Company questionsGroundworkGroww

India · interview process

Groww

Groww does not publish its process; guides that cite unnamed candidate reports describe a loop of about four to five rounds with DSA, a machine coding round, a system design round (in two of the three guides) and a hiring manager chat. One guide says campus hiring is shorter, with no machine coding or system design.

  • 5 rounds
  • 1 design answer
  • 2 coding answers
  • 7 more reported prompts
Start with round 1 Browse every question
  1. OA
  2. DSA
  3. Machine coding
  4. System design
  5. Manager
  6. People rounds

The process, round by round

Reported by candidates and, where we found one, the company itself. Each round shows how well it is reported. Processes change by team, level and year.

  1. Online assessment

    Online assessmentabout 60-90 min (one guide)

    One report

    Timed remote test. One 2020 campus report had nine MCQs plus one coding problem; a guide describes MCQs plus one or two coding problems.

    • time complexity
    • OS and threading basics
    • C++ basics
    • one DP-style coding problem

    Varies: Campus candidates report an aptitude plus technical test; 2026 guide also mentions a debugging exercise.

    What can be asked in a online assessment round

    A timed test on a coding platform, taken alone. Usually two or three coding problems, sometimes with multiple-choice questions on CS basics, aptitude or SQL.

    • Array and string problems that need a hash map, two pointers or a sliding window

      Read the constraints first, because they point to the technique. If n is 100,000, an O(n^2) scan will time out, so look for a hash map, two pointers on a sorted array, or a window that moves forward only. Sketch the brute force, find the repeated work, then remove it. For two-sum style pairs you might say: I store each value's index as I scan, so the complement lookup is O(1) and the whole pass is O(n).

      DSA course →
    • Greedy and sorting problems with a catch in the constraints

      Greedy problems hide behind a sort. Ask what ordering makes the locally best choice safe, then try to argue why swapping two adjacent choices never helps. Interval scheduling is the classic case: sort by end time and take every interval that starts after the last chosen one. Check the catch in the constraints, such as overflow, ties or equal values, and test a tiny case by hand before submitting.

      DSA course →
    • A medium dynamic programming or graph-on-a-grid problem

      Decide whether the problem is a graph walk or a recurrence. On a grid, a shortest path with equal step cost is breadth-first search from the start, with a visited set so each cell is processed once, giving O(rows x cols). For dynamic programming, define the state in one sentence, write the transition, set the base cases, then see if only the previous row is needed to save space.

      DSA course →
    • SQL queries with joins and group by

      Start from the table that holds the thing being counted, join the others on their keys, filter rows with WHERE, group, then filter groups with HAVING. Remember that WHERE runs before grouping and HAVING after. Use LEFT JOIN when rows with no match must still appear, and COUNT of a column rather than star when nulls matter. Example: customers with more than three orders is GROUP BY customer_id HAVING COUNT(*) > 3.

      Databases →
    • Multiple-choice questions on OOP, operating systems, databases and networks

      These reward quick, accurate recall rather than long reasoning, so revise the short list of definitions that recur. Know the difference between a process and a thread, the four ACID properties, what an index trades for faster reads, TCP against UDP, and the four pillars of OOP. Eliminate two wrong options first, then choose. Do not spend more than a minute on any single question, and flag it to return to if time remains.

      Mock interviews →

    Prepare with: Book · Online assessmentDSA course

    3 sources for this round

  2. DSA / problem-solving round(s)

    Data structures and algorithmsabout 60 min each (guides)

    One report

    Problem solving in one or two rounds of about an hour each per guides, with about two main problems in one guide. The 2020 campus report asked for loop detection and next greater element, a knight-moves problem in a second round, and two logic puzzles. Guides list topics such as graphs, BST, DP and sliding window.

    • data structures
    • DP and graphs
    • complexity analysis
    • logic puzzles

    Varies: Experienced hires report one or two rounds; the 2020 campus report had a DS round, a DP/graph round and a short managerial chat.

    Practise for this round

    • ReportedDetect a cycle in a linked list One of two data-structure questions in the first technical round of the 2020 campus report, which says loop rather than cycle; a guide also lists it.Candidate write-up ↗
    • ReportedNext greater element for each array item Asked in the first technical round of a 2020 campus report; exact LeetCode variant unsure.Candidate write-up ↗
    • ReportedMinimum knight moves to reach a target square Second technical round in 2020 campus report; also listed by a guide. LeetCode number unsure.Candidate write-up ↗
    • ReportedBest time to buy and sell a stock with at most K transactions Internship coding round, alongside the single-transaction version.Candidate write-up ↗

    Reported prompts have no written answer yet. Read the linked page for context.

