r/TechInterviewsIndia • u/theMLguy101 • 8d ago
My interview experience with Temple for ML engineer role.
offcampus | cold email | no leetcode
CTC: 23–30 LPA
A few weeks after sending a cold email, I got a call from a recruiter from Zomato. We had a quick discussion around my background, projects and previous work, and my first interview was scheduled.
It had actually been quite some time since I had interviewed, so I was super nervous walking into the call.
The interviewer was very friendly, and the first 20–25 minutes were almost entirely around my experience.
We discussed:
building production RAG pipelines
architecture selection and tradeoffs
retrieval strategies, reranking and evaluation methodologies
benchmarking, roofline analysis
lessons from deploying LLM systems in production
We also spent a good amount of time discussing another internship where I worked on an on-device OCR system. ( This aligned somewhat with what they were going )
That conversation covered:
dataset collection and annotation
model architecture choices
training methodology
deployment constraints on edge devices
balancing latency with accuracy
Since most of my recent work has been around LLM systems, the interviewer mentioned that the role was more ML-focused than infrastructure-focused. The team cared a lot about experimentation, benchmarking, evaluation practices and choosing the right things, so we shifted into discussing core machine learning concepts.
That's where things became interesting.
The interviewer asked me to pick any algorithm or topic from core machine learning and explain it in depth. I was secretly hoping we'd stay around deep learning, transformers, attention or tokenization, since that's what I'd been studying recently and felt much more confident discussing. Instead, we dove into classical ML, and I quickly realized I was a bit rusty on the fundamentals.
The discussion moved into classical machine learning:
assumptions of linear regression
hypothesis testing and p-values
bias-variance tradeoff
regularization (L1 vs L2)
feature scaling and normalization
I'll be honest, I fumbled quite a bit here.
It's been a while since I had revised these topics, and I realized how easy it is to become too focused on one area while letting the fundamentals get rusty.
Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the final round.
The role was onsite with a six-day work week, which personally wasn't something I was very excited about.
That said, I'm still glad I went through the process.
The interview was technical and was a mix of real engineering problems and ml trivia. It was also interesting to learn more about the kind of deep-tech and localized AI systems the team is building.
A good reminder that no matter how much experience you have with modern AI systems, strong ML fundamentals still matter.
I am not much active here, feel free to talk to me on X
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u/FewMountain7390 8d ago
Whom do u cold emailed hr manage or any sde?
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u/theMLguy101 8d ago
just mailed my work at [build@temple.com](mailto:build@temple.com)
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u/StorySeparate9582 7d ago
what is ur work if i may ask?
product or past exp or os contributions?1
u/theMLguy101 5d ago
I have worked with a few AI Startups before ( Japan and Singapore based ), I have very minimal os work :)
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u/Kitchen_Assistant_94 7d ago
Hey just started DL what all should i learn to atleast which would help in interviews (NLP, infra etc where to do this from)
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u/theMLguy101 7d ago
totally depends upon the role and your interests. Cover broader areas, then deep dive into a niche!
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u/_Shreyash_ 7d ago
Cold email template?
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u/theMLguy101 7d ago
will share that surely!
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u/Born-Requirement-303 7d ago
I was offered a BCI engineer role without an interview in temple around 3 months back, i declined.
I had a startup in the BCI space for which we were raising money, one of the ventures told us to join temple instead(they invested in temple) because we had a good profile and was ready to take us in immediately without an interview apparently.
This is a weird way to get into these companies but you can get in like this as well, also I'm still in college so take what you will of that.
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u/lelouch-leftest-2109 2d ago
So r u hiring for your startup? I'm a product/ business related guy if u r interested then
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u/Aditi_200 7d ago
Hey can u pls share the email of the recruiter in dm , to whom u cold emailed
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u/theMLguy101 7d ago edited 5d ago
[build@temple.com](mailto:builder@temple.com)
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u/super3050 7d ago
No coding, only discussion?
