Accolite Interview Experience (On-Campus)

Round 1(Written Test – August 23, 2021): The first round was conducted on a platform named Edu thrill. 

• The test was for 30 minutes and consisted of 30 multiple-choice questions. 
• These 30 MCQs covered almost all the CS-related topics as well as aptitude questions. 
• Majority of the questions were on DSA though.
• Around 152 students were shortlisted after this round.

Round 2(Coding Round – August 23, 2021): There was one coding question and we had around 60 minutes to solve it. It was conducted on Codelyzer which is Accolite’s coding platform.  

• This was the coding question: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/count-minimum-steps-get-given-desired-array/
• We were also supposed to write our own unit test cases too. However, this wasn’t compulsory.
• 47 students were shortlisted for interviews.  

Technical Round 1(Duration: 1hr 15 min – August 24, 2021): My interview was scheduled at  9:00 AM. The interviewer introduced himself. Then, he asked me to introduce myself. Later, he started the coding round. He shared a google jam board with me and explained the question. In total he asked me 3 questions.

• Top View of binary tree: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/print-nodes-top-view-binary-tree/. I explained my approach and then he asked me to code it in a notepad. After that, he went through my code and he seemed satisfied with it.  
• Clone a linked list with next and random pointer: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/a-linked-list-with-next-and-arbit-pointer/
• I explained the approach as to how the links between the nodes can be modified by drawing and showing everything on the white board. Firstly, I said I will modify the next pointers then the random pointers and I will individually separate the lists. He seemed pretty satisfied with the approach and he asked me to code it. I wrote the entire code and dry ran it so that the interviewer clearly understands my approach. I also wrote comments in my code and gave meaningful variable names too.
• Given an array arr, find the maximum j-i such that arr[j]>arr[i]: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/given-an-array-arr-find-the-maximum-j-i-such-that-arrj-arri/
• This was a question I never solved before. I felt that two pointer technique can be used to solve this question. I asked the interviewer if I was thinking in the right direction. He said yes, and then we had quite a lot of discussion on the approach. In the end, I finally came up with the solution but he didn’t ask me to code it as time was already up. He asked if I had any questions for him. I asked him about his experiences and various learning opportunities in Accolite.  

Technical Round 2(Duration: 1hr – August 24, 2021): After round 1, in the next 30 minutes itself, I received a call saying that I was selected for round 2 of the interview. 

• Initially, the interviewer asked me to introduce myself. Then, he asked me to explain about my projects. I spoke about my full stack web development project and I explained all the functionalities. I also spoke about the tech stack of the project. 
• He asked me what concepts of Reactjs I used in my project. I spoke about class and functional components in reactjs, Hooks in reactjs, axios and I also highlighted the main reason as to why I chose reactjs. Then, he asked how I ensure security of data in my project. 
• He asked how I can validate and differentiate between various users(basically he was talking about role based access). I told him that based on the person who logs in, the page will be displayed on the screen. I also told him that I used the concept of local storage in javascript to do so. I said that this was the kind of check I kept so that users with only the right privileges can access the website. I told him that I only implemented a login check and I assured him that I will try to implement role based access too in my project later on. The next few questions were on how I can keep the sensitive information secure in my website. I told him that using https is secure. He asked me if I was aware of SSL. I told him that I was not aware of it. Then, I told him about triggers that I used in my project.  
• Later, he started concentrating on the back end part of my  web application. He asked me to write 2 queries. One was on natural join and the other query required me to use GROUP BY clause. Both of these were specific to my project. He also asked me how I implemented a chat bot in my project. I told him that I used Google’s Dialog flow to develop it. Then, he asked me what a relational database is and what are some important concepts of relational databases. He asked me to explain about normalization and all its forms. He asked me to explain many to many relationship in detail and how referential integrity is maintained in the database. He also asked if the database itself can figure out and maintain referential integrity or do we have to do it explicitly. I told him that we need to write “On delete cascade” or “On update cascade” explicitly. If we do not write this in the query, then the database throws errors. He seemed to be satisfied with my answers.
• Then, he asked me if I knew that access via primary key is extremely fast in databases. He asked me if I knew the reason. I told him indexing in databases. I also told him that as the primary key is sorted as well as unique, I can retrieve or search any record by binary search i.e. in O(logN) time. Then, he said, sometimes, we might not be aware of the primary key. In that case, we need to search for records using some other keys that have even duplicates. Then, I explained about clustered and secondary indexing. He then asked me the trade off of indexing. I told him that it leads to usage of extra space, as now, we need to store the index table too along with the database tables. He said space is not a concern and asked me about performance like insertion and deletion. I immediately told him that insertion, deletion and updation takes more time because for every modification in the database, the index too has to be updated.  
• Then, he asked me which programming languages I knew. I told him C++ and Python. He asked me what are the main differences between the 2 languages. He also asked me to explain about friend functions and virtual functions in C++. He asked me questions on multiple inheritance and how they are implemented in both the languages.  
• After this rigorous round, he asked me if I had any questions for him. I asked him about various learning opportunities, certifications and work life balance at Accolite.

HR Round(Duration – 15 min: August 24, 2021):

• Introduce yourself.
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• Have you ever worked in a team before?  
• Have you faced challenges while working in a team? How did you resolve them?
• If you are the team lead, and if there is lack of coordination between team members, how will you deal with this situation?
• If you are asked to relocate, how will you adapt to the culture there?
• Do you have any questions for me?

Verdict: Selected

Overall, it was a really great experience. I felt I got a perfect opportunity to prove myself as I  was tested in every aspect.