    What can be asked in a data structures and algorithms round

    A live coding round of 45 to 60 minutes with one or two problems. You are judged on how you clarify, reason, code, test and state the complexity, not on the answer alone.

    • Arrays, strings and hashing: pairs, windows, frequency counts, prefix sums

      Name the pattern from the shape of the question. Pairs with a target use a hash map of seen values. A contiguous range with a condition uses a sliding window that grows on the right and shrinks on the left, so each element enters and leaves once, giving O(n). Range sums over many queries use a prefix sum array so each query is O(1) after O(n) setup. Count characters with a fixed-size array or map.

      DSA course →
    • Linked lists, stacks and queues, including design-a-structure problems such as an LRU cache

      For an LRU cache, combine a hash map from key to node with a doubly linked list ordered by recency. Get moves the node to the front, put inserts at the front, and when over capacity you remove the tail node and its map entry. Both operations are O(1), and you say why: the map finds the node, the list reorders it without a scan. For stacks, mention a monotonic stack for next greater element.

      DSA course →
    • Trees and BSTs, graphs (BFS, DFS, topological sort, shortest paths) and grids

      Decide the traversal from what is asked. Level by level or shortest path in an unweighted graph is BFS with a queue. Exploring all paths, components or cycles is DFS. A dependency order is topological sort: Kahn's algorithm repeatedly removes nodes with in-degree zero, and leftover nodes mean a cycle. Weighted shortest path with non-negative edges is Dijkstra with a heap, O((V + E) log V). On a BST, an in-order walk is sorted.

      DSA course →
    • Heaps and top-K, intervals, binary search on the answer

      For the K largest items keep a min-heap of size K: push each element and pop the smallest when the heap exceeds K, so the cost is O(n log K) and memory is O(K). For intervals, sort by start, then merge by comparing the next start with the current end. For binary search on the answer, define a yes or no check that is monotonic, such as can ship within D days, and search the capacity range.

      DSA course →
    • Dynamic programming from one dimension up to knapsack and string DP

      Define the state in a sentence, write the recurrence, fix the base cases, and decide the order of filling. Start with the recursive version with memoisation, then convert to a table. For 0/1 knapsack, dp[w] is the best value at capacity w, and in the one dimensional form you loop capacity downward so each item is used once. For string problems such as edit distance, the state is a pair of prefix lengths.

      DSA course →
    • Follow-ups: optimise space, handle streaming input, make it thread-safe

      Treat follow-ups as a chance to show depth, and answer in the same calm order each time. To save space, ask which previous rows or values the recurrence actually reads and keep only those. For streaming input, say what summary you can keep, such as a heap of size K or a running count. For thread safety, name the shared state, guard it with a lock, and keep the critical section short.

    Prepare with: Book · DSA roundDSA course

    3 sources for this round

  3. Machine coding round

    Machine coding60 to 120 minutes depending on the guide

    Prep guides

    Build a working, modular program from a problem statement, then extend it live. Judged on object modelling, working code and explaining choices. Reported mainly for experienced hires.

    • object-oriented modelling
    • working end-to-end code
    • extensibility
    • talking through design while coding

    Varies: Reported for experienced hires; no machine coding reported in the campus path (one guide).

    Practise for this round

    • ReportedDesign an expense-sharing app like Splitwise (users, groups, balances) Named as a machine coding prompt by two guides.Prep guide ↗
    • ReportedBuild a stock exchange / order-matching engine with bids and asks Fintech machine coding prompt named by two guides.Prep guide ↗
    • ReportedDesign a vending machine with object-oriented principles Highest-weighted question of an internship coding round.Candidate write-up ↗

    Reported prompts have no written answer yet. Read the linked page for context.

    What can be asked in a machine coding round

    You build a small working system in your own editor in 60 to 120 minutes, then walk through it. Clean entities, extensibility, a runnable demo and tests matter more than clever algorithms.

