Unthinkable Solution

Role: Junior Associate-IT

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: October 6, 2024

Interview Type: On-Campus, Full-Time

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 4 rounds

Topics Asked: Data Structures (Quick Sort, Linked List, Array, Queue, Stack, Palindrome, Missing Number, Square Root using Binary Search), Algorithms, Puzzles (Blood Relations, Calendar, Direction), Projects, OOPS concepts, Competitive Programming.

Experience:

The candidate interviewed for the Junior Associate-IT role through an on-campus drive. The process consisted of 4 rounds: one online coding round, two technical interviews, and one HR discussion.

Round 1 (Coding): This round had 3 questions to be solved in 1 hour. The questions were: "Count minimum reversal to make brackets balanced", "Count the MegaPrimes numbers between the given range", and "Find the duplicates in the string and print the words which consist of vowels in alphabetical order". The candidate solved 2 questions fully and noted a wrong test case for the 3rd. Out of 500 students, 27 were selected, and 30 were shortlisted for a second online coding test.

Round 2 (Technical Interview 1): This round lasted about 45 minutes and started with "INTRODUCE YOURSELF!". The interviewer gave instructions not to use any inbuilt functions and to explain before writing code. Coding problems included: "Find the missing number from the sorted array consisting of numbers from 1 to N" (the interviewer sought a more optimal solution than an iterative one, leading to the sum method N*(N+1)/2 - Sum of array elements), "What is a palindrome, give me some examples", and "Find square root of number upto given precision using binary search". The candidate provided 3 solutions for the palindrome problem.

Round 3 (Technical Interview 2): This round also started with "Tell me About Yourself". The candidate was asked to explain their recent project, which was based on Cloud Computing, impressing the interviewer. Three puzzles were given: one on Blood Relations (simple), a Calendar-based aptitude question ("if it's Friday on 26th March 2006 what's the day on 17th May 2008"), and a Direction-based puzzle (very simple). The candidate also mentioned their competitive programming achievements, leading to questions on sorting algorithms (Bubble, Selection, Insertion, Merge, Quick, Count, Heap, Radix Sort) and an implementation of Quick Sort, followed by questions from the written code.

Round 4 (HR Discussion): This round lasted about 15 minutes with simple questions. The candidate was informed of their selection verbally and expected a mail notification in 2-3 days.