Phase 1: Elimination Round

The ML Craft, First Round had two segments:

1. Discuss an ML project of your choice from your experience - 30 Mins.
2. ML system Design question - 30 Mins.

Phase 2:

Two 60-minute coding rounds and an ML system Design Round:

1. Backend Coding - Data Structures
2. Backend Coding - Code Design
3. ML System Design

In the first half of the interview, we discussed the challenges I faced while building my project and how I handled them. Basic questions from my project were asked.

In the second half of the interview, I was asked to design a recommendation system for Confluence to recommend articles.

NOTE: They stated that system design questions are based on the resume or previous experience. However, I had not previously worked on a recommendation system. This question might have been based on the team's requirements. The interviewer mentioned his experience working on recommendations and that it is his field of expertise.

Data Structures Round: They asked a variation of the "stock price fluctuation" problem from LeetCode. The focus was on the chosen data structure, its trade-offs, and time complexity. The code needed to be executable with unit tests within 60 minutes. A Java Developer interviewed me, and I completed my solution in Python. The interviewer provided hints throughout the interview, making it feel like a brainstorming session. The difficulty of the MLE interview is considered equal to that of an SDE role.

Code Design Round: The question was similar to the following:

Let's pretend we are in charge of a cinema. We want to figure out whether a new movie can be added to the existing schedule without removing any of the current movies.

Note that:

• The cinema opens at 10:00.
• The last possible end time for a movie is 23:00.
• Movie durations include setting up the room before the movie begins and cleaning it afterward. In other words, if a movie ends at 14:00, the next movie can start at 14:00.
• Movie start times are expressed in minutes from midnight. For example, 10 AM would be 10 * 60 = 600.