Last week, I had an interview with TCS for Prime role. Here are the questions they asked:

Basic software engineering-based questions:

• What is software testing?
• Describe the various steps in the software engineering life cycle.
• What is 'agile' software development?

Backend Authentication-Based:

• What is the difference between Verification and Validation?
• What is a token? What is the difference between token-based and cookie-based authentication? How can we implement them?

Project-Based Questions:

• Explain your project. What were your roles in the project?
• Why did you choose MongoDB over SQL? What are the differences?
• What is database scaling? What is the difference between horizontal scaling and vertical scaling?
• What do you consider while designing a database (since I mentioned I designed the database)?
• What is normalization? How did you ensure that your database adheres to the normal forms?

SQL Queries:

• They gave me a database schema and asked me to write two SQL queries (Level: Easy).

OOPS:

• What is the difference between C++ and Java?
• Follow-up: How do you free memory in C++ since I mentioned C++ does not have built-in garbage collection?
• What are the two steps in Java compilation?
• Write a few string in-built functions.
• Tell me about the last program you wrote since I mentioned I code regularly. I explained a problem on Dijkstra.

Git:

• What is the difference between git and GitHub?
• What is the difference between pushing code in a repository versus uploading it to the cloud (like Google Drive)? What additional functions does it provide?

HR:

• Asked me about my year gap.
• Since you have other offers, why do you want to join TCS?
• Describe your hobbies. Follow-up questions on books and guitar since I mentioned those.
• Location/Time Shift preferences.

Overall, the interview went well and I could answer most of the questions confidently. I received the offer one week later.