💼 UKG – SDE (College Graduate) Interview Experience
📌 Source: Shared via Reddit
📍 Type: On-site Campus Pool Interview
🗓️ Timeline: Single day – 9 AM to 12:30 AM
🎓 Eligibility: Final-year college students
💰 Offer:
- 6-month Internship – ₹50,000/month
- FTE on performance – ₹14 LPA base + ₹2 L bonus + ₹90K relocation
✨ Overview
This is my friend's interview experience with UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) for the SDE role (college graduate). It was part of a campus pool drive and turned out to be a grueling but memorable 5-round, full-day onsite interview.
Only 8 students were shortlisted from their college after a HackerRank assessment held 14 days earlier. The final interview shortlist was released just a day before.
📝 Pre-Interview
- PPT (Pre-placement talk) started at 9 AM and lasted for 1 hour.
- Interview rounds were disclosed at the end of the PPT:
✅ Rounds:
- Technical Round 1
- Technical Round 2
- Director Round
- Managerial Round
- HR Round
More than 50+ students attended the drive, but only 12 made it to the last round.
🔹 Round 1 – Technical Interview 1 (L1)
🕒 Time: 2:50 PM
🕓 Duration: ~30 minutes
- Intro + Resume walkthrough
- Easy SQL question
- DSA question (Solved)
- 1 Puzzle
- Questions from resume
✅ Cleared the round – only 2 students from their college advanced, including my friend.
🔹 Round 2 – Technical Interview 2 (L2)
🕒 Time: ~4:30 PM
🕓 Duration: ~25 minutes
- Project & Tech Stack discussion
- Experience-based questions
- 1 Puzzle
- Resume deep dive
✅ Cleared again.
🔹 Round 3 – Director Round (L3)
🕒 Start: ~6:30 PM
🕓 Duration: ~35 minutes
- Resume-focused Q&A
- Explained major project
- 4 Puzzle Questions
- Best round of the day (felt confident)
✅ Cleared – only 12 candidates were now left (6 girls + 6 boys)
🔹 Round 4 – Managerial Round (L4)
🕒 Start: 11:40 PM
🕓 Duration: ~22 minutes
- Project explanation (interviewer seemed distracted)
- DSA Questions:
- Easy string manipulation
- LeetCode Medium-level problem (Solved instantly)
- Exhaustion & nerves affected performance slightly
❓ Duration shorter than average (~20 min vs 40 min others). Possibly a flag.
🔹 Round 5 – HR Round (L5)
🕒 Start: 12:08 AM
🕓 Duration: ~20+ minutes
- Casual start
- HR Questions:
- Strengths and weaknesses
- "What does money mean to you?" → Answered: Stability
- Family situation & financial discussion (~4 min talk)
- Advice on communication and confidence
- Asked: “What if you don’t get selected?” → Answer: “I’ll prepare for the next opportunity.”
- Ended with life advice and encouragement
❗ HR mentioned publicly: “You know what you need to work on.”
❌ Friend was the only one not selected among the final 12.
🧾 Final Result
At the end, all remaining candidates were called into a room for final announcements. The HR began announcing names and handing out goodies.
😔 My friend's name was not called.
💔 Only one among the final 12 not selected.
They quietly picked up their bag and left the premises.
💔 Reflection
"I never imagined rejection could hurt this much."
"Was it the project explanation? The stumble on a string problem? Sharing too much during HR?"
Despite the heartbreak, this was an incredible learning experience:
- 5 rounds in one day
- Over 16 hours on-site
- Cleared 4 technical interviews
- Met senior interviewers (some with 16+ years experience)
✅ TL;DR
- On-site interview from 9 AM to 12:30 AM
- Total 5 eliminatory rounds
- Final 12 candidates: 6 boys + 6 girls
- Only 1 rejection – my friend
- Performance was good in tech rounds, but likely fell short in L4 or L5
🙌 Takeaways
- Stay calm, even when tired
- Learn to pace yourself in long interview processes
- Be mindful of over-disclosing in HR rounds
- Even rejections can teach valuable life lessons
- You are more capable than you think — clearing 4/5 rounds is not a failure
"It was my lucky day. But when the day ended, my luck ran out."
Sending strength to anyone who has faced similar rejections. You'll bounce back — stronger and smarter. 💪🚀