MSCI Interview Experience | On-Campus 2020-Virtual

MSCI conducted a virtual campus hiring at our college VJTI in September 2020 for FTE. Whole process was virtual because of the covid situation.

ROUND 1:

Round 1 was an online MCQ test conducted on hacker rank. The test consisted of 30 questions based on topics such as Algorithms ,Data structures , Aptitude questions, OOPS concept and little bit java questions.

Around 200 people sat for the test and only 35 were shortlisted for the next round. I made it to the next round. 

ROUND 2 (TECHNICAL ROUND):

As soon  as the interview started , the interviewer asked me to share my screen and open notepad. The  first question he asked me was that Given two words (beginWord and endWord), and a dictionary’s word list, find the length of shortest transformation sequence from beginWord to endWord.

Link of problem(LEETCODE)  : https://leetcode.com/problems/word-ladder/

so I explained him  the solution and coded on the notepad as well. The idea was to use recursion and backtracking. After that he asked me to improvise the time complexity. I told him it can be improvised by using maps.

The next question he asked me was totally different from what someone would expect in an interview. He asked me to open the paint and draw a closed shape and fill it with any color. Then he asked me to type the code in notepad for the logic that why color does not leaks out of the closed shape and if the shape is not properly closed the color leaks out and whole canvas is filled.

So after  some thought I gave him the logic which was to use breadth first search. Suppose the pixel is a node on which the color is dropped , After that all the surrounding pixels will be checked and if they are of  different color compared to  initial pixel the loop will stop else they will be filled with the same color.

He was quite satisfied with my answer, and then asked me if I had any questions for him. After that we had a little bit of chat and then he left. As soon as my technical round got over I got an email for the last round.

Out of 35 only 15 candidates were shortlisted for the next round and  I was also among the 15.

ROUND 3(TECHNO-MANAGERIAL ROUND):

This was the final round

The interviewer started the talk by asking me “tell me about yourself”.

After that  he asked me if I could remember the last problem I was stuck on and found it hard to solve. so I told him that I solve problems on code chef , and there were many occasions where I was not able to solve the problem on that platform as the difficulty level increases with each question.

Then he asked me what is the domain in which you are most confident . I told him that I have little bit of experience in every field and can adjust to any type of work I am allotted but ,given a choice I would go for web development.

After that he told me that he found what he was looking for and there was no point in stretching the interview for no reason. He said that he would  like to end the interview and gave me a chance to ask him any questions. We talked for around 5 to 10 minutes , wherein he told me that MSCI wants and prefers those candidates who are master in one field and then I instantly remembered and regretted what I said a few moments ago that I had little knowledge in every field which created an image in his  mind that I was  “jack of all trades”.

The interview ended and only 4 candidates were offered  for FTE roles. Unfortunately , I was not one of them but I was thankful  for the wonderful experience I got.