Cognizant Off Campus Interview Experience

Hello,

I am a Electronics & Communication Engineering student of 2019 batch and I attended the Cognizant recruitment drive (Off-campus) interview round on 15th June 2019. From our year there had been a small change in the exam pattern for Cognizant.

The recruitment consists of 3 steps:-

1. Online Aptitude Test.
2. Technical Interview.
3. HR Interview.

———  Remember all of the above rounds are eliminating rounds ————-

For Example: You have to secure the cutoff marks in the Aptitude test to qualify for the Technical Interview.

1. Aptitude Test.

This test is taken by Aspiring Minds (commonly known as AMCAT). This test is taken online. All will be MCQ type and **there will be NO NEGATIVE MARKINGS**.

This test will contain 4 sections namely-> Verbal Ability Test ; Quants; Logical Ability; Automata Fixing.

Okay, Let me Explain this-

Verbal Ability:- This part contains mainly English Grammar and Comprehensions. Just go through any basic English grammar books and follow IndiaBix website verbal section and the previous AMCAT papers verbal questions to score good and clear the cutoff of verbal section.

This section will contain questions from Prepositions; Articles; Synonyms; Antonyms Idioms; Phrases; Jumbled Sentences; etc. Regarding Comprehension, see there will be 3-4 paragraphs based on which 4-5 questions will be asked. Total questions will be 22 and time will be 18 minutes.

Quantitative Aptitude :- This part will be the most time consuming section according to me.  For preparation go through INDIABIX, AMCAT previous year papers and RS Agarwal Quantitative Aptitude Book.

This section mainly contains Profit & Loss; Percentage; Pipes & Cistern; Work & Time; Boats & Streams; Basic Algebra; Basic Trigonometry; Mensuration; and few others. This section will contain 16 questions and time duration is 16 minutes.

Logical Ability:- This part will contain various types of questions like Puzzles; Jumbled words; Series; Comparison; Analogy; Blood Relationship; etc. This will be a little tough section if you have not practiced enough.

Again refer INDIABIX for this section also and RS Agarwal verbal and non-verbal reasoning book. This section will contain 24 questions and time will be generally 35 minutes.

Automata Fixing:- So this is the NEWLY ADDED SECTION from our year. In this section there will be 7 programming questions to complete in 20 minutes. But this section will  not be MCQ type.

Now Listen very Important. You do not have to write the full code of the program. Rather you just need to write the missing lines in the code given for that specific problem. There will be 3-4 test cases for each problem statement and you have to pass all of them.

Among the 7 questions 4-5 questions are about to debug the error and fill the missing lines. Normally 2 questions are to write the functional part of the given coding problems to satisfy the test cases.

I got selected for Technical Interview clearing all the sections.

2. Technical Interview.

I was waiting in a room and the volunteer called my name. I entered the Technical Interview room and then sat in front of the interviewer and i got the questions like this.

(TR – Technical Interviewer):

TR – Introduce yourself.
Me – Told about my schooling; hobbies; stream; college; certifications.

TR – What’s your favorite subject?
Me – Told C and Java.

TR – Solve this. (He gave me a sheet of paper where there were 20 unsorted integer elements written and he told me to sort the element.
Me – Solved. (I used Bubble Sorting Technique).

— (After checking the codes he again asked me a question)—

TR – Can you find the 2nd max Element from the array.
Me – Wrote the logical part of the code and explained him.

(Then again from that code he threw a question towards me).

TR – Find the frequency of the array elements (As the array contains some repetitive elements)?
Me – Again wrote the logical part of the code and explained him.

(After checking all these he told that you have written Java as your Skillset and again asked me questions like this)

TR – Can you explain the concept of Abstraction with an example?
Me – Told and Explained. I refer to read the article of abstraction with its real world example from GeeksforGeeks.

TR – What is Class and Object?
Me – Explained.

TR – Can you find any object in the code of sorting you have written?
(It was a Tricky Question to check your basics).
Me – I explained that C is a procedural language and java is object oriented language. As object is a real world entity so its only applicable in the object oriented language like Core Java not in the procedural language like C.

(After that he smiled and did a handshake with me).

TR – Any Questions?
Me – Asked him about my areas of improvement..

TR – Thank you. Wait for the result?
Me – Thank you sir.

After Some time the volunteer declared the result that I have cleared the TR.

3. HR Interview

HR – How’s your day?
Me – Good mam.

HR – Introduce yourself apart from what written in your CV.
Me – Told.

HR – Can you told me some sentences why Listening Skills are important in our life?
Me – Told.

HR- Tell me something about our country India?
Me – Told

HR – Do you have any Relocation problem and the shift timings of Cognizant?
Me – No.

HR – Sign here. (It was a declaration about timings, relocation)
Me – Signed.

HR – Thank you.
Me – Thank you ma’am.

Finally! It’s over.

——- For HR Round I advised to be confident and be clear what you are telling ——–

On 19th June 2019 I got the SELECTION STATUS mail about my selection in Cognizant. It was one of the best days in my life.

Thank you and I wish you best of luck.