Ciena

Role: Intern (6 Months)

College: Not Specified (On-Campus Placement)

Interview Date: November 2024

Interview Type: On-Campus/Internship

Result: Rejected

Difficulty: Not Specified (Implied Medium/Hard due to specific C questions)

Rounds: 2 Interview Rounds (after Online Assessment)

Topics Asked: C language (pointers, references, pointer arithmetic, function pointers, syntax), Binary representation (palindrome), Aptitude, Puzzles, Mutex, Static variables, Volatile keyword, Compiler design, 8086 processor, Deadlock, Struct vs Union, String manipulation, Projects

Experience:

Ciena visited the candidate's college in November 2024 for campus placements for a 6-month internship (Jan to June 2025).

First Round: Online Assessment: This round had 3 sections.

• Coding Round (25 Minutes): One question was asked: "Check if a number's binary representation is palindrome or not." The crucial detail was that this question *only* had the C language option.
• Programming Languages Round (30 Minutes): This was an MCQ round with many syntax-based questions. A lot of confusing pointer-based questions were asked, including references, pointer arithmetic, and function pointers, focusing deeply on C language pointer syntax.
• Aptitude Round: Consisted of 5 basic aptitude questions.

20 out of 35 students were shortlisted for the next round.

Interview Round 1: Questions included: How to avoid deadlock (4 conditions), Difference between struct and union, coding "Reverse the words in a sentence" on paper, explaining one project in detail, and some "super hard pointer related questions."

Interview Round 2: Questions involved a puzzle: "If there are 4 jars with infinite 10g balls and 1 jar with infinite 9g balls. If we can only weigh once how would we detect the defective jar." Other questions covered Mutex (why use them), Static variables, Volatile keyword (why use it, how compiler optimizes without it), discussion on compiler design, and assembly code (candidate discussed 8086 processor).

The candidate felt they got stuck many times and confidently gave wrong answers to some pointer questions in the first interview. They thought the second interview went much better. Ultimately, 10 out of 20 shortlisted candidates were selected, and the candidate was rejected. The overall experience was described as good, with polite and friendly interviewers.