Zepto - interview guide

Zepto interview questions - a complete guide

Zepto is a quick commerce (10-minute delivery) company, and its interviews are reported to include e-commerce design questions such as stock and coupons alongside DSA.

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About Zepto

Zepto is an Indian quick commerce app that delivers groceries and everyday items within minutes. Its engineering deals with inventory, dark stores and fast delivery.

This guide covers 13 Zepto interview questions with answers - what each question checks and how to answer it - plus the Zepto interview process, round by round, a 7-day preparation plan for freshers, tips and the mistakes to avoid.

Zepto hiring process

  1. Online assessment (sometimes)

    Some reports mention 3 coding questions and CS/SQL MCQs; others go straight to a live round.

  2. DSA round

    About 60 minutes, 2 questions - speed is watched too.

  3. LLD and hiring manager

    E-commerce design, DB schema; then projects, ownership and DB fundamentals.

Zepto does not publish its India fresher interview process in detail (as of our check). This is based on candidate reports - many of them for experienced roles, so the fresher process can differ. Confirm with the recruiter.

Sources (checked 16 October 2026): Zepto Careers. Hiring processes change - read the official notice before you apply.

Zepto interview questions and answers

DSA

  1. 1.Find the first and last position of an element in a sorted array.

    What they're checking
    Reported in interviews.
    How to answer
    Two binary searches - one for the left boundary, one for the right.

  2. 2.Gas station: where can you start to complete the full circle?

    What they're checking
    Greedy - reported in interviews.
    How to answer
    If total gas ≥ total cost, there is an answer; whenever the tank goes negative, start from the next station.

  3. 3.Coin change: in how many ways can you make an amount?

    What they're checking
    A DP variant - reported in interviews.
    How to answer
    dp[0] = 1; for each coin, dp[x] += dp[x - coin] (coins in the outer loop).

  4. 4.The interviewer says 'faster' - what do you do?

    What they're checking
    Reports say speed is graded too.
    How to answer
    State the approach directly, explain while you code, and get a working solution first - optimise later.

Low-level design and DB

  1. 5.E-commerce LLD: cart, stock and discount coupons.

    What they're checking
    Reported in interviews.
    How to answer
    Product, Inventory (per store), Cart, Coupon (rules as separate classes), Order. Reduce stock atomically on order.

  2. 6.Two people buy the same item at once and only 1 is in stock - what do you do?

    What they're checking
    Concurrency - the real inventory problem.
    How to answer
    Make the stock update atomic (a DB row lock or a conditional update 'stock > 0'); whoever is first gets it, the other sees 'out of stock'.

  3. 7.Design a DB schema for orders and delivery.

    What they're checking
    DB schema has been reported.
    How to answer
    users, products, stores, inventory(store_id, product_id, qty), orders, order_items - and the necessary indexes.

  4. 8.Why use a database index, and when shouldn't you?

    What they're checking
    DB fundamentals in the hiring manager round.
    How to answer
    It speeds up reads but slows writes and takes space - use it on columns filtered often; not on every column.

Hiring manager

  1. 9.Tell me about a project you fully owned.

    What they're checking
    Ownership.
    How to answer
    What you did from start to end, what was hard, and the result.

  2. 10.What is the biggest technical challenge in 10-minute delivery?

    What they're checking
    Domain thinking.
    How to answer
    Knowing the right stock, routing the order to the nearest store, and assigning a rider - all in seconds.

  3. 11.Why Zepto?

    What they're checking
    Motivation.
    How to answer
    A fast-moving startup and real-world logistics - a genuine reason.

  4. 12.What do you do when you make a mistake in a fast-paced environment?

    What they're checking
    Startup culture.
    How to answer
    Admit it quickly, fix it, and build a system so it doesn't happen again.

  5. 13.How did you choose the database for your project?

    What they're checking
    Technical judgement.
    How to answer
    Based on the kind of data and its needs (relations, scale) - and the trade-off.

7-day preparation plan for the Zepto interview

  1. Day 1: Binary search variations.
  2. Day 2: Greedy and DP (coin change).
  3. Day 3: Timed DSA - two questions in 60 minutes.
  4. Day 4: LLD - cart, stock, coupons.
  5. Day 5: DB schema and indexing.
  6. Day 6: Ownership stories and domain thinking.
  7. Day 7: A mock round.

Preparation tips

  • Practise speed in DSA too - with a timer.
  • Understand e-commerce LLD and inventory concurrency.
  • Strong basics in DB schema and indexing.

Mistakes to avoid

  • Spending too long thinking in DSA.
  • Forgetting concurrency in stock updates.
  • Not thinking about relations and indexes in a DB schema.

Frequently asked questions

Is there machine coding at Zepto?

Reports mention little separate machine coding; a low-level design round comes instead.

What is the Zepto DSA round like?

Commonly 2 questions in about 60 minutes, easy to medium - speed is watched too.

How many rounds are there at Zepto?

Commonly 3-5: DSA, LLD, hiring manager and HR (sometimes an OA first).

What is asked in the Zepto hiring manager round?

Projects, ownership and database fundamentals such as indexing.

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