Interview Experiences & Recruitment Stories

I appeared for TCS campus recruitment drive in my final year at VIT Vellore. The process started with an online aptitude test on the TCS iON platform, which had sections on quantitative ability, logical reasoning, verbal ability, and a basic coding section. I had practised on InPrep and the TCS NQT mock tests for about three weeks before the drive, and that helped a lot. The quantitative section was moderate with questions on percentages, time-speed-distance, and probability. The coding section had two questions: one was a simple string manipulation problem and the other was about array operations. I managed to solve both within the time limit. After clearing the aptitude, I was called for the technical interview the next week. The interviewer was friendly and started by asking me to explain my final year project, which was a Python-based inventory management system. He then asked me about OOP concepts, SQL queries, and basic data structures. He gave me a coding question on paper about reversing a linked list, which I was able to solve. The HR round was straightforward with questions about my willingness to relocate and my long-term career goals. The entire experience felt structured and fair. I received my offer letter within two weeks.

I applied through the Infosys off-campus hiring portal after completing my B.Tech in Computer Science from Pune University. The first step was the InfyTQ online test which consisted of logical reasoning, quantitative aptitude, and verbal ability sections. What really surprised me was the difficulty of the coding section. There were three coding problems and you needed to solve at least two to clear the cut-off. The first problem was about finding the second largest element in an array, the second was a pattern printing question, and the third involved dynamic programming which I could only partially solve. I cleared the online round and was invited to their Pune development centre for the interview rounds. The technical interview lasted about 45 minutes. The interviewer asked me to write code for a binary search implementation on a whiteboard, then moved on to questions about DBMS normalization, Java exception handling, and OS concepts like deadlocks and process scheduling. I felt confident because I had revised my core subjects thoroughly. The HR round was very relaxed and they mostly asked about my hobbies, my family background, and whether I was okay with a bond period. I got the confirmation email after about ten days and I was thrilled because this was my first off-campus selection.

I applied to Flipkart through a referral from a college senior who was already working there as an SDE-2. The process was intense and definitely one of the hardest interview experiences I have been through. It started with an online coding round on HackerRank with three problems to solve in 90 minutes. The first was a medium-level graph problem involving BFS, the second was a tricky dynamic programming problem on subsequences, and the third was a hard problem on segment trees. I managed to solve two completely and got partial marks on the third. The next round was machine coding where I had to design and implement a parking lot system in 90 minutes using object-oriented principles. I think I did okay here but my code had a few edge case bugs. The first DSA round went well. The interviewer asked me two problems: one on binary trees involving level-order traversal with a twist, and another on two-pointer technique with sorted arrays. I solved both with optimal solutions. However, the second DSA round is where things fell apart. The interviewer asked me a very complex problem involving a combination of trie and dynamic programming. I struggled to come up with an approach and could only write a brute force solution. The interviewer was patient but I could tell it was not enough. I received the rejection email after a week. Looking back, I needed more practice on advanced topics like segment trees, tries, and complex DP. I plan to reapply after six months with better preparation.

Getting an internship at Google was honestly a dream come true for me. I am currently a third-year student at IIT Hyderabad studying Computer Science. I applied through the Google careers portal specifically for the STEP internship and later got upgraded to SWE Intern. The recruiter reached out after about three weeks and scheduled a phone screen. The phone screen was a 45-minute coding round on Google Meet where I had to share my screen and code in a Google Doc. The problem was about finding the longest substring without repeating characters, which I recognized as a sliding window problem. I explained my approach clearly and coded a clean solution with proper edge case handling. The recruiter was impressed and scheduled two onsite virtual rounds the following week. The first onsite round had a graph problem about finding the shortest path in a weighted grid with obstacles. I used a modified Dijkstra approach and the interviewer seemed satisfied. We also discussed the time and space complexity in detail. The second round was more design-oriented for an intern level. They asked me how I would design a URL shortener service. I talked about hashing, database schema, handling collisions, and scaling considerations. The interviewer pushed me on how to handle concurrent requests and I suggested using distributed locks. I received the offer about two weeks later. My biggest tip is to practice thinking out loud and always discuss your approach before coding. Google interviewers really value clear communication and structured thinking.

