Cohesity Interview Experience for SRE | On-Campus

Hello guys,

Let me give a short and crisp introduction to the company that I’m joining. Cohesity is a company that solves the data fragmentation issues the clients are facing and has won many recognizable awards internationally. It had visited our campus for placements.

Eligibility criteria:

• For Computer Science and Information Science Branches.
• Students should have a minimum of 8.25 CGPA.
• No Active backlogs.
• Must have good knowledge in Computer Science Fundamentals.

Interview Process:

• Online Test (22nd August 2021) Platform: HackerEarth (50 MCQs – Technical, Aptitude & Analytical) for 60 minutes] [There is Negative Scoring for wrong answers]
• Pre – Placement talk for the shortlisted students from the online test
• 1st Interview and 2nd Interview
• Results announced

And now the part that you’ve been waiting for:

• So, I was at the beginning of my 4th year and our college On-Campus placements had started. I had pretty good grades(9.15 CGPA) and I was an intermediate-level coder. I didn’t have much knowledge about placements and when the companies were brought in their drive I started applying for them. I got rejected in TEKsystems and Nutanix in intermediate interviews (It’s OKAY to get rejected). Now, that I got rejected by 2 companies that lit a cigar in me, I sensed fear for the first time and that really made me focus.
• And then came Cohesity for the role I’ve always been waiting for. I along with 182 of my batchmates applied for the drive and prepared for the aptitude rounds. We had our Online aptitude test on 22nd Aug 2021 and on 25th we were given the shortlist. Only 13 people were shortlisted including me. We shortlisted students who had a pre-placement talk on 26th August. During this talk when the Q&A session began, I asked 2-3 questions in between( This is very important …You’ll know why as you read). Then we waited for the interview dates to be announced( Waiting was the worst part). Finally, we got to know that our interview was supposed to be on 2nd Sept 2021. I was preparing completely for all the remaining time that I had(I’ll share the study tools below). On 2nd September morning, 9.40 am I had my first round, and then a few people were qualified for the next round including me. I had my second round at 12.35 pm and it lasted up to 1.15 pm. After this, I really felt nervous and scared, to be honest. On 3rd September in the evening, we got to know that only 3 students were selected for our college. I was one of them and I am really thankful for my parents along with my family and friends for their support. I am really grateful to GOD!

Round 1:

• There was only one interviewer in this round
• Hi-hello, how are you doing and how was your day [to make me comfortable]
• Which system am I using and all its configurations
• Basics Networking questions( routers, hubs, TCP/IP, and UDP protocols)
• Do you know to program? If yes which language. Share screen and write a program to input files and print in reverse. [I chose Python]
• Any questions for me? [I asked about job role.. and company…This shows I researched about the company]

Round 2:

• There were 2 interviewers in this round. I’ll name them I1 and I2
• Hi-hello, how are you doing and how was your day
• Where did you apply earlier…how’s college…about pandemic…[to make me comfortable]
• (I1 started asking) : Basics definitions Linux commands and uses. (View CPU name, open ports scan, ssh)
• Subnetting and IP address explanations.
• He asked me some DS questions. (Just basics like what are trees, types, practical uses- I told we use trees in File systems)
• He shared his screen asked questions based on the commands he executed
• Then he was done with questioning
• (I2 started asking): Do you use a virtual machine? ( I told yes). He then asked me to share my screen.
• I opened VirtualBox started running Ubuntu in it and loaded the terminal.
• He asked me to create a file with my name as the content.
• View files view inode number, view Permissions
• Change permissions, users and become root users.
• Hardlinks and Softlinks
• Share file to windows using commands like SCP
• Show communication using open-ssh or putty
• He gave hints and helped me solve some questions.
• Asked why Cohesity? And if some other company gives more package. Would you leave Cohesity?
• Finally, they told us further instruction will be informed through our HR.