How To Face An Interview

 Throughout the engineering span , e all are always keen to know what exactly is asked in the interviews. How
many rounds take place? What is the quality and difficulty of the questions?

Well here is the answer to all of those, some personal experiences shared by
the students of Pune Institute of Computer Technology. Everything explained in
detail about 3 MNC Microsoft, Morgan Stanley and AirTight Networks.

How To Face Interview

 

Microsoft

Job Profile: Software Developer
Placement Process:

Test–> Technical Interview–> Technical
Interview–> Technical Interview

Round 1 – TEST

Experience:
It was an online test. The company who hosted the test messed up with the
interface, and a lot of people had trouble with a coding question that could
not be solved because of the faulty interface. There was no retest.

Round 2 – TECHNICAL INTERVIEW

Experience:
QUE 1: Given a compact data structure to store strings sequentially, one byte
stores length l of the string, next l bytes contain the string characters.
Write a code to insert the given string at the ith place, making sure the DS is
still compact. Write tests to verify the correctness.

QUE 2: How will you construct parse tree for ((a+b)*c)/d? What all data
structures can you use?

Round 3 – TECHNICAL INTERVIEW

Experience:
QUE 1: Given a function f that returns true or false based on whether the input
string satisfies some hidden criterion C, write a function that verifies that
all sub strings satisfy C.

QUE 2: You hand over ‘n’ identical linked lists to n salespersons. After the
day’s work, these salesperson return the lists. Merge these lists such that all
insertions, deletions, updates are taken care of, so that you can repeat this
process for the next day.

Round 4 – TECHNICAL INTERVIEW

Experience:
Told about myself, my interests, my internship projects and my work so far.
A few coding questions were asked too.
In the end, they asked if i have any questions.

Tips:

• Start preparing early.
• Develop priorities both sector wise and company wise.
• Take sufficient water and food with you. Interviews can start at 8 am on the
  first day!
• Have enough copies of resume and transcripts with you.
• If you have been shortlisted for many companies, it is preferable to have a
  portfolio manager who manages your phone during the day and enables you to
  focus on the interviews.

Morgan Stanley

Job Profile: Software Engineer

One Line Advice: No coding knowledge expected! But get your math well!

Placement Process:

Resume Shortlist–> Test–> HR Interview–> Technical Interview–>
Group Activity

Round 1 – RESUME SHORTLIST

Experience:
Started out with learning to identify and portray the focal points in a resume
companies are looking for. Then went on to list my achievements (big and small)
over the years, and the qualities they reflect about me (the hardest part!!). I
then selected the 4 I wanted to put forward, and wrote my resume accordingly.

Round 2 – TEST

Experience:
Written Technical test; 30 out of ~ 200 short-listed; 2 Rounds (1 Tech + 1
(Tech + HR); 15 out of 30 short-listed & 2 rounds (1 Tech + 1 Group
Activity); 5/6 out of 15 selected. Test was pure coding syntax. Do not come
just prepared with just algorithms! Work in one language and master the syntax.
The first tech round was some basic programming problems – Eliminating the
originating node in a very large circular linked list in the least
computational time. Sorting algorithms – Some basic Inheritance.

Round 3 – HR INTERVIEW

Experience:
The second round was an HR round supposedly. We discussed my work in the
startup I was in, and then went on to the system design for the same. Later, He
tried to put me off-track with a simple guesstimate (no of petrol pumps in
Bombay), and ended with a simpler puzzle (Rectangular plate with an arbitrary
rectangular hole to be divided into 2 equal halves).

Round 4 – TECHNICAL INTERVIEW

Experience:
The third round was more technical with some more basic algorithm problems
& – Traversing a 2 – dimensional array in a spiral fashion – Syntax of
commands in C (the language I had chosen for the test, others were Java and
C++) – OOPS concepts.

Round 5 – GROUP ACTIVITY

Experiences:

The fourth round was a group activity where a team had to build a model
building with straws, come up with a marketing campaign for the same, and make
a presentation of the same at the end of the day.

How to face an interview:
Prepare your programming language syntax well. That is where most people lose
out in the written tests.- The people here are not looking for very high tech
stuff, just some basic programming skills and very basic algorithms, so go
through concepts like the unique features of OOPS, differences between Java and
C++ etc. Read through basic algorithms they like to refer algorithms by their
names. – Do not show in the interview that you are looking for working on
cutting edge stuff etc. This goes for all I-Banking IT. Focus more on brand
name etc., and possible client and business Interaction (seems they love it!)

You can also visit Complete Interview Guide For Accenture

Airtight Networks

Job Profile: Java Developer

One Line Advice: Be the best at what interests you !

Placement Process:
Technical Interview–> Technical Interview–> HR Interview

Round 1 – Technical Interview

Question 1: Core Java Interview Questions (Google it & You will Get
thousands)
Question 2: Logic based questions for example calculation of offset in
Pagination scenarios.

Experience: This round was basic elimination of people weak in their java
basics and logic.

Round 2 – Technical Interview

Que 1: OS basics and application based questions
Que 2: Networking fundamentals
Que 3: Programming Logic Based questions
Que 4: Data structure and algorithms

Experience: Saying you’re favorite subject/what you’re good at means you
have to be best at it.

Round 3 – HR Interview

Que: Questions may be many but they all want the same thing from you !

Experience: Most importantly you need to be sure what you have, what you
want and what you think this position can give you.

How to face interview:
Work smart not hard and you will find a way which isn’t as long as it seemed
to be !
Keep your basics in place and logic intact.
Be clear in your thought process and confident in your approach.