Optum

Role: Software Development Engineer (SDE) - Technology Development Program (TDP)

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: 2023

Interview Type: On-Campus, Full-Time

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 3 rounds

Topics Asked: Data Structures (Graphs), Algorithms, Cognitive Ability, Analytics, CS Fundamentals (OOPs, OS, CN, DBMS), HR Questions, Projects, SQL, LeetCode "Two Sum"

Experience:

Optum (United Health Group) conducted an on-campus drive for the Software Development Engineer (SDE) role for full-time positions in Gurgaon and Hyderabad. The recruitment process had three rounds: an online test and two interview rounds.

Round 1: Online Test
This round was conducted on the Mettl.com platform and lasted 90 minutes. It included:

• 1 coding question on graphs.
• 17 questions on cognitive ability.
• 8 questions on cognitive analytics.
• 25 questions on technology concepts (CS Fundamentals like OOPs, OS, CN, DBMS).

41 students were shortlisted for the interview process on the same day.

Round 2: HR Round
This was a straightforward and friendly HR round, lasting approximately 15-20 minutes. Questions aimed at understanding the candidate's personality and fit. Some questions included:

• What do you know about the company? Did you attend the Pre-Placement Talk?
• What challenges did you face while working on team projects, and how did you overcome them?
• What is your location preference?
• How would you explain your work to someone new to technology? Provide an example.
• When did you make the toughest decision of your life?

All students from the HR round were shortlisted for the technical round.

Round 3: Technical Round
The technical interview began with a self-introduction and a discussion about projects. The interviewer then asked basic questions on Database Management System (DBMS), such as:

• What is Normalization, and why do we use it?
• What type of database is MySQL? (referring to a project using MySQL)
• Type of relationships in database tables?

The interviewer then asked if the candidate was comfortable writing SQL queries. A coding question was posed: LeetCode's "Two Sum" problem (https://leetcode.com/problems/two-sum/description/). Both brute force and optimized methods were discussed, and the candidate was asked to write the optimized solution. The interviewer was satisfied. The interview lasted approximately 45-50 minutes.

The next day, 14 students received offers, and the candidate was one of them.