[Note: This is obviously a backdated interview experience for the interview of Software Engineer position at Samsung Research India - Bangalore (SRIB). Sorry for uploading this late, but I can confirm that the pattern remains the same for the role even today. Hence, thought that uploading the same would benefit several new-grads and freshers in this placement season.]
I am a 2022 CSE graduate. At that time, I was working in a service-based company. I came to know about the off-campus hiring opportunity in SRIB from some LinkedIn posts, where a guy had floated a Google form for referral. Filled my details there, and received the OA link during June'22.
Online Assessment
The OA had 3 questions to be solved in 90 mins. The questions were in between LC medium-hard standard. I don't remember the exact questions
- Question 1: Greedy related to 2 pointers [LC Medium]
- Question 2: 1D DP [LC Medium]
- Question 3: Similar to Shortest Path Visiting All Nodes [LC Hard]
Finished first 2 questions fully, and the 3rd one partially. Then received a mail from the recruitment team that I have been shortlisted for the next round.
Advanced (DSA Round)
This is basically a certification level in Samsung Electronics and all campus hires need to clear this round (from 2021) before proceeding to further rounds.
You will be given only 1 question to solve in 4 hours and 10 attempts. The question will always be among the common LC Hard ones. Languages allowed are Java, Python, C/C++. This round also took place in June'22.
[System requirements: You will be required to connect to a Samsung system from your PC using VDI. So, only Windows machines can be used. Also, you need to install a proctoring app in your smartphone, and keep it infront of you all the time during the test. You will also be connected to a proctor through that app, who will monitor your actions.]
Question: Burst Balloons [LC Hard]
I had solved the question within 1 hr and in the first attempt since I had done that before. Then received the shortlisting mail within 2 days.
Professional (DSA Round)
This is the next level of certification, and prior to Jun'22, this was optional for both on and off-campus hires. But due to the ongoing recession at that time, this round was made compulsory. Even till date, this is a compulsory round for off-campus and optional for on-campus hires.
Here also the rules ae same, 1 question in 4 hrs and 10 attempts. Common LC Hard questions. Languages allowed are Java, Python, C/C++. This round took place in Sep'22 (yes, hiring was stalled in between). Same VDI and proctoring system.
Question: Number of Submatrices That Sum to Target [LC Hard]
I had solved the question within 2 hrs and in the second attempt (n^4 was accepted but n^3 would have been ideal). Then received the shortlisting mail again within 2 days.
Technical Interview
The interview was scheduled in Oct'22 and lasted for 1 hr in MS Teams. The interrview started with introduction. The questions asked were:
- Since I had work experience in Spring, so some basic discussions regarding Java annotations, @autowired, @test, singleton pattern, dependency injection
- OOPs concepts: Inheritence, polymorphism, encapsulation, abstraction, classes and objects, overidding vs overloading, dynamic method dispatch
- Then I was asked my strong subjects, to which I replied DSA, DBMS and Networks
- DBMS: Normalization vs denormalization, normal forms, cartesian product vs inner join vs outer join
- Networks: (idk whether the interviewer was from the network background or not, because since then, only the networking questions followed :-D)
- OSI vs TCP/IP, physical layer topologies, physical layer devices, hub vs repeater vs amplifier, IPv4 vs IPv6, private IP ranges, subnetting vs supernetting, TCP vs UDP, 3-way and 4-way handshaking in TCP, well-known port numbers of FTP, SSH, DNS, DHCP, HTTP, HTTPS
- DSA:
- Bit stuffing and destuffing on a binary stream: (This is a DLL framing algo) My solution was not fully correct, but explained the approach properly, took around 20 mins
- Leaky bucket algorithm: (This is a TL congesting control algo) This is an easy question, and it was correct, took around 5 mins
The selection email came within the next 1 week, and an HR discussion was scheduled.
HR Round
This took place in Oct'22 only in MS Teams, and lasted for 10-15 mins. The discussion started with introduction, then the primitive behavioural questions followed, next about my present company, experience and compensation (compensation in HR round seems to be must in India, ironically).
The final selection email came within the next 1-2 weeks, and received the offer around end Oct'22.
Overall feedback: Most of the rounds were DSA specific. For me, it seemed that Samsung proceeds with the Hard level DSA questions, even sometimes harder than Amazon, which is not required at all. I am attaching some common DSA questions (that I used for practice) for Samsung rounds which will benefit the freshers: https://github.com/s-kachroo/SamsungPractice
I will attach the compensation details for this position in the comments.
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