Ali_Rohail_interview

Apr 22, 2026 09:40 · 26:41 · English · Whisper Turbo · 3 speakers

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Lecture Index

0:00

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

today uh essentially software engineering a project where we have to make certain requirement elicitation from users and um thank you for agreeing to give the interview so essentially our application is about uh it's essentially about bill splitting right you can there are certain analogues to this application west me you have apps like skill split right

0:50

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

You can't have an Excel sheet for all things.

0:54

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

That's why we came up with the idea that you can make an application just like Splitwise that would cater to the Desi audience. Essentially, it will be that you will have an invitation to your friends. You would make a group and what will happen in this group is that you will log as much of the expenses.

1:29

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

So, this interview will take about 25 to 30 minutes about this application and is that okay with you? Yeah, definitely. Thank you for having me on here and I'm happy to help.

1:40

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Perfect. And I will also be taking some notes and just for my reference and which we will use in your research. And obviously, if we don't share, there won't be any data breach. So is that also okay with you? Definitely, that's okay. No problem. Perfect. And you can tell me a little bit about your name and what you're doing. You're a student or you have a job?

2:05

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Right, my name is Rohail and I'm a six semester computer science student at Nassast Lambad. So at the moment, no, I'm not doing a job or anything. At the moment, I'm just focusing on my studies and yeah, that's basically it.

2:23

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Okay, perfect. And I guess my second question is, do you usually hang out with friends or family where money is usually involved? And if you do, then what kind of hangouts do you do? Eating out, trips, shopping together, and how often do these happen? Weekly, bi-weekly, or many times? Right. So, I'm a hostilite here. So, basically, what happens

2:51

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

You have to eat a food daily. You go to the cafe, you eat something. So you know what happens is sometimes one person pays for the other one. Sometimes you know you share. So this is one instance where our splitting is. And definitely this is more of a daily thing. But you know occasionally once or twice a month we also go out to eat at you know maybe a nice place or something.

3:16

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

that's also another place you know where one person pays with their card and you know the rest of us pay back pay them back later so these are the main two instances i would say

3:26

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Perfect, perfect. And I have another question, building on to this question. If you have bigger expenses, right, you're planning a trip with friends, like you have seen, that's a really big expense for students. So how would you go about managing those expenses?

3:52

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Right, as you say, it's quite a big expense though as a hostel, you know, you usually don't even as a student you don't have, you know, money. So for something like that, I would definitely say, you know, family save, okay, so for occasions like this, I would say they're definitely, you know, very

4:22

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

They are rare, but I would say they do occur and is there a few cases made to have? Again, I would not really trust anyone with such a large amount of money, though I would probably prefer to keep the payments direct and through myself.

4:42

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Okay, perfect. And if you do owe someone money, or if someone owes you a certain amount of money, how do you usually remind them?

5:00

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

usually because that's way too much of an effort. Now, for small expenses, you know, like let's say, maybe lunch or dinner or something like that. So, you know, you either just send a WhatsApp message or you don't need this much. Yeah, you just keep a mental note.

5:28

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Perfect. And I assume that sometimes someone's definitely left-hanging, and that's perfectly fine. If you're close friends, I understand that. But obviously, if you're with strangers, that's not something that a person can obey, especially if you're a student talking about your source of income. So I would say that that's a point of concern for you, right? Definitely.

6:17

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

you know

6:24

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Perfect, perfect. And I said before building this application, my personal opinion was that the finance tracking gaps are a little bit, right? Because people didn't use it. And that, I think I'm speaking for the general populace here, that people don't use finance tracking gaps and bill splitting gaps. The biggest of them is Splitwise, which is used in Europe. And it's used in maybe the United States, because the culture is very cold in this situation.

6:53

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

If you owe me something, you have to pay me back. And in Pakistan, there is obviously a culture divide, that you have to pay me back. So I guess my question is, have you heard about it at least?

8:06

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

I understand that. And usually, if you payback to someone, what's your preferred form of medium?

8:54

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Perfect, perfect. And your specific preferred application, for example, in my case, I prefer NeaPay over all other applications. I've noticed that especially in our generation, apps like SADA Pay or NeaPay are a lot of people use, because they're super intuitive, right? If you have any other traditional banking and centralized banks, you have to find something else if you simply buy money. Okay, I understand that.

9:44

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

And, okay, next question is, I think this is more of a cultural question. Is there certain awkwardness in asking people back for money? Because in our culture, that's maybe sometimes seen as disrespectful.

10:00

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

So would you say that there is bad blood between friends? That's a matter of ego.

10:48

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

So, I guess the logical extension of this question is that you deal with your expenses right? Answering honestly, right? As a host leader, what's the most frustrating part? Not even catering to this application in general. What's the most frustrating part?

12:14

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

That's the biggest issue, right? No problem. I'm saying that the biggest issue you're facing is essentially that your finances or your capital is split over many applications and you have just cash in any other app, so you don't know exactly how much money you have. So you would rather that there is a system that...

