DevOps / SRE Engineer Interview Experience at Dream11 – 2025
Dream11
Verified Interview Pattern
Round structure (HackerRank test with AWS-heavy MCQs, two technical rounds, a management discussion, HR) and the specific detail that HR redirected the candidate from DevOps to SRE mid-process are drawn directly from a real, publicly posted Dream11 DevOps Engineer interview account on Glassdoor. This entry is a reconstruction, not a first-hand transcript.
Application Story
Candidates apply online and typically receive a HackerRank assessment link within a week. After clearing it, candidates are called to Dream11's Mumbai office for a full day of face-to-face interviews, matching a real reported candidate's account of the process almost exactly, down to it being scheduled on a weekend.
Preparation Journey
Since a large chunk of the assessment is AWS-specific MCQs rather than pure coding, preparation should weight more heavily toward AWS service behavior and less toward algorithmic depth than candidates initially expect to need.
Why Selected / Rejected
Partway through the process, HR sometimes gives direct feedback that a candidate seems better suited for an SRE position than the DevOps role originally applied for, and asks if they're open to that instead - a real, specifically reported detail from this exact loop. Candidates who agree have their remaining rounds evaluated against the SRE role instead.
Resume Tips
Be open to the possibility that the interview process itself may redirect you toward a different but closely related role than the one you applied for, particularly at companies with tightly overlapping DevOps and SRE functions like Dream11.
Online — MCQ + Coding
A HackerRank test consisting of two coding programs and around 20 AWS-specific multiple choice questions, matching the real reported structure of this exact assessment. The AWS questions cover EC2 pricing models, S3 lifecycle policies, and basic VPC concepts. The two coding programs are an array manipulation problem and a string processing problem, both at a moderate difficulty level appropriate for a 2-5 year experience band.
Study References
Technical
The first of two technical rounds conducted face-to-face at Dream11's Mumbai office. It focuses on how infrastructure needs to behave differently for a fantasy sports platform where traffic is not steady but spikes sharply and predictably around specific match start times. Candidates are asked how they would design autoscaling policies given that the traffic spike is known in advance (unlike a random viral event); a strong answer proposes scheduled pre-scaling ahead of known match windows combined with reactive scaling as a safety net for unexpectedly high engagement matches.
Study References
Technical
The second technical round goes deeper into monitoring and alerting design specifically for a system where a huge fraction of daily traffic is compressed into a narrow window (a live match). Candidates are asked how they would set alert thresholds differently during a live match window versus off-peak hours, since a static threshold appropriate for quiet periods would fire constantly during a match, and a threshold sized for match traffic would miss real problems during quiet periods. Dynamic or time-window-aware alerting thresholds are the expected answer over a single static value.
Study References
Managerial
A general discussion with an upper management stakeholder, covering team structure, on-call expectations specifically during high-traffic match days, and the candidate's comfort level with the intensity of an SRE-leaning role versus a more conventional DevOps position, foreshadowing the role redirect that often comes shortly after.
HR Round
Closing HR round where candidates sometimes receive specific, real feedback that they seem better suited for the SRE position than the DevOps role applied for, and are asked directly if they're open to that change before final offer discussions proceed.
Questions Asked at Dream11 in the DevOps / SRE Engineer Interview
Online — MCQ + Coding Round
A HackerRank test consisting of two coding programs and around 20 AWS-specific multiple choice questions, matching the real reported structure of this exact assessment. The AWS questions cover EC2 pricing models, S3 lifecycle policies, and basic VPC concepts. The two coding progr …
Technical Round
The first of two technical rounds conducted face-to-face at Dream11's Mumbai office. It focuses on how infrastructure needs to behave differently for a fantasy sports platform where traffic is not steady but spikes sharply and predictably around specific match start times. Candid …
Technical Round
The second technical round goes deeper into monitoring and alerting design specifically for a system where a huge fraction of daily traffic is compressed into a narrow window (a live match). Candidates are asked how they would set alert thresholds differently during a live match …
Managerial Round
A general discussion with an upper management stakeholder, covering team structure, on-call expectations specifically during high-traffic match days, and the candidate's comfort level with the intensity of an SRE-leaning role versus a more conventional DevOps position, foreshadow …
HR Round Round
Closing HR round where candidates sometimes receive specific, real feedback that they seem better suited for the SRE position than the DevOps role applied for, and are asked directly if they're open to that change before final offer discussions proceed.
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At a Glance
DevOps / SRE Engineer at Other Companies
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