PharmEasy-Style Machine Coding Round: Format, Tips & Practice Problems
Written and reviewed by Sahil Srivastav
An online pharmacy cannot simply sell what is in the cart. Some items require a valid prescription, that prescription must cover the drug and the quantity, and dispensing has to come from a batch that is in date and from a pharmacy licensed to serve the delivery area. Machine coding rounds in the style of PharmEasy build on those gates, which gives them a rule-enforcement character rather than a pure inventory one.
Add substitution — a prescribed brand replaced by an equivalent generic only when the rules allow — and split fulfilment across partner pharmacies, and you have a round where an order is a set of gated, independently fulfillable lines. This page covers the reported format, the evaluation lens, and Gronex repositories that train the same mechanics.
What a PharmEasy-style machine coding round looks like
A representative statement asks for an order-validation and fulfilment slice: classify items as prescription-required or over-the-counter, link an uploaded prescription to the order and validate coverage per item and quantity, allocate stock from in-date batches, and split the order across pharmacies by a stated policy. The rules are all supplied — the round is about applying them without leaks.
Prescription coverage is the gate candidates most often under-model. A prescription is not a boolean on the order; it covers specific drugs, specific quantities, has a validity period, and may already have been partially consumed by an earlier order. The correct shape is a prescription entity with per-drug allowances and a consumed amount, checked and decremented atomically when the order is confirmed. A boolean flag passes the demo and fails the first question.
Substitution and splitting then test rule composition. A generic substitution must be from an approved equivalence set, must respect the prescribed strength, and must be recorded on the line so the invoice and the pharmacist agree. Splitting means each line has its own pharmacy, status, and possibly its own delivery — so the order status has to be derived from the lines. The usual probe is cancelling one line of three after another has already dispatched.
How you’re evaluated
Prescription as an entity
Per-drug allowances, validity dates, and consumed quantities — checked and decremented atomically rather than flagged.
In-date batch allocation
Dispensing only from batches in date under the stated policy, with the batch recorded per line for traceability.
Rule-bound substitution
Substitutes drawn from an approved equivalence set with strength preserved, recorded on the line and reflected in pricing.
Line-level fulfilment
Per-line pharmacy, status, and cancellation, with the order status derived — never one status over a split order.
Common mistakes that fail this round
- Treating the prescription as a boolean, which cannot express quantity coverage or partial prior use.
- Validating coverage at cart time but not re-checking at confirmation, allowing two orders to consume the same allowance.
- Allocating stock without an expiry filter, so an order is fulfilled from a batch that cannot legally be dispensed.
- Substituting on name similarity rather than an approved equivalence set.
- Keeping one status on an order split across three pharmacies, which makes partial cancellation impossible.
Quick tips for the room
- Model the prescription with per-drug allowances and a consumed counter.
- Re-validate coverage at confirmation, not only at cart time.
- Filter batches by expiry before you sort or allocate.
- Derive order status from line statuses, never the reverse.
How to prepare
Build the prescription entity with per-drug allowances and an atomic consume step, then batch-based allocation with an expiry filter, then line-level fulfilment states. In that order, because the prescription model constrains everything downstream and retrofitting it is expensive. Rehearse the partial-cancellation case out loud.
The repositories below map each gate: the insurance-claim problem is coverage checking with one-time decrement — structurally the same as prescription allowance, the PO receiving problem is batch intake with tolerance, the stock reservation problem is allocation discipline, the RMA problem is a gated return workflow, and the free authorisation-leak drill covers the record-access rules a health app needs.
Practice problems in the PharmEasy-style round format
Each is a real backend repository with a failing test suite — the same working-code standard the round applies. Open the brief and read the full problem, no signup required.
Coverage & Adjudication
Coverage checks with one-time decrement and approval limits — the same shape as prescription allowances.
Open the challenge →PO Receiving & Three-Way Match
Batch intake done properly: cumulative receipts, tolerance rules, and invoice matching.
Open the challenge →Inventory Stock Reservation System
Reserve, release, and commit with on-hand, reserved, and available kept consistent throughout.
Open the challenge →Return Authorization & Restock
A gated return workflow with non-skippable transitions and atomic refund-plus-restock.
Open the challenge →API Debugging: Validation & Errors
Reject invalid orders at the edge with a consistent error envelope instead of corrupting state. Free to try.
Open the challenge →FAQ
Were these problems asked at PharmEasy?
No. They are Gronex originals in the style of e-pharmacy rounds — the kind of problem asked in rounds like PharmEasy’s. Gronex is not affiliated with PharmEasy.
Do I need pharmaceutical or regulatory knowledge?
No. Every rule you must enforce will be in the statement. The domain only supplies the standard: gates are checked before fulfilment, decrements happen once, and every dispensed line is traceable to a batch.
Why model prescription consumption?
Because a prescription can be used across orders. Without a consumed counter, a customer can place two orders that each pass validation for the full quantity — the exact scenario reviewers construct.
How is this different from a grocery or beauty commerce round?
Those rounds grade inventory and offers. This one grades gates: prescription coverage, expiry eligibility, approved substitution, and licensed serviceability — each of which must block fulfilment, with a specific reason.
Related
Gronex is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by PharmEasy. All company names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. The problems on this page are Gronex originals written in the style of such interview rounds — not actual interview questions from PharmEasy.