    • Parking lot, library or inventory system with several entity types

      Spend the first ten minutes on requirements and entities, not code. For a parking lot you might list Vehicle, Slot, Ticket and Lot, with slot types as an enum and the allocation rule hidden behind an interface so a nearest-slot strategy can be swapped. Keep the code runnable early, write a small demo in main, and add a few tests. Say what you would add with more time, such as pricing rules.

      Whiteboard →
    • Splitwise-style expense sharing, a wallet or a ledger

      The core of expense sharing is a balance ledger: for each pair or each user, store the net amount owed. An expense has a payer, an amount and a split type such as equal, exact or percent, handled by a split strategy per type. Validate that exact splits sum to the total and handle rounding explicitly. To simplify debts, compute each person's net balance and match the largest creditor with the largest debtor.

    • Snake and ladder, tic-tac-toe, chess or another game engine

      Model the board, players, dice or moves, and a game controller that owns the turn loop, with rules kept out of the board class. For tic-tac-toe, keep counters per row, column and both diagonals, so a win check is O(1) per move instead of scanning the grid. For snake and ladder, store jumps in a map from square to destination. Make board size and number of players configurable rather than hard coded.

    • An in-memory cache, key-value store, rate limiter or job scheduler

      Start with the public interface and the invariants. For a rate limiter, a token bucket stores tokens and a last refill time per key, refills lazily on each call and allows the request if a token remains. For an LRU or key-value store, say the data structure and the complexity. For a scheduler, a priority queue ordered by run time with a worker that waits for the earliest job.

    • Elevator, vending machine or ATM as a state machine

      Draw the states and transitions before coding. An elevator is idle, moving up, moving down or doors open, and each event such as a button press or arrival is handled by the current state. A vending machine moves through idle, has money, dispensing and out of stock. Implement it with a state interface or an enum and a transition table, so invalid actions are rejected in one place instead of with scattered if statements.

    • Follow-ups: add a new rule without rewriting, make it concurrent, add persistence

      Show that your design bends without a rewrite. For a new rule, say you add a new class that implements the existing interface and register it, leaving old code unchanged. For concurrency, name the shared state and protect it with a lock per resource, or atomic operations, keeping check-and-update in one critical section. For persistence, put a repository interface in front of storage so an in-memory version can be replaced by a database.

      Mock interviews →
    3 sources for this round

  4. System design round

    System designabout 60 min (one guide)

    Prep guides

    Design discussion; one guide stresses reliability and consistency of investment, order and portfolio data, another names stock-market systems, caching and subscription-based API access.

    • reliability and consistency
    • caching
    • stock-market systems

    Varies: Experienced hires only in the sources read.

    Practise for this round

    What can be asked in a system design round

    A 45 to 60 minute discussion of how to build a system at scale: requirements, numbers, APIs, data model, components, bottlenecks and trade-offs.

    • Short links, chat, news feed, notifications, search, rate limiting

      Use one repeatable path: clarify scope and scale, estimate load, define the API, sketch the data model, draw the main components, then probe bottlenecks. For short links, store a mapping from a generated short id to the long url, generate ids with a counter encoded in base 62, cache hot links, and note reads far outnumber writes. For chat, mention persistent connections and a store ordered per conversation.

      System design course →
    • Payments, wallets and ledgers where money must never be lost or doubled

      Money systems put correctness before speed. Use a double-entry ledger where entries are append-only and every transfer writes a debit and an equal credit in one transaction. Protect against doubled charges with an idempotency key stored with the result, so a retry returns the original outcome. For lost updates use a database transaction, and reconcile with the payment provider's records on a schedule.

      System design course →
    • Ride matching, maps and anything with live location

      Split the problem into location ingestion, a geospatial index and matching. Drivers send updates every few seconds to a write-optimised store, often in memory, keyed by a grid cell such as a geohash or S2 cell. To find nearby drivers, query the rider's cell and its neighbours, then rank by distance and estimated time. Say how you handle a stale location and a driver who accepts two rides.

      System design course →
    • File storage and sync, video streaming and content delivery

      For file sync, split files into chunks, hash each chunk and upload only chunks the server lacks, so a small edit transfers a small amount. Keep metadata in a database and chunks in object storage. For video, upload the original, transcode into several resolutions, store segments and serve them through a content delivery network with adaptive bitrate streaming, so the player switches quality as bandwidth changes.

