I just got an FTE offer from Publicis Sapient and it was an on-campus opportunity. Leetcode and this community have played an important role in my preparation and so I thought it is my time to give something back to the community.

The first round was an online coding round hosted on Hackerrank platform where we had to solve 2 questions in 90 minutes

1. The first question was a DP problem which was basically a 0/1 Knapsack problem (not direct knapsack) but the problem could be broken down into the 0/1 knapsack.

2. The second problem was based on graphs. The problem was to find the shortest route from A to B such that X and Y are 2 nodes that are always visited and in the same order that is first X and then Y. It was solvable by applying Djikstra's Algorithm multiple times on the graph.

Only those who solved both the questions were shortlisted for the interviews. They might have considered other things such as CGPA, tab switching, etc because some people did not get shortlisted even after doing all the questions.

My interview experience was very different from the interview experience of others as it was taken by the Head of Engineering of Sapient. No DS-Algo questions were asked to me. The interviewer was interested in my thinking process mainly. He dived deep into my projects and CV. He asked me to explain the concept of Time and Space complexity to a lay-man and I was not allowed to use the dictionary phonebook example as it was a classic according to the interviewer. One of the questions was to Design the Captcha feature (I guess he was just trying to check my thinking process through this). Many theory questions on File Systems, Modules of OS, What happens when you turn on a computer/laptop then what happens when you enter a URL. He asked me about the concepts and features of OOP's and what is Modularity and Message Passing. How are Files stored in a computer and if you use windows, how does windows store Files?

He was interested in low-level and high-level system design concepts that I know.
There were many questions to which I had no answer which included a simple question like what version of MySQL do you use! He even asked why did I use a particular method in Pandas to add 2 tables when other alternatives were available. To the questions which I had no idea of, I simply replied sorry sir I have no idea about this so that we don't waste time and in the hope that maybe I would be able to answer the next question. The interviewer was very friendly and helpful.
The interview went on for 1 hour 20 mins and somehow I was able to impress the interviewer. I passed the round and was informed after 30 mins that I have my next round in 10 mins.

The next round was with the Sr. Director of the company (COO) and it was a mix of technical and HR round. It went for around 30 mins and the main technical questions that I was asked were Design a website like Amazon for a client who wants to sell products online. What one unique feature you would add to your website to make it different from all others and how would you design the Front End of the website. HR questions included How did you take feedback from someone else for your project and how did you incorporate their ideas. A time when you helped your peers with their technical project. Why Sapient etc.
Finally, the shortlist came the next morning and I was selected.

I want you guys to know that till September, I didn't even know how to write a for loop! I didn't write a single line of code in my first 2 years of college life. But its never too late to start. If I can do it then anyone can.
2 things which I followed were Consistency and Practice. Solve as many questions as you can and remain consistent. I have learned so much through leetcode discuss. From new concepts and techniques to how to break a problem into an existing problem. This is an amazing platform and I want to thank everyone form whose Solution I learned something new.

Ending note- Never think its too late to start and once you start, there might come a time where you will think of quitting (I faced this many times). There were many moments where I thought that coding and DS Algo are not my cup of tea I should probably try something else. But you don't have to give up and just keep working hard and trust me the end result would be great for each one of you.

Thankyou LeetCode Community!