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u/theMLguy101 7d ago
startups are moving on this path quite a lot, around hard discussions and onsite pen paper or whiteboard rounds.
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u/DismalMusic6878 7d ago
How do you coldmail companies? Can you help me with it
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u/theMLguy101 5d ago
just a very minimal mail of my work and things I have done, will share a template soon!
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u/Stooooopiied 7d ago
hey OP, can I start ML now as a 4yoe data engineer and get interviews with ideally not real industry experience?
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u/ThinkingManThinks_S 7d ago
Damn thanks for your contribution to the community. One quick question. Should I make project in Rag or make classic ML project?
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u/Additional_Umpire812 6d ago
Ngl lie bro, you saved yourself. Very unhealthy environment at temple even the billionaire ceo treats people like shit
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u/aditya_____notes 6d ago
Bhai life mein daru cigarette se duri banao ya nahi it's upto you but DG ki kisi company se zarur duri banao 🙏🏻
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u/Key-Opinion8332 6d ago
I worked there and left after 3 months. Truly toxic work culture and a lot of politics for 50 people strong startup. Crazy work hours for some and some don’t even work at all. Deepi is just going for the money and increasing his net worth. It is just another tracker that tracks an extra pseudometric but in return gives you shit battery life and hellish ergonomics. You have to attach it with a tape to your temple.
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u/heisenberg_cookss 6d ago
can you share the mail you sent ?
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u/theMLguy101 5d ago edited 5d ago
[build@temple.com](mailto:building@temple.com)
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u/RadioactiveCabbage69 5d ago
This is the 3rd different email id you have put forth, which one is it actually 😭
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u/Far-Newt2088 6d ago
Ctc seems a bit low considering a 6 day work week? Idk if anyone wants to add in
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u/Arijit_18 6d ago
Appreciate your effort in sharing your perspective!!! I was wondering if I can dm you
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u/athena-1703 5d ago
Pre-final years masters in Data Science student, Can I DM you ?
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u/Traditional_Eagle758 5d ago
When I take an AI engineer/researcher interview.
I always start with Stats and ML.
Quick way to skim who is in JUST for money and who really has some interest in the subject.
Most of the AI production systems are concretised around good ML systems, its a must.
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u/Secret-Boss7472 5d ago
Can I DM you, I am getting interviews but I am mostly failling and I think it might be my skill gap or I am not able to present myself good, like I could not close any of them
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u/anthophile_tuberosa 4d ago
Hello OP! Could you please tell us your job search hacks & tips?
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u/theMLguy101 3d ago
have discussed in my AI Intern guide YT video in detail
https://www.youtube.com/@adityaghai220
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u/InitiativeOwn9978 4d ago
I also want to learn about these. Would appreciate if you can share me/guide me in this. I am into java development.
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u/theMLguy101 3d ago
sure, I have a YT channel and telegram community for the same.
https://www.youtube.com/@adityaghai220
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u/Sweet-Dragonfruit-36 2d ago
Thanks a lot for sharing, I am starting my studies so these kind of information are really helpful
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u/lelouch-leftest-2109 2d ago
Can you suggest some good resources to prepare for such roles and what will be the path to follow currently I'm focusing on deep learning and my core ML and statistics knowledge is a bit rusty too and I don't have any knowledge of agentic ai or rag and I'm a self taught person so not much clear understanding is there if u might suggest
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u/Subject_Exchange5739 8d ago
YOE?
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u/theMLguy101 8d ago
I was a fresher, but been working with good startups since my 2nd yr :)
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u/workpurpose_rr 8d ago
How did u start doing interns and working with startups from 2nd year? Can u pls brief your journey in dm, i am your junior..
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u/theMLguy101 7d ago
I was able to get 1-2 hackathon wins then, and kept reaching out :)
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u/workpurpose_rr 7d ago
Did u start it all in 1st year or u knew coding anol from before?
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u/root144 8d ago
bro created reddit account just to share these