12:42

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

You would prefer a feature like that. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Okay. And I guess my next question is, if we were to build an application like this, what would be the first thing you would want it to do? Or you would want it to have? In general, it can be anything.

13:58

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Perfect, perfect, perfect. And the basic idea is that we would like it to split bills equally, right? So would you rather we add that feature in itself or then go manually and split it?

14:17

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Because in some cases, it happens that someone's share is less, right? Or would you rather automate this whole process?

15:00

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

be more feasible perfect perfect perfect and um i guess my uh next question is uh

15:30

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

But if we send you a notification over maybe a week, a week, a week or two or three days, then would you rather that we send these notifications or that will get a little pushy in this context?

16:08

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect. And I don't know if you have noticed that if you go on Google Play, right? And you have left on Spotify, you have left on HBO, Netflix, you have left on Netflix automatically. Right? You have left on HBO, Netflix, and your accounts automatically cut. So we would like to integrate a future like that. For example, I say that Ali owes Rohail something. Ali owes Rohail 650 rupees.

16:38

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Essentially, we link our application with applications like JAS, Cache, or EZ Paisa, which you only have a button on the back end, and you only have $650 from your account. So would you rather that we would like to add such features? Obviously, there are no safety concerns about that if you don't cut $10 from your account. If you cut $10 from your account, then it would be a big saveout.

17:12

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Okay.

17:38

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Cheap, perfect, perfect. Okay, so I would say my next question is, as I mentioned earlier, when you're in the application, you would invite a certain group of friends. It will be essentially a group of friends, and you will see all your friends. So in that, would you like it?

18:17

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Would you rather that a feature like that exists or not?

18:34

S… Speaker 3 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

You will not have a league.

19:11

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Perfect, perfect. And so I think coming to the next point, which was the biggest hiccup in our application, that was that applications like these have taken off in other regions of the world, right? Because as I mentioned, in Europe, there's a certain culture that you have to pay back. I think I lost a little bit, so I'll repeat it.

19:36

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

As I mentioned earlier, I think the biggest, I would say, Desi market nuanced into building this application. In Europe, applications like these have caught on. Because if you have to pay 10 cents, you have to pay them back. Because that's the cultural thing. You can't owe someone any money. Pakistan, I would say, if you make more than anyone, there is, I think,

20:10

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Do you think applications like these can catch on in Pakistan?

22:12

S… Speaker 3 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

That's it from my side. Do you have any further questions?

22:40

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Okay, perfect. Okay, perfect. The basic workflow would be that you sign up yourself. You then go on to invite your friends, right? You have different friends. You have three friend circles. You have roommate group. You have another friend circle. You have colleagues. You have all different groups.

23:00

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

So in those groups, what you can essentially do is you can log activities, that we were outside, we had food, blah, blah, blah, and it will be a total amount. And in that amount, like I mentioned earlier, you will make a split. This is 20 percent, this is 30 percent, and then the split will automatically calculate and you will look at it. Then what will happen? You will look at overall how much I am doing and how much I am doing in the overall debt.

23:30

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

And besides that, you can make the payment directly from an application. If I owe Rohail and if I owe, let's say, another person, I owe Haseeb something, and I'm just going to give it to Rohail, then I'll go directly to Rohail and click Pay. So I would have paid Rohail first and then I would go on to pay Haseeb. So essentially, what is your owing system, we're going to make a centralizer for healing.

24:11

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

As I mentioned earlier, I think our primary target to designing the application that would be to cater to culture nuances in Pakistan.

24:22

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

I think the differentiating factor would be that there are a few nuances in Pakistan. Or essentially there isn't a medium in Pakistan where you can split your money. I would say that culturally we believe this thing. So I would say that the first thing is that

24:48

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

We will do a design like this because in Splitwise you don't have a lot of options. You have to give someone 30% or 40%

25:00

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Then there are some people who have a disparity in the pace that some person is in the beginning of the year and not in the end of the year. And you are going in the beginning and you can afford to go to the end of the year. So we will cater to this kind of nuances within your friend group. You would have many options. You will have many options that are not in Splitwise. And I guess the second option would be to cater to the Desi audience that our design language would be very simple.

25:26

S… Speaker 2 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Splitwise is not intuitive. In Pakistan, I noticed that the app is super intuitive. The app is super intuitive. They have killed centralized banks. Simply, their design language is super intuitive. Splitwise is a key design language and I would say their user experience is not intuitive at all. And third would be that I would say that our design and our user interface would particularly cater to Gen Z in Pakistan.

25:55

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

Again, that would mean that vibrant colors, it would be intuitive, it would be easy to use. And I would say that it will make your whole workflow coherent. Because now we don't have any attention span. Let's go and do everything, calculate bills. So at the end, we get to know things. Let's go and go and do it for the sake of not doing the calculation.

26:15

S… Speaker 1 (Ali_Rohail_interview)

And I guess the first thing, that's not basically a software engineering thing, but that marketing means that we would market it to GenZ specifically. And do you have any further questions? No, I think that's it. Perfect. Thank you for taking part in this interview, Rohel. We really appreciate it.

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