From a Hindi-Medium School in Haryana to SDE-3 at Walmart | Scaler Academy Review
I was actually rejected by Scaler before I became a student there. Yes, that’s right, but let me explain.
At the time, I had applied for a TA role and had decided that if I got selected, I would join Scaler that way. Sad to say that I wasn’t selected, but then I ended up joining the Academy as a student instead. And I'm actually glad that happened because the experience turned out to be very different from what I had initially imagined.
By then, I already had professional experience and had been preparing for interviews, but I knew that more clarity and knowledge were required. I could solve coding questions, but I wasn't always able to recognise the technique behind a problem, and areas such as dynamic programming and greedy algorithms were still not clear to me. System design and design patterns were other areas I hadn't worked on much, so there was quite a bit I needed to strengthen even though I was already working.
I joined around September end and even started interviewing within about a month. Microsoft and Google didn't work out, but those interviews also gave me a clearer idea of where my preparation was falling short. Around six months into the program, I cleared Myntra and Walmart, chose Walmart, and eventually joined as an SDE-3.
Interested in the journey? Let me tell you everything in detail!
From Haryana to Rajasthan, and then Bangalore
I come from Haryana and studied in a Hindi-medium school, where I was among the top students throughout school. After Class 12, I moved to Rajasthan for my graduation at Banasthali University. And honestly, that was a completely different environment for me. I was meeting people from different parts of the country and adjusting to a new place while also figuring out how I wanted to build my career.
One of the things I struggled with at the time was communication. I wasn't used to speaking in front of people, and English wasn't something I was particularly confident with either. And that was also holding me back somewhere during my third year when I got an interview opportunity for an internship at Ericsson. I was worried about how I would manage the interview.
But I can say that I had a great friend at the time who told me, “What does it matter if you are not confident in English? Just give it in Hindi.
I did exactly that, and well, I even got selected!
That experience gave me a different kind of confidence. I didn't suddenly become someone who was completely comfortable speaking English or presenting myself, but I realised that I could still get through an interview if I understood what I was talking about and could communicate that clearly.
After graduating in 2016, I started working and eventually moved to Bangalore. By the time I was preparing for my next career move, I had already built professional experience, but I was still figuring out what I needed to do to get to the kind of companies I wanted to work for.
And then I could see it more clearly when I started to apply for bigger companies. I faced several rejections, including Amazon, and I realised that simply knowing how to code wasn't enough. I could solve problems, but I didn't always know why a particular approach worked. I wasn't familiar with concepts like dynamic programming or greedy algorithms, and there were other areas where I had gaps that I hadn't really recognised before.
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+1000 moreThe Questions I Couldn't Solve Yet
When I started preparing for interviews, I already had some experience and had solved quite a few coding questions. The issue was that I didn't always understand the technique behind the solution. If I had seen a question before, I could usually apply it, but when an interviewer changed the problem or presented something unfamiliar, I wasn't always able to identify how I should approach it.
Dynamic programming was one of my weaker areas, and greedy algorithms were another. I also hadn't worked much on system design. After facing rejections from companies including Amazon, I started to think about other approaches and how else I could prepare. Solving more random questions wasn't necessarily going to fix the problem if I didn't understand why a particular approach worked in the first place.
What I needed was a better understanding of the concepts and a way to practise applying them.
How I Ended Up Joining Scaler
I had heard about Scaler Academy and was considering joining, and I also applied for a TA position. In my head, I had the options ready: if I got the TA role, I would join Scaler; if I didn't, then I might as well be a student.
But I wasn't selected for the TA role, so I joined as a student instead. At the time, I obviously didn't know how that decision would turn out, but now I'm happy that I went through the program as a learner.
Microsoft, Google, and the First Few Interviews
I joined somewhere during the end of September. Within about a month of learning, I was giving interviews, including one with Microsoft.
I didn't clear it, but I could understand why. System design was still something I hadn't covered properly. Then came Google, where the coding questions were at a level I wasn't prepared for, and that didn't work out either.
Now, anyone would think that without prep, is it really okay to give the interviews. Well, I can say for myself that it at least helped me to understand where my preparation was falling short. So instead of simply thinking that I hadn't cleared the interview, I could identify what had happened and work on that particular area. That became a pattern for me: learn something, practise it, give an interview, understand where I fell short and then go back to work on it.
Learning the Pattern Behind the Problem
One of the biggest changes in my DSA preparation was realising that technique matters more than remembering a particular question. You can't know every problem an interviewer might ask, but if you understand the underlying technique, a new question doesn't necessarily feel completely unfamiliar.
I eventually solved around 400 out of 500 questions on the platform, but the number itself wasn't the main point. The practice helped me recognise patterns and understand why a particular approach worked. If I came across a new problem, I wanted to be able to think, I've seen something similar before. Maybe this technique can work here.
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Adobe1200+ moreThe Gaps I Didn't Know I Had
Going back through the fundamentals also made me realise that there were concepts I had used without really understanding where they fitted in.
For example, I already knew Singleton and had used it, but I didn't know that it was a design pattern. Once I learnt about design patterns properly, I started noticing them in projects as well, and it became easier to understand why certain things had been designed in a particular way.
