Cognizant GenC-Next Interview Experience Digital Nurture 2022

I am 3rd year CS Undergrad. It was an on-campus opportunity, the entire process was smooth but very long as it takes around 3-4 months including interviews being scheduled after the course. 

The first notification for Cognizant Digital Nurture 2.0 was between Jan 2022 and Feb 2022, when we created our profile in Superset and submitted our resumes for any of the two options (options below), thereafter we were notified that few of us were got shortlisted for the qualifier test. 

• Stream 1: Digital Nurture 2.0 – Dotnet
• Stream 2: Digital Nurture 2.0 – Java

I chose option 2, so my experience is based on Java Stream.

Qualifier Test: Level: Medium; Duration: 120 Min; Platform: Mettl

1. Coding (3 questions based on arrays, strings, etc)
2. MySQL (write command to get the desired result out of the table), 
3. UI (based on the development of some web features) and 
4. Advance UI (MCQs with multiple correct answers)

This took place in the third week of Mar 2022 and we got notified in a few days that few of us are qualified for the Digital Nurture 2.0: Deep Skilling Program. 

The course started in the very first week of April 2022, and we were asked to complete the entire course within 2.5 months, the prerequisite for the course was Java-Intermediate.

The course includes:

1. Spring Core, Maven
2. Unit Testing, Code Quality
3. Spring MVC and Spring Boot
4. Cloud Basics

We were monitored throughout the learning process, and once the course gets completed, we have to complete compulsory rated assignments, which include hands-on assignments based on the above course topics given by Cognizant itself, and we have to complete them to get eligible for the interview.

So after the deadline of the course, those who completed the entire course with all the compulsory hands-on assignments are notified that they are eligible for the interview and it’s being scheduled in a few days.

Round 1 (Technical Round-45 mins-Platform Superset): The interviewer was very calm and composed. The following question was asked by the interviewer:

1. My introduction
2. My projects
3. OOPs concept
4. Asked for the topic from the Deep Skill course where I’m confident (as I completed the entire course, so I was confident enough for any topic he may ask)- So I told him that I have completed the entire course, he can ask anything from that.
5. Spring Framework
6. Case study: he provided me with a case based on software development and gave me 2 min (though I took less than 1 min to discuss my though for the case) and discussed it with him
7. AOP
8. Dependency Injection
9. IOC
10. Hibernate
11. ACID Property
12. Memory management
13. Garbage Collection
14. Hashmap v/s Hashset v/s Treeset
15. Collections
16. MySQL
17. Heap
18. Threading
19. Spring Boot
20. Annotation-based Dependency Injection
21. Annotations: Component, Autowired, etc
22. From the above case study, he provided me with some data to create a table and asked me to retrieve particular data from the two tables. So I created two tables, inserted a few data, and then used INNER JOIN to get the expected result.
23. And a few more technical questions

By that moment, i.e., by point 21, the time limit had already been exceeded, yet we continued, he asked me if any questions I have, I asked one, and based on his experience, he described himself and his journey with the organization and the work culture.
The interview gets concluded in 60 mins+, and I found the interviewer was quite satisfied with my interview.

VERDICT: Selected for HR Round

Round 2 (HR Round-45 mins-Platform Superset): The following questions was asked by the interviewer:

1. Introduction
2. Flexibility
3. Location 
4. How will you convince the client if something is not done by your team and you want the client to extend the deadline?
5. If you have given enough of your time to learn and work on something, and ultimately you got a mail that you are switched from this project to another and you have to learn a completely new thing. How will you react to this?
6. And a few more behavioural questions

He asked me whether I have any question for him, I asked one, and the interview concluded.

VERDICT: YET TO GET THE RESULT 

Conclusion: Be confident enough, have a good grasp of the course provided by Cognizant (for Digital Nurture candidates), be honest about whatever you know and do ask a question at the end because it shows you are enthusiastic and want to work in the company.