Josh Technology Group Interview Experience | SDE Role | Batch 2026

I am sharing this because the industry needs a reality check on what "broken hiring" looks like. Josh Technology Group (JTG) recently conducted an on-campus drive for the 2026 batch. The process lasted 15 hours (8:00 AM – 11:00 PM) and resulted in zero selections for the entire college.

I am a LeetCode Knight, and while I solved every single problem thrown at me, this experience proved that some companies prioritize physical exhaustion over actual engineering talent.

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Process Summary

Stage	Location	Result
Total Applicants	Campus	~1000
Shortlisted	Campus	140
On-site OA	Gurgaon Office	16
Final Interviews	Gurgaon Office	2
The Survivor	Gurgaon Office	1
Final Selection	None	0

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Round 1: Objective Test (50 mins) – On-Campus

50 MCQs covering CS fundamentals (OS, DBMS, OOPs), pointers, and output prediction. Fast-paced, standard elimination.

Round 2: Subjective Test (75 mins) – On-Campus

Aptitude, logic, and writing out the reasoning for your code. This isn't just about the answer; they want to see your step-by-step articulation.

Round 3: Coding Round (75 mins) – On-Campus

Three coding problems on arrays, trees, and linked lists. Generally LeetCode Easy/Medium level.

Round 4: On-site OA (Gurgaon Office)

After the campus rounds, 16 of us were called to their Gurgaon office for an on-site OA. These were different, fresh coding questions—not a re-solve of the previous rounds. They use this as a strict high-pressure filter in their own controlled environment.

• The Cut: 14 out of 16 people were eliminated here. Only 2 of us moved to the interviews.

Round 5: Technical Interview 1 (1.5 Hours)

1. Stack-Based String Reduction: Remove adjacent characters if they are consecutive ($ab,ba$) or circular ($az,za$). Removals must be cascading (if removing a pair might make the new neighbors consecutive, remove them too).
2. House Robber III: Maximum sum of nodes in a binary tree with the constraint that you cannot pick a parent and its direct child.

My fellow finalist was eliminated here. I was the only candidate out of 1,000 applicants to clear this round and continue the marathon.

Round 6: Technical Interview 2 (1.75 Hours)

1. Minimize Maximum Value: Split an array into $M$ parts such that the maximum sum of any part is minimized.
   • Approach: Binary Search on Answer. Define the search space $[max(array),sum(array)]$ and use a greedy check for feasibility.
2. One more question that I forgot.

Round 7: Technical Interview 3 (2.5 Hours)

The "Endurance Round." They test for "Knight-level" mastery while you are physically and mentally drained.

1. Custom BST Pruning: Delete a node if $node.val-inorderPredecessor<K$.
   • The Trap: Must be done in one traversal, with $O(1)$ extra space, and no global variables. Restructuring the tree while maintaining the predecessor state is key.
2. BST Pair Sum: Find all pairs in a BST that sum to a target with $O(1)$ extra space. You cannot use a stack or a temporary list; you have to implement a stackless iterator or use Morris Traversal logic.
3. M Numbers Sum to N: Backtracking to generate all unique combinations.

Round 8: HR Round (30 mins)

Conducted at 11:00 PM. A standard fitment check when you’ve already been in the office for 15 hours.

Round 9: Psychometric Test (Next Day Morning)

After finally letting me leave at 11:00 PM, they didn't even give me a day to recover. They assigned a 120+ question personality assessment to be completed the very next morning.

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Verdict: Zero Selections

Despite solving every problem and being the last person standing, the company hired no one from our batch.

A Pinch of Salt

1. The Mismatch: They demand HFT-level depth ($O(1)$ tree space constraints) and 15-hour stamina for a ₹22,500 stipend. They are looking for a Ferrari for the price of a cycle.
2. Evaluation Failure: If a company filters 1,000 students through 9 rounds and finds "zero" fit, the problem isn't the talent pool—it’s the company’s inability to set realistic benchmarks.
3. No Respect for Time: Keeping students until 11:00 PM and then assigning a test for the next morning is a massive red flag for the work culture.

Final Advice: Your skills are worth more than this. Use this process for interview practice if you must, but don't expect them to value your time or your talent.

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Note: This post is AI-enhanced. I discussed every technical detail and the absolute disrespect of this 15-hour nightmare with an AI, and it perfectly captured the technical depth and the frustration I felt. This is my actual experience for anyone who still wants to try their luck with JTG.