Directi Interview Questions: Rounds, Sample Qs, and Prep Tips

Directi’s interview runs three to four rounds, and the final HR round carries more algorithmic weight than the label suggests.

That structure sets Directi apart from most Indian campus recruiters. The company co-founded CodeChef, one of India’s largest competitive programming platforms, and the hiring process reflects that orientation. Candidates who arrive with only pattern-matched prep find the coding test harder than expected.

This article walks through each round, what’s asked in each, and how to prepare without spending time on low-yield topics.

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How Directi’s Selection Process Works

The full selection process runs three to four rounds, depending on the drive. The structure below reflects the campus and off-campus pattern documented by past candidates on Glassdoor.

Round	Format	Duration	Primary Focus
Online Coding Test	Competitive programming	60–90 min	Algorithms, data structures
Technical Round 1	Face-to-face or video	Up to 90 min	CV-based + algorithms + CS fundamentals
Technical Round 2 (if conducted)	Face-to-face or video	Up to 90 min	Deeper problem-solving, system concepts
HR-cum-Technical Round	Face-to-face or video	30–40 min	Behavioural + trending tech + puzzles

Candidates who clear the online test are called for the interview rounds. If you don’t receive a notification after the written test, contact your placement cell directly. Directi expects candidates to follow up; don’t assume silence means rejection.

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The Online Coding Test

The online test is the first filter in Directi’s process. It typically contains two to three programming problems, and the difficulty sits a notch above the standard campus coding test.

The reason is the company’s lineage: Directi co-founded CodeChef and builds products that require serious algorithm engineering. The test reflects that internal bar.

Topics that appear consistently:

• Dynamic programming (subset sum, longest common subsequence, knapsack variants)
• Graph algorithms (BFS, DFS, shortest paths, cycle detection)
• Tree traversals and binary search tree operations
• String manipulation and pattern matching
• Greedy algorithms and sorting-based problems

The test is not about syntax recall. A candidate who can reason through an unfamiliar problem scores better than one who has memorised a hundred patterns but can’t adapt when the pattern shifts slightly.

Practical prep step: Start at difficulty 3 on CodeChef. Work through timed contests; the Cook-Off series (2.5 hours, five problems) simulates the format well. Time pressure is part of what the test is assessing.

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Technical Interview Rounds

The technical rounds are where Directi’s interview diverges most sharply from typical IT services hiring.

What interviewers assess

Directi looks for engineers who can think through problems, not just recall solutions. Questions start from your CV and then branch into the underlying concepts. If you’ve mentioned Java in your resume, expect questions on Java internals. If you listed a machine learning project, expect questions on how the model was trained and what the loss function was.

Core technical areas

• Data structures and algorithms: Trees, heaps, graphs, dynamic programming, and time-complexity analysis. Interviewers expect you to write code on a whiteboard or screen, not just describe an approach.
• Operating systems: Scheduling algorithms (FCFS, SJF, Round Robin), memory management, virtual memory, threading, and deadlock conditions.
• Computer networks: DNS resolution, TCP handshake, IP addressing, routing protocols (link-state vs. distance-vector), and OSI model layers.
• Database management: SQL query writing (JOINs, GROUP BY, subqueries), normalization up to 3NF, and indexing.
• Object-oriented programming: Class design, polymorphism, inheritance, exception handling, and interface vs. abstract class distinctions. For Java interview questions covering the OOP topics Directi returns to most, the linked article maps the full pattern.
• Your CV: Every project, internship, and technology listed is in scope. Interviewers go line by line. Be ready to walk through your code, explain design decisions, and discuss what you would do differently.

Round duration: Technical rounds run up to 90 minutes each. Some interviewers spend 45 minutes on one hard problem; others move through a sequence of medium problems. Both formats have appeared in Directi drives.

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The HR-cum-Technical Round

The final round is officially labelled HR but operates as a combined assessment. It runs 30 to 40 minutes.

Standard behavioural questions appear: your strengths, preferred working style, comfort with different shifts, and where you see yourself in three years. These are straightforward.

What makes Directi’s HR round different is the technical layer woven through it. Interviewers ask about:

• Your favourite technical subject and why (then ask a follow-up question from it)
• Recent technologies you’ve worked with or explored (deployment tools, version control workflows, anything relevant to your domain)
• Algorithmic puzzles and brainteasers that test logical reasoning under low pressure
• Background and family questions (standard campus placement format)

Treat this round as a lighter technical interview, not a break from technical thinking. Candidates who switch off analytically at this stage sometimes drop here after performing well in the earlier rounds.

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Sample Technical Questions with Answers

The questions below represent topics that Directi interviewers have covered across drives. Use them as practice problems, not one-time reads.

Networking

• Q1: How does DNS resolution work?

• Answer: DNS converts a human-readable domain name into an IP address. When you type a URL, your browser checks its local cache first. On a miss, the request goes to your OS resolver, then to a recursive resolver (typically your ISP’s DNS server). The recursive resolver queries the root nameserver, which directs it to the TLD nameserver (e.g., .com), which then points to the authoritative nameserver for the specific domain. The authoritative nameserver returns the IP address. TTL values in the DNS record control how long each layer caches the answer.

• Q2: What is the difference between link-state and distance-vector routing protocols?