      System design course →
    • Fundamentals: caching, sharding, replication, queues, consistency, failure handling

      Treat each as a tool with a cost. A cache cuts read latency but adds staleness and invalidation. Sharding spreads write load but makes cross-shard queries hard. Replication gives availability and read scale but introduces lag. Queues smooth spikes and decouple services but require idempotent consumers. For failures, name timeouts, retries with backoff and a fallback. State what you give up whenever you choose.

      System design course →
    • Back-of-envelope estimates and what they decide

      Estimates are there to choose a design, so finish each one with a decision. Use round numbers: a day has about 100,000 seconds, so 10 million requests a day is roughly 100 per second on average, with a peak of a few times that. Multiply object size by count for storage, and compare against one machine's capacity. If one database handles the load, say so and avoid sharding.

      Capacity estimation →

    Prepare with: Book · System designSystem design course

    2 sources for this round

  5. Hiring manager round

    Hiring manager30-60 min (guides); one report says about 15 min

    Prep guides

    Project deep dive, ownership, reason for moving, behavioural scenarios and compensation. Sometimes a small design or DSA puzzle at the end.

    • project depth
    • ownership
    • culture fit

    Practise for this round

    What can be asked in a hiring manager round

    A conversation about your past work and how you would fit the team: depth on projects, ownership, decisions and trade-offs, sometimes a design problem.

    • Pick a project and go deep: why this design, what broke, what you would change

      Choose a project you can discuss at every layer. Explain the problem and who it served, the options you considered, why you chose one, what broke and what you would change now. Be clear which parts you did and which the team did. Admitting a flaw earns trust. Opening line: the main constraint was latency, so I chose a cache in front of the database, and I would now add an invalidation strategy.

      Resume grilling chapter →
    • A time you disagreed with a teammate or pushed back on a decision

      Use situation, task, action, result, and keep the disagreement about the work, never the person. The listener is checking that you can hold a view with evidence, listen, and commit once the decision is made. Describe what you proposed, the data or reasoning you used, how you reached agreement or accepted the other path, and what happened. Do not invent a story: use a real one, even a small one.

      Behavioural chapter →
    • How you prioritise when everything is urgent

      Show a method rather than a claim of being busy. Describe how you judge impact and deadline, ask who needs the result and when, and say no or renegotiate scope early when two things clash. Mention communicating the trade-off to stakeholders so nobody is surprised. A sentence you could adapt: I list what is blocking others first, then what has a fixed date, then what moves a metric.

      Behavioural chapter →
    • What you want from the next role and the team

      Answer honestly and tie it to what the role offers. Say what you want to learn or own next, such as larger systems, more ownership of design, or mentoring, and what kind of team helps you do it. Then ask what the team is trying to achieve this year and how the work is reviewed. The listener checks that your wishes match the job and that you have thought about it.

    Prepare with: Book · Resume grillingBook · Behavioural

    2 sources for this round

Preparing for the people rounds at Groww

The hiring manager, behavioural and offer conversations. Candidate reports shape the themes; the answers and frames are written for this site, so use them as a structure and bring your own stories.

What Groww says it valuesOfficial ↗

  • Impact you can seeYour work reaches a very large number of users across India, so be ready to talk about outcomes.
  • Room to experimentA safe place to try things, fail and iterate, as long as the bets are taken with care.
  • No straitjackets hereA role is only a starting point, and stepping outside your own lane to help is welcomed.
  • High stakes, low stressHard engineering and product problems handled in a relaxed, open working environment.
  • Work friends are real friendsCollaboration works best when colleagues genuinely like working with each other.
  • Transparency by defaultContext is shared openly across teams so that decisions are made with full information.

Themes candidates report being probed

  • Project depth and ownership
  • Reason for the move
  • Customer-first thinking and risk in money features
  • End-to-end ownership and production issues
  • Simple design and technical debt
  • Metrics and impact
  • Compensation expectations and notice period

Questions to rehearse

  1. Tell me about a time you put user experience or safety ahead of what was easiest for your team.Prep guides

    What is being checked. A prep guide reports this theme, and for a product that handles people's savings the listener is checking where your instincts sit when convenience and users conflict.

    How to frame it. Describe the trade, what it cost the team in time or effort, and how you made the case. Close with the user outcome, ideally something you could see. An opening you can adapt: 'The quick option for us was [shortcut], but it meant users would [downside], so I proposed [alternative] and accepted [cost].'

