Oncampus Opportunity
Batch- 2023
Round-1: Hackerrank OA- 2 Questions
Duration: 90 mins
- Easy 1-D DP question
- SQL question: Solved using Joins
Solved both the questions and got interview invite after 1 month.
Students with CGPA>9 were selected as far as I know.
Round-2: Technical Round-1
Duration: 45 min
Interviewer introduced himself and directly jumped into coding question. It was leetcode easy level problem related to DP. I directly jumped to tabulation approach and explained. The interviewer asked any other approaches, I told the recursive way. Time and Space complexity was asked. Then, he asked if I had any questions, I asked what technologies they were using and had some discussion.
After 15 mins I got the next round invite held on the same day.
Round-3: Technical Round- 2 | System Design was asked for me, other candidates were tested on coding only.
Duration: 45 min
From some connections working there I got to know freshers would'nt be tested on System Design, so I did not prepare anything around it. But the tables turned and I had to face it.
It was my first system design interview and I informed the interviewer I have very little knowledge about it. The interview started by interviewers introduction and then he asked about me, he was impressed by my projects and asked to explain one. Then he asked to design a notification system.
I was clueless, but I managed to build the database design and explained the protocols used for communicating, etc. He was changing the requirements and added complexity I went with the flow and managed to connect the dots. Later I was asked real life scenarios where OOPS are used and I explained him by giving examples. The round ended by me asking some more questions about company.
After 20mins I got the final hr round invite to be held on the same day.
Round-4: HR round was mentioned in the mail, but it was a Technical + hr discussion.
Duration: 60 min
As it was HR round, I got relaxed and thought I could make it easily. I was somewhat disappointed when it started with a coding question again. This time the level was medium-hard question related to Strings and hashing. I tried to solve the problem in a brute force way, but the interviewer was expecting an optimal solution. I think this was the point where I messed up. I was already exhausted by that time and could'nt think of any better solution. Then, we move forward and he asked about my internship experience, leadership principles, oops again. The interview was ended on a good note. I felt the interviewer was satisfied with my performance as he tend to share some personal details and we had a good discussion.
Final Verdict: After 1 week, I recieved a rejection email.
Key Takeaways:
- Always be prepared to face any round, try to get strong with computer fundamentals
- Expect the unexpected. Even if 100s of interview experiences shared there would not be a concept tested, you should be prepared with it, as we do not know what happens next.
- Do not relax after your technical rounds and set your mind to a steady state that you won't be asked to code in hr rounds.
- If the interviewer is too friendly or giving hints that you are a fit for their team, don'nt jump into a conclusion that you are already a selected candidate.
I am currently holding an offer whose base pay is quite less upon that its not an SDE role, but I was not eligible to any good companies on my campus due to the high ctc. Only PayPal had broken the difference for me to be eligible to appear. I had made a 2 months vigorous prepartion for this opportunity, but I guess life has planned something else for me. Although I felt bad, life goes on. I will be trying other off-campus opportunities, I hope to get succeeded if not now, in future atleast.
Cheers and All the best to others who are giving their interviews :)