input and give output. If you are done with that then I\'ll give the next question.
I did solve it though but 48 minutes in the interview were completed. He said there\'s not time for another question let\' wrap this up.
From all the Grab posts I\'ve read almost everyone solved 2 DSA question. Maybe solving only 1 question led to my rejection.
About This Question
This is a reported interview question from a grab interview for a swe role during the oa round reported in 2024.
It covers the following topics: Arrays, Graph, Sql, Strings, System Design .
Topics
About Grab Interview Reports
This question was reported by a candidate who interviewed at Grab. LeakCode aggregates interview reports from 10+ sources, including 1Point3Acres, Glassdoor, LeetCode Discuss, Blind, Reddit, Indeed, and Nowcoder. Each report is translated where necessary, deduplicated against existing entries, and tagged by company, role, round type, and reporting date.
Use this question as one calibration data point, not a memorization target. Companies typically rotate their question pools every 2-4 months; the exact wording of a 2024 question may differ from what you encounter today. The underlying pattern, difficulty level, and follow-up depth at Grab are the higher-signal extractions to take from this report.
For broader preparation context, the Grab interview process typically includes a recruiter screen, one or two technical phone screens, and a 4-5 round on-site loop covering coding, system design (at L4+ levels), and behavioral. Reports tagged on LeakCode show the round-by-round distribution and typical difficulty calibration. To browse questions filtered by round type and seniority, use the company hub linked above.
How To Practice This Type of Question
Solve similar problems on LeetCode under timed conditions (25-35 minutes per medium difficulty). The goal is pattern recognition: recognize the underlying technique (sliding window, two-pointer, BFS, memoized recursion, etc.) within 60-90 seconds of reading. Strong candidates verbalize their hypothesis out loud before coding, then iterate based on feedback. Weak candidates dive into implementation immediately, lose time on the wrong approach, and run out of time for follow-ups.
Companies update their question pools every 2-4 months. The exact wording of any given question may have been retired by the time you interview. Focus your prep on the pattern, not the specific problem. The patterns that appear in Grab reports consistently are the ones worth investing in; one-off niche problems are not.
During Your Grab Round
Apply the standard interview round template: clarify requirements (2-3 minutes), state your approach out loud and confirm direction with the interviewer (3-5 minutes), code with narration (15-25 minutes), test with concrete examples including edge cases (5 minutes), discuss optimization or trade-offs if time permits (5 minutes). This template is universally accepted across FAANG and adjacent companies; deviating from it produces weaker interviewer feedback signal.
The single most predictive failure mode in Grab reports tagged "no hire": not asking clarifying questions. Interviewers are explicitly trained to weight this. Strong candidates ask 3-5 clarifying questions even on problems that look obvious; weak candidates dive into code immediately. The clarifying-question check is often the first signal recorded in the interviewer's written notes.