After completing my MBA in Finance from Symbiosis Pune, I applied for the Relationship Manager role at HDFC Bank through their campus placement cell. The first round was a written test covering general aptitude, banking awareness, and English comprehension. I had been reading The Hindu and following RBI circulars regularly, which helped a lot in the banking awareness section. Around 60 out of 200 students cleared this round. The group discussion was the most nerve-wracking part for me. Our topic was "Digital Banking vs Traditional Banking: Which will dominate India's future?" There were 10 people in my group and only 4 would be selected. I made sure to initiate the discussion early, made three strong points backed by real examples like UPI transaction statistics and Jan Dhan Yojana data, and also summarized the discussion at the end. The moderator seemed to take positive notes about my contribution. In the personal interview, the panel had two senior managers. They asked me about my MBA specialization, why banking as a career, a situation where I handled conflict, and my understanding of HDFC Bank's product portfolio. I had researched their retail products, home loans, and credit card offerings thoroughly. They also asked me a mental math question about calculating EMI which I answered approximately but correctly. The entire process was completed in one day and results were declared the next morning. I was one of 15 selected from the batch. My advice to anyone targeting banking roles is to stay updated on financial news and practice group discussions regularly with your peers.

I graduated from MICA Ahmedabad with a specialization in strategic marketing and applied to Zomato's Marketing Associate role through LinkedIn. The initial online assessment had questions on marketing fundamentals, analytical reasoning, and a short essay on "How would you increase Zomato's market share in Tier-2 cities?" I felt I did well on this. The case study round was where things got really challenging. They gave us a real business scenario where Zomato was launching a new subscription tier for restaurants and we had to create a complete go-to-market strategy in 60 minutes. We had to present our strategy to a panel of three marketing leaders. I prepared a decent plan covering market segmentation, pricing strategy, digital campaign ideas, and influencer marketing. However, the panel grilled me on customer acquisition cost calculations and unit economics, which I had not prepared deeply enough. They wanted specific numbers and projections, not just conceptual frameworks. One panelist asked me to calculate the break-even point for the subscription assuming certain metrics, and I fumbled through the mental math. The cultural fit round with the HR manager went smoothly though. We talked about Zomato's brand values, my internship experience at a digital agency, and how I handle fast-paced environments. Despite feeling positive about two of the three rounds, I got a rejection email after a week. The feedback mentioned I needed stronger analytical and quantitative marketing skills. It was disappointing but taught me that modern marketing roles require much more data fluency than I initially expected. I have since been taking courses on marketing analytics and SQL.

I had been working at a mid-sized startup for three years when I decided to try for Amazon SDE-2. I got a referral from a friend and the recruiter scheduled my online assessment within a week. The OA had two coding problems and a work simulation section about Amazon's leadership principles. The coding problems were on graph traversal and dynamic programming. After clearing the OA, I had a phone screen where the interviewer asked me an interesting problem about designing a cache with LRU eviction policy. I implemented it using a doubly linked list and hashmap. The onsite loop had three rounds. The first was a pure DSA round where I solved a problem about finding the median of two sorted arrays in logarithmic time. The interviewer was very particular about edge cases and made me trace through several examples. The system design round was the most challenging and also the most enjoyable. I was asked to design a notification system like Amazon's that handles millions of notifications per day. I discussed the architecture using message queues like SQS, a fanout service, push notification services for mobile, email integration with SES, and how to handle user preferences and throttling. The interviewer kept pushing me on how to handle failures and ensure exactly-once delivery, which led to a great discussion about idempotency and dead letter queues. The Bar Raiser round combined a coding problem with behavioral questions heavily focused on Amazon's leadership principles. They asked me to describe a time when I disagreed with my manager (Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit) and a time when I simplified a complex process (Invent and Simplify). The coding problem was about designing a rate limiter which I solved using a sliding window approach. I received the offer after about ten days and the entire process, while exhausting, was one of the best technical interviews I have experienced. Preparation for leadership principles is just as important as DSA for Amazon.

I applied for Wipro's WILP (Work Integrated Learning Programme) which is a great opportunity for freshers who want to work and study simultaneously. I was in my final year of B.Tech at Amity University Noida when I registered on Wipro's National Talent Hunt portal. The process was simpler compared to other IT companies. The first round was an online aptitude test that covered logical reasoning, quantitative aptitude, and English. The questions were straightforward and if you have done any standard aptitude preparation from books like RS Aggarwal, you should be able to clear it comfortably. I had also practised on PrepInsta which had very similar questions to what appeared in the actual test. The second round was a technical MCQ test covering basics of C programming, data structures, DBMS, and networking. It was multiple choice so there was no coding involved. The questions were from fundamental concepts and nothing too advanced. For example, they asked about the output of simple C programs, basic SQL queries, and networking protocols. After clearing both online rounds, I had a combined technical and HR interview over video call. The interviewer asked me about my projects, basic Java concepts, what I know about Wipro as a company, and why I chose the WILP programme. I mentioned that I wanted hands-on industry experience while continuing my education and that Wipro's reputation for training freshers well attracted me. The entire conversation lasted about 20 minutes. The results came within a week and I was selected. The WILP programme has been a wonderful experience so far as I get to work on real projects while completing my degree part-time. For anyone who is a fresher and feels intimidated by the heavy DSA rounds of product companies, service companies like Wipro offer a great starting point to build your career in tech.