This is my interview experience for Editorialist YX. They visited our campus for the 2022-batch session placements. The whole interview process was done virtually.
Round 1 (Online Test): It’s an online coding and MCQ round with 40 aptitude questions, 20 technical questions, and four coding questions. The duration of this round was 2:00 hrs.
The coding questions are:
- Next smaller of next greater element: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/find-next-smaller-next-greater-array
- Find if there is a subarray with a given sum: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/find-subarray-with-given-sum-in-array-of-integers/amp/
- kth symbol: https://leetcode.com/problems/k-th-symbol-in-grammar/
- First non-repeating char in a stream https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/queue-based-approach-for-first-non-repeating-character-in-a-stream/amp/
Out of 94 students, only 15 students were selected for the second round (I was one of them).
Round 2(Technical): It was a technical interview. Two interviewers were taking the interview.
- It started with the first question, which was based on a string; I wrote its pseudocode and explained it, I was unable to find its optimized approach but was able to give the solution using recursion.
- The second question was of finding the missing and repeating element in array https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/find-a-repeating-and-a-missing-number/amp/
The interview had gone for 1hr, and out of 15 students, 10 were shortlisted for the next technical round.
Round 3(Technical + Puzzles): This technical round started with a little discussion over my projects, and then:
- The first question of coding was to find the top view of the Binary tree https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/print-nodes-top-view-binary-tree/amp/, It was hard for me to find the correct approach, but the interviewers were very helpful and they gave me hints to solve it.
- Then a simple puzzle was asked, which was https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/puzzle-7-find-the-jar-with-contaminated-pills/amp/
- Then another coding question was to add the elements of two linked lists without reversing, https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/sum-of-two-linked-lists/amp/, I was able to think of approaches where I can use two for loops (not nested) but a new constraint was added that I have to solve it using only a single O(N) operation, then the interviewers gave me the hint to use recursion, and then it was a cakewalk for me to explain the rest.
- Then again a puzzle was asked, which was https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/puzzle-7-3-bulbs-and-3-switches/amp/
Then I asked them about the company. This interview had also gone for 1hr, and out of 10 students, 5 were shortlisted for the next technical round.
Round 4 (Quantitative Ability + Projects): This round started with a discussion over my projects.
- There was a deep discussion over my interest areas in tech.
- Then they asked me to prove the Pythagoras theorem, I was able to solve it with the help of basic trigonometry, then they said me to prove it with the help of the similarity of triangles, It took me 2 minutes to figure out, and then I was able to prove.
This round had gone for 35-40 minutes, and out of 5, 4 were able to make their way for the HR round (Fortunately, I was one of them).
Round 5(HR Round): I had a great talk with HR for about 45-50 minutes.
- They asked me about my family and how my interview rounds had gone.
- How am I able to make this much energy after these many rounds.
- There was a very smooth and calm discussion over my hobbies and my Position of responsibilities.
All 4 were selected including me.
Try to be honest and be clear with your answers. Don’t hesitate to admit if you don’t know something, have a stronghold over DSA, and have an in-depth knowledge of projects.