Hello Everyone,
I will be sharing with you all the entire experience about my summer internship selection as a Technology Intern at American Express. I had one Online Assessment followed by two Rounds of interviews out of which one was the HR round and the other was technical.
Round 1: Coding test
Duration: 1 hr 30mins
The Coding round was taken on the Codility platform and consisted of 3 Coding Questions and only some test cases were visible remaining were hidden test cases.
One problem was from strings, one from dynamic programming, and the third one was an easy problem.
- Given a string S of length N, the task is to find the length of the longest substring of S where each element occurs even a number of times,https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/length-of-the-longest-substring-with-every-character-appearing-even-number-of-times/amp/.
- You are given a two-dimensional list of integers boards representing a chessboard. Return the maximum sum you can attain by placing two rooks on the board such that they can’t attack each other. The sum is made by adding the two numbers where the rooks are placed. (two rooks attack each other when they are placed in the same row or same column)
- Given a list of numbers, in which some of the numbers are missing and the average is given find the missing numbers.
- I was able to do all three not exactly in a very optimized way but my output was correct for the visible test cases but in the Amex Test, they do not show all the test cases and have hidden test cases.
After a week, they sent results of coding round 15 students were shortlisted for an interview out of which i was the only Ece student, remaining were cs. The next day morning interview was scheduled we had 2 rounds which was on Webex App.
Round 2: Hr round
Time: 40 mins
The interviewer started off with her introduction and asked me to introduce myself. She asked me are you feeling nervous, I was like yes, little bit then she was making me feel comfortable, the interview started she asked me managerial kind questions
- She asked to explain about a project which I had done with the team and asked me what was my contribution?
- She gave me a scenario like I was team leader of 6 members, now one of the clients asked for functionality for their product and the deadline was only one month which is impossible to complete within the deadline, tell me what steps you will take in this situation?
- Have you ever got stuck in your project, How did you handle that situation did you give up or found the solution?
- Do you like working individually or in a team, explain why?
- Are you willing to do Masters’s?
- Due to covid situation, you don’t have college what do u feel about this, tell me your experience during covid.
- Why AMEX?
- Some more general questions, At last, she asked me how did u feel about the interview and any questions from my side, I was like yes and asked her what is her role, what are the tools and technologies used in AMEX(always ask the interviewer questions which creates positive opinion on you).
After 15 mins the next round link was sent
Round 3: Technical round
Time:1 hr
The interviewer started off with his introduction and asked me to introduce myself
- He asked to explain about the project which I had mentioned in my introduction, Later he asked me project-related questions.
- Explain OAuth implementation which I had done in my project.
- He asked me what is normalization and its types, he asked me questions related to tables using mysql(which was easy) and some of the basic questions of core cs subjects.
- Later he shifted to puzzles almost 5 puzzles were asked
- 3 Bulbs and 3 Switches: There is a room with a door (closed) and three light bulbs. Outside the room, there are three switches, connected to the bulbs. You may manipulate the switches as you wish, but once you open the door you can’t change them. Identify each switch with its bulb. All bulbs are in working condition https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/puzzle-7-3-bulbs-and-3-switches/amp/.
- The programmer has the capability of thinking 100 lines of code in five minutes and can type 100 lines of code in 10 minutes. He takes a break for five minutes after every ten minutes. How many lines of code will he complete typing after an hour? https://www.toppr.com/ask/question/a-software-engineer-has-the-capability-of-thinking-100-lines-of-code-in-five-minutes/.
- A monkey started climbing 20 ft tree each hour it climb 3 ft and slipes back by 2 ft so how much time she takes to reach the top? https://www.quora.com/A-monkey-started-climbing-20-ft-tree-each-hour-she-climb-3-ft-and-slipes-back-by-2-ft-so-how-much-time-she-takes-to-reach-the-top.
- A boy gets ₹250 from his parents every week for his expenses. He puts ₹5 in his piggy bank every day except Sunday when he puts ₹10 in the piggy bank. He eats subsidized lunch in the college canteen for ₹ 10 on all college days except Saturday when he treats himself to the special lunch for ₹25. Bus fare to college is ₹4 each way. He has got a holiday on Sunday. This week, He wants to buy a book which costs ₹100. For this, he was walking to and from the college. He is left with ₹3 after buying the book. Assuming no other expenses, how many times did he walk this week?
He asked any more questions from my side, I told yes and asked some of the questions related to the company.
The interview was done. Results were out on the same day night around 10.
Results: Selected.
Tips:
- Coding plays a major role, Practice each day and make sure you are solving at least 3 to 4 problems daily in Leetcode.
- Make your data structures skills very strong and prepare for puzzles also.
- Prepare for core subjects DBMS, OOPS, OS and Networking very well.
- Make good projects which have real-life applications.
- Be prepared with all subjects and projects mentioned in your resume.
- Always be interactive in the interview which gives a positive opinion about you.
- Be confident this is most important in an interview, even if u don’t know the answer be confident.
- Work hard and maintain consistency in your preparation.
All the best!!