I had a similar experience with binary search. I had always associated it with searching in a sorted array, but later learnt about applying binary search over a range of possible answers. These may sound like small distinctions, but they changed how I approached concepts I thought I already knew.
Sometimes the problem isn't that you need to learn something completely new. You need to understand something you already know at a deeper level.
Learning Around a Full-Time Job
Yes! I was working full-time, and my commute alone took around four hours a day. Even with that schedule, I was spending around three to four hours a day on Scaler.
I didn’t really want to go through the horror of having the work pile up. Because if I skipped a day's questions, there would be more waiting for me the next day, so I tried to finish the day's work as much as possible.
The classes helped give that preparation some structure. There were lectures, assignments, and homework, and I could ask the TAs questions when I got stuck. The mentors were really helpful when it came to interview preparation, while the mock interviews helped me understand whatever I was missing and how I could work on it.
This feedback was important for me because interview preparation can otherwise become very broad. You can keep solving questions and reading concepts without knowing exactly what you should work on next.
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Making Every Interview Count
One piece of advice from my mentor that made complete sense to me: even if an interview doesn't result in a selection, there should be something you take away from it.
Of course, my goal was still to get selected. But after a rejection, I started asking what had actually gone wrong. Maybe I hadn't prepared a particular topic well enough, maybe I knew the solution but couldn't explain my approach, or maybe I needed more practice with design.
That made interviews part of the preparation itself rather than something that happened after the preparation was finished. Each one gave me another opportunity to understand what I needed to work on.
The Final Choice: Myntra or Walmart
After the earlier rejections, my Myntra interview experience felt like a clear sign that the preparation was moving in the right direction. The process started with an online coding round with two questions, followed by two technical rounds, a tech-manager round, and HR.
I cleared it!
Now, I had been preparing for companies like Walmart, and eventually went through the Walmart SDE interview process myself. There were five interview rounds in one day, followed by HR. The technical rounds covered DSA and Java, along with a design round around phone search, where the interviewer kept changing the requirements while I explained my approach.
By that point, I could follow along with the discussions more confidently. The final technical round included a dynamic programming question, and I spent around 49 minutes working through it before solving it.
Two days later, I got the call.
I had been selected!
I also had the Myntra offer, but chose Walmart.
The Next Chapter at Walmart
I joined Walmart during the lockdown and started working remotely. Today, I'm an SDE-3 working with Java in Walmart's supply chain and fulfilment organisation, in areas including grocery, warehouses, and inventory management in the US and Mexico.
I had also received an offer from Myntra around the same time, so I had a choice to make. After going through both processes, I decided to join Walmart.
My Scaler Academy review
What I liked about Scaler was that I didn't have to keep looking for different resources to understand the topics. The assignments and homework were enough for me, provided I actually completed them. If I skipped a question, the problem was that it didn't just disappear; the next set of work would come in, and the backlog would keep growing. So I had to stay regular with it rather than thinking I could catch up later.
I also found the live classes to be useful for a very simple reason: if I had a doubt, I could ask it there and then. There was an interaction with the instructor instead of watching something and keeping the question for later, and I could discuss how to approach the topic or what to do next. That made the classes more useful for me than just going through recorded material on my own.
The assignments gave me the practice I needed after the classes. For example, when I was working on dynamic programming, the problems kept making me work with the same concept from different directions. After doing that kind of practice consistently, I became much more comfortable with the topic instead of feeling like I had understood it only during the lecture.
There was also support when I got stuck. I could take my doubts to the TAs, and the instructors were reachable when I needed to discuss something. Along with the regular practice, that made the learning process feel much more hands-on.
And I think that is the part of Scaler that worked for me. It wasn't one particular lecture or one particular set of questions. I had the classes, the practice after them, someone to ask when I got stuck, and enough questions to keep working on the concepts until they became familiar.
FAQs
Is Scaler Academy useful if you already have work experience?
It was useful for me because I already had professional experience and some coding practice when I joined. I knew which areas I was falling short on, like dynamic programming, greedy algorithms, system design, design patterns, and knowing how to approach unfamiliar problems. Having a structured curriculum and regular interview practice helped me work through those areas systematically.
How much time did you spend on Scaler while working?
I spent around three to four hours a day on Scaler while working full-time. I also had a four-hour daily commute, so keeping up with the program meant being fairly consistent with the work rather than allowing it to pile up.
How many coding problems did you solve on Scaler?
I solved around 400 out of 500 questions on the platform. My objective wasn't simply to reach a particular number, though. The practice was useful because it helped me understand the techniques behind the problems and apply them to questions I hadn't seen before.
Do you need competitive programming to clear product-company interviews?
I didn't do competitive programming, and I didn't feel that it held me back during my interviews. My preparation focused on DSA, computer science fundamentals, design, and interview practice.
What was the Walmart interview process like?
There were five interview rounds in one day, followed by HR. The technical rounds covered DSA and Java, along with a design round around phone search. The final technical round included a dynamic programming question, which took me around 40 minutes to solve. I received the selection call two days later.
What made the biggest difference to your interview preparation?
Understanding techniques rather than trying to remember individual questions made a big difference for me. The combination of DSA practice, computer science fundamentals, design preparation, mock interviews, and feedback helped me become more comfortable with problems I hadn't seen before.
If you're looking to strengthen your preparation for software engineering interviews, you can use Scaler Academy.
