Citi

I applied for the Software Engineer Intern role at Citi through the off-campus process. After submitting my application, I received an online assessment invitation. The OA had a mix of coding and technical questions, with the coding section mainly testing DSA and problem-solving ability. The questions were manageable but required careful implementation under time pressure. After completing the assessment, I was shortlisted for the interview stage. The technical interview was around 45–60 minutes and started with a brief introduction and discussion about my resume. The interviewer then moved towards DSA. The first problem involved an array-based approach where I had to explain the brute-force solution first and then optimize it. The interviewer asked about time and space complexity and also changed a few conditions to see how the solution would behave in different cases. I was able to work through the problem and explain the optimization. The next question was based on a data-structure concept and required me to think about edge cases before writing the implementation. I explained my approach, discussed the complexity, and then coded the solution. There were a couple of follow-up questions around improving the implementation and handling boundary cases. Apart from DSA, there was some discussion around SQL and core CS concepts. I was asked a few SQL-related questions involving queries and basic database concepts. There were also questions from areas such as OOP and operating-system fundamentals. The interviewer additionally went through some of the projects mentioned on my resume and asked why I had chosen particular technologies and how certain parts of the system worked. The interview was fairly interactive rather than being a simple question-and-answer session. The interviewer kept asking follow-ups based on my answers, so I had to explain my reasoning instead of just giving the final solution. After the interview, I was expecting an update regarding the final outcome. However, I still haven't received any confirmation from Citi. There has been no rejection or selection communication so far, so the current status remains awaiting result. Overall, the interview covered a combination of DSA, SQL, core CS fundamentals, and project discussion. The biggest focus was on problem-solving and explaining the reasoning behind each approach rather than simply producing code.