• Answer: Distance-vector protocols (such as RIP) have each router broadcast its full routing table to all directly connected neighbours at regular intervals. Convergence is slow because routers only know costs to destinations as reported by neighbours. Link-state protocols (such as OSPF) have each router broadcast information about its direct links to all routers in the network, giving every router a complete topology map. Convergence is faster, and routing uses Dijkstra’s shortest-path algorithm. Distance-vector uses less memory but more bandwidth; link-state uses more CPU and memory but responds faster to topology changes.

• Q3: Explain the structure of an IP packet.

• Answer: An IPv4 packet header (minimum 20 bytes) contains: version, header length, type of service, total length, identification and fragment flags for reassembly, TTL (decremented at each hop; packet discarded at zero), protocol field (TCP=6, UDP=17), header checksum, and source and destination IP addresses. The payload that follows is the TCP segment or UDP datagram received from the transport layer.

Data Structures and Algorithms

• Q4: Write a function to find the height of a binary tree.

• Answer:

  int height(Node root) {
      if (root == null) return 0;
      return 1 + Math.max(height(root.left), height(root.right));
  }

  Time complexity: O(n), since every node is visited once. Space complexity: O(h) for the recursion stack, where h is the tree height: O(log n) for a balanced tree and O(n) for a skewed one.

• Q5: What is dynamic programming, and when do you apply it?

• Answer: Dynamic programming solves problems by breaking them into overlapping subproblems, computing each subproblem once, and storing the result. Apply it when two conditions hold: the problem has optimal substructure (the optimal solution can be built from optimal subproblem solutions), and the subproblems overlap (the same subproblem recurs). Two implementation styles: top-down (memoization, recursive with a cache) and bottom-up (tabulation, iterative fill from base cases). Standard examples include Fibonacci, longest common subsequence, 0/1 knapsack, and coin change.

Object-Oriented Programming

• Q6: What is the difference between an interface and an abstract class in Java?

• Answer: An abstract class can hold instance variables, constructors, and both abstract and non-abstract methods. A class can extend only one abstract class. An interface (Java 8+) supports default and static methods but not instance variables (only constants). A class can implement multiple interfaces. Use an abstract class when you want shared state or partial implementation across related types. Use an interface when you want a contract that unrelated types can fulfil. For more on core Java topics like inheritance and exception handling, the linked article covers the patterns Directi interviewers return to most often.

• Q7: A follow-up on project work (expected response pattern)

• Answer: For any technology you mention from your project, prepare to go one level deeper. If you used a web scraper, be ready for: “What library did you use? What are its limitations? How would you handle JavaScript-rendered pages?” The interviewer is testing the depth behind the CV entry, not the entry itself. Prepare to explain design decisions and what you would change with more time.

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A Practical Prep Checklist

Before the online coding test

• Practice timed problems on CodeChef at difficulty 3 and above. Cook-Off contests simulate the format.
• Cover dynamic programming fundamentals: the 10 to 15 canonical problems (knapsack, LCS, matrix chain multiplication, coin change) build the pattern-recognition the test demands.
• Review graph algorithms: BFS, DFS, Dijkstra, Floyd-Warshall, topological sort, and cycle detection.

Before the technical interview rounds

• Audit your CV. For every technology listed, prepare a three-level explanation: what it is, how you used it, and what you would do differently with more time.
• Revise networking fundamentals: DNS, HTTP/HTTPS, TCP/IP, OSI layers, and routing. These come up in Directi interviews more than in most other Indian tech company interviews.
• Practice writing code in a plain-text editor with no IDE autocomplete. Interviewers sometimes watch you write on a whiteboard, and autocomplete-dependent habits show.
• If you’re interviewing at multiple companies in the same cycle, reviewing Ernst & Young’s interview process alongside this guide gives useful structural contrast.

Before the HR-cum-technical round

• Prepare concise answers (30 to 60 seconds) to standard HR questions: your strengths, a conflict you handled, your interest in Directi’s products, and your three-year goals.
• Learn one or two Directi products specifically. Directi builds across domain registries (Radix), ad tech (Media.net), and fintech (Zeta). Pick the area that overlaps most with your interests.
• Practice two or three classic CS brainteasers so the puzzle format doesn’t catch you off guard.

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What Directi Actually Looks For

Across all rounds, one underlying quality is being tested: the ability to work through an unfamiliar problem methodically, not just recall a solution from memory.

This shows up in how questions are phrased. Directi interviewers rarely ask “what is the definition of X?” They ask “how would you design X?” or “why would you choose X over Y in this context?” That shift is the signal.

The candidate who performs well is not necessarily the one who has solved the most LeetCode problems. It’s the one who can explain their reasoning clearly, recover when stuck, and show that their CV is an accurate record of what they actually built and understood.

That last part (the CV authenticity check) is where many otherwise-prepared candidates drop. Every line on your resume is a door you’re inviting the interviewer to open. Be sure you have answers ready on the other side of each one.

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The 90-minute technical rounds reward engineers who can work through novel problems, not just recall familiar solutions. Building that skill takes live practice, not passive review. TinkerLLM (₹299 to start) puts you inside a working AI environment where you build, test, and debug through problems in the same loop Directi’s technical rounds are designed to surface. It’s the kind of practice that transfers.