Cognizant

Role: Not Specified (IT Branch)

College: KL University

Interview Date: 2025

Interview Type: On-Campus

Result: Not Specified

Difficulty: Medium (technical depth and coding ability, basic but tricky coding questions)

Rounds: 1 round (Final Assessment, combined Technical + HR)

Topics Asked: DSA, OOPs, DBMS, OS, Java, C++, APIs (REST API), Collections (HashMap, Set, List, Multithreading), String Manipulation, Map Operations, HR questions (Relocation, Shifts, Learning new languages)

Experience:

This interview experience for Cognizant (CTS) in 2025 was for an IT Branch student. The process included an 8-week training period followed by a final assessment.

Timeline: 8 weeks of training and classes covering DSA, OOPs, DBMS, OS, Java, and problem-solving were conducted before the final assessment.

Final Assessment (Interview): (Approximately 1 hour)

The interview was conducted by a panel of two interviewers (one virtual, one in-person) at KL University.

• Technical Questions:
  • Self-introduction.
  • Method Overloading vs. Overriding.
  • Exception Handling in Java (Difference between Checked vs. Unchecked exceptions, What is a Null Pointer Exception and how to handle it).
  • Difference between final, finally, finalize.
  • Explain FIFO principle.
  • Basics of Multithreading.
  • What is a HashMap and how it is implemented internally?
  • What is a Set and difference between List vs. Set.
  • Language Preference: C++ vs. Java – why choose C++?
  • Data types in C++.
  • Memory size of int in C++ and Java.
  • What is an API and its usage.
  • What is REST API.
• Coding Questions:
  • Reverse a String.
  • Merge Two Maps.
• HR Questions:
  • Which city do you belong to? Explain about your city.
  • Are you willing to relocate?
  • Are you comfortable with shifts?
  • If new programming languages emerge in the future, will you be able to learn them?

Overall Experience: The interview panel was friendly and tested both technical depth (OOPs, Java, C++ concepts, APIs, collections, multithreading) and coding ability (basic but tricky). HR questions mainly checked for flexibility and adaptability. The process tested concept clarity, problem-solving, and communication, resulting in a good learning experience.

Tips for Juniors: Revise OOPs, Exception Handling, Collections, APIs, and DSA basics. Be confident in whichever language is chosen (C++ or Java) and practice simple coding problems like string manipulation and map operations.