Hbsc

Role: Software Engineer

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: 2025-03-25 (Hiring drive in December 2024 for 2025 batch)

Interview Type: On-Campus (Exclusively for female candidates)

Result: Rejected

Difficulty: Medium to Hard (especially technical interview)

Rounds: 4 rounds (Aptitude Test, Coding Assessment, Technical Interview, HR Interview)

Topics Asked: Aptitude (Ratio & Proportion, Speed & Distance, Percentages, Profit & Loss), Verbal (Error correction, Synonyms & Antonyms, Comprehension), Technical MCQs (DBMS, OS, Computer Networks, OOPs), Coding (easy and harder optimized problem), Full-stack application coding, SQL queries, Cybersecurity, Cybersecurity tools, Database security, Cybersecurity algorithms, Resume/Project-based questions.

Experience:

HSBC conducted an on-campus hiring drive in December 2024 for the 2025 batch, exclusively for female candidates across Maharashtra. The process began with a Pre-Placement Talk, followed by Technical and HR interviews.

Round 1 (Aptitude Test): This 75-minute test included 70 questions across three sections. Aptitude (20 questions) covered topics like Ratio & Proportion, Speed & Distance, Percentages, Profit & Loss (easy to medium difficulty). Verbal (20 questions) focused on error correction, synonyms & antonyms, and comprehension passages. Technical (30 questions) covered DBMS, Operating Systems, Computer Networks, Output-based programming questions, and OOPs concepts.

Round 2 (Coding Assessment): This 30-minute round consisted of two coding questions. The first was easy and solved quickly. The second was much harder, requiring an optimized approach, which the candidate attempted but couldn't fully solve within the time limit.

Technical Interview: The interview started directly with a request to write code for a full-stack application (frontend and backend). Following this, two SQL queries were asked. The interviewer then delved into multiple questions on cybersecurity, cybersecurity tools, database security, and algorithms used in cybersecurity. The candidate struggled with cybersecurity questions as it was not their domain, leading to a weaker performance despite answering to the best of their knowledge.

HR Interview: Not Specified (The candidate was likely rejected after the Technical Interview due to the cybersecurity questions).

Result: Rejected. The candidate felt the rejection was due to the unexpected and in-depth cybersecurity questions, which were outside their expertise.