Sapient

Role: Trainee Engineer / SDE

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: August 2021

Interview Type: On-Campus

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 3 rounds

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms (Zig Zag sort), Projects, Multithreading, OS, Computer Networks, OOPs in C++ (virtual functions, overloading, overriding, inheritance, real-life implementation), Soft skills, teamwork, workload management

Experience:

Publicis Sapient conducted an on-campus drive for the Trainee Engineer/SDE role in August 2021, consisting of three rounds.

Round 1: Coding Round

This round was hosted on HackerRank after a pre-placement talk. It had two coding questions of medium difficulty, to be solved in 90 minutes. One specific question mentioned was "Given an array of numbers, sort them in zig zag order."

Round 2: Technical Round

This round started with a self-introduction. The interviewer then asked about the candidate's projects and areas of interest in development. This was followed by questions on Multithreading, Operating Systems, and Computer Networks. Subsequently, almost every concept of OOPs in C++ was discussed (as the candidate preferred C++), including virtual functions, overloading, overriding, and inheritance. Real-life situations were given, and the candidate had to implement them in code using classes and objects. The interviewer also assessed coding style, indentation, variable declaration, and comments.

Round 3: HR Round

On the same day, the candidate received an email for the HR round. The candidate introduced themselves and their programming interests. The interviewer asked about internships, problems faced, difficult situations, challenging tasks, and how they were resolved. This round primarily focused on checking soft skills, teamwork abilities, and how the candidate deals with workload and rapidly changing technologies.