Dell Technologies came to our campus in the second week of August to fill the position of SDE – 1 (Solutions Role) – Intern + FTE 2022. They were providing a 6-month internship, which would thereafter be turned to full-time.
Students with a cumulative GPA of 7.5 or above and no ongoing backlogs were eligible. Only computer science and information technology students were admitted. Approximately 600 students from our campus took part in the first round.
ROUND 1 (Resume Shortlisting): They asked us to submit our most recent resumes. After 4-5 days, they selected around 90 candidates for the online test. In resume shortlisting, CGPA was not the main criterion; some students with 8.5 CGPA were not selected, while others with 7.8 CGPA took the online exam. It was primarily based on the tasks and talents shown in your résumé.
ROUND 2 (Online Test – 60 minutes): The online test was held on the HirePro platform.
- it is a 50 question MCQ test. Out of 50, 10 questions are from Aptitude and rest are from core CS topics like DBMS, OS, Network, OOPS, C++, Java, SQL and Data Structures.
- I thought the online test was very long as most of the questions were conceptual and took a long time to complete. I answered 38-40 questions and got selected for the interview.
- Please select 12 people for the next round.
ROUND 3 (Technical Interview 1 – 45 minutes): Technical interviews took place the next day in Microsoft Teams.
- My interviewer was quite courteous. He asked me to introduce myself, then introduced himself.
- He questioned me about my projects. I described two of my initiatives to him. One included tweaking Apache Web Server, while the other was based on the LSB Image Steganography Technique.
- There were a few cross-questions. He was curious in the topic’s motivation and the technology stack I utilized to create the projects.
- Following that, he asked me a lot of questions about OOPS ideas, DBMS, operating systems, and networking. Some examples included explaining the levels of the OSI Model.
- Topics covered include abstraction vs. data hiding, CPU scheduling strategies, and conceptual concerns. He then requested me to build encapsulation.
- Following this, they inquired about my favorite programming language. I mentioned C++, therefore there were many questions about it, such as how doubly linked lists are done in C++, interfaces, friend functions, and so on.
He asked me two coding problems after the fundamentals of computer science. They were:
- https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/merging-intervals/amp/ (He first asked the approach, and then asked me to write just the function.
- https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/delete-nth-node-from-the-end-of-the-given-linked-list/amp/ (He just wanted the approach for this question)
The conversation then came to a close when he questioned me about some DevOps tools that I had listed in my résumé, like Git, Maven, and Docker.
Five or so pupils were chosen to move on to the next phase.
Round Four (30 minutes): Based mostly on my credentials, this interview was rather straightforward.
- Most of the questions during the interview focused on my skill set and my internships. He questioned me regarding the services offered by Microsoft Azure. having taken part in a few hackathons myself. He questioned me on the implementation of those project proposals.
- Subsequently, the interviewer began to ask questions about conduct, including teamwork, dispute resolution, team management, and so forth. I asked him about the internship duration and the technologies we would be working on if we are chosen as our final question of the interview.
Fortunately, I was one of the three students that received an internship + FTE offer in the end.
A Few Crucial Pointers
- It’s not like the interviewer expects you to know the answers to every question in a technical interview. About 80% of the queries had answers from me. However, it’s critical to respond to the questions you know with confidence.
- Always provide the interviewer an explanation of your technique before moving on in a live coding session. Don’t freak out if your code doesn’t work. Check your code again and try to identify the problem. But keep in mind that the interviewers are always more interested in your strategy than in your final product.
- Make sure you are familiar with every word in your CV. Never write something about which you lack confidence.
Although placement season is busy, never lose confidence in yourself and don’t stop reviewing the fundamentals.
Best wishes to all.