    Prep guide ↗

  2. How do you think about risk when building or changing a feature that touches users' money?Prep guides

    What is being checked. The same guide reports a risk question about money features; it checks whether you reach for validation, rollout control and recovery rather than only speed.

    How to frame it. Walk through the failure you would fear most, how you would detect it, how you would limit the blast radius, and how you would roll back or reconcile. Use a real feature if you have one. An opening you can adapt: 'The first thing I ask is what the worst wrong outcome is for the user, and then I [guard or rollout step].'

    Prep guide ↗

  3. Walk me through a production issue in something you owned end to end: how you debugged it and what changed afterwards.Prep guides

    What is being checked. A guide reports end-to-end ownership and production incidents as a theme; the listener wants the full loop, including the long-term fix and not only the patch.

    How to frame it. Cover detection, the working theory, how you confirmed it, the immediate fix, and one lasting change such as an alert, test or design change. Own your part honestly. An opening you can adapt: 'We first noticed it when [signal], and my first hypothesis was [guess], which turned out to be [right or wrong].'

    Worked example in the Interview book →Prep guide ↗

  4. Describe a time you chose a simple design over a more impressive one, and why.Prep guides

    What is being checked. A guide reports a simple-over-fancy theme; it tests judgement about maintenance and delivery cost against technical appeal.

    How to frame it. State the clever option you considered, the plain one you chose, the criteria behind the choice and what happened later. Show that you would revisit the choice if conditions changed. An opening you can adapt: 'We could have built [elaborate option], but the real need was [need], so we used [simple option].'

    Prep guide ↗

  5. Tell me about technical debt you took on deliberately and how you planned to pay it back.Prep guides

    What is being checked. A guide reports this prompt; the listener is checking whether you take shortcuts consciously, name them and follow through.

    How to frame it. Give the deadline or constraint that justified the shortcut, how you recorded it, when and how it was repaid, and what you would do differently. If it was never repaid, say so plainly. An opening you can adapt: 'We knowingly shipped [shortcut] to hit [constraint], and I wrote it down with [owner or date].'

    Prep guide ↗

  6. Tell me about your most significant project, what you owned in it, and why you are looking to move now.Prep guides

    What is being checked. A guide reports that the hiring manager round, held with the manager of the team you would join, evaluates project depth and ownership, and that candidates are asked why they are changing jobs.

    How to frame it. Lead with the project, your specific ownership and a result, then give the reason for moving as something you are heading toward. Keep the tone positive about your current employer. An opening you can adapt: 'The part I owned was [scope], and what I want next is [specific growth], which I cannot get where I am.'

    Worked example in the Interview book →Prep guide ↗

  7. Give an example of stepping outside your own role to help the team or a user.Prep guides

    What is being checked. The careers page presents roles as a starting point and encourages going beyond them, so the listener may probe for evidence that you already work this way.

    How to frame it. Pick a case where you picked up work no one assigned, say how you checked with the owner first, and what the team gained. Show that you did not leave your own work behind. An opening you can adapt: 'I noticed [gap] sitting between teams, so I [action], after agreeing it with [person].'

    Official ↗

The offer conversation

  • A DesignGurus guide reports that compensation and notice period are discussed with the recruiter and again in the hiring manager round. This is secondary reporting, not a named candidate.
  • The careers page says candidates hear back in days. The same guide notes that compensation and notice period come up again with the hiring manager, and that one candidate reported a round of about fifteen minutes that was mostly a company overview.
  • As general advice, give your notice period plainly, ask for the full breakdown of fixed and variable pay, and ask about level and band before you discuss a number.

What we could not verify. No first-hand behavioural report was readable, because the usual candidate sites were not accessible. Both guides are secondary: one says it distils experiences from several learners, the other collects reported experiences without naming candidates. Round lengths differ between them, so treat timings as rough.

What we could not verify. LeetCode Discuss (SDE-2 2022/2024, SDE-3 and April 2025 reports), Naukri Code360 and Glassdoor returned 403, so first-hand 2022+ experiences could not be read or cited. All Groww sources read are either a 2020 campus report, an undated internship report, or prep guides without named reports. Round durations come from guides, not candidates. No Groww SQL or HR specifics verified.