Nokia Interview Experience for SWE Intern (On-Campus) 2023

Nokia visited my campus in 2023 for hiring interns. I ended up with an offer and I am sharing the full details of the interview process that I went through.

Hiring Process
Nokia didn’t have many rounds but in my opinion, they did a great job of filtering students.

1. Resume Shortlist
2. Technical Interview
3. Technical + Managerial Interview
4. HR Interview

   The whole process was done in 2 weeks and the hiring team is pretty communicative at every step of the process.

Round 1: Technical Interview

After the resume shortlisting, they selected 30 people for the interview. My interviewer was a software developer at Nokia. It was a 30–35 minute interview where he asked me one coding question and then some follow-up questions. The problem was related to the concept of the Dutch National Flag. I gave him a brute force and then one optimized solution to the problem. He was very pleased with my answer, which I was explaining to him as I was working on it. He then inquired about my familiarity with the cloud and the CPP language. I can’t quite recall, but the conversation was fairly straightforward and interactive.

Round 2: Technical + Managerial Interview

After the first round of technical interviews, they selected 11 students for the next round. My interviewer was a senior R&D Manager at Nokia. It was a 30-minute interview where he asked me about my previous experiences and the projects I had worked on. He also asked me about a few non-technical learnings I had from my past experiences.
He then began probing me about the skills listed on my resume. It was a straightforward talk of the tech stack I had previously employed and the reasons behind my choice.
After that, he began asking me fundamental questions about Linux, Bash, multi-threading, and operating systems. He wished me to give him a straightforward explanation of operating system memory management.

Both Rounds 1 and 2 are very significant. Before moving you on to the next stages of the interview, the interviewers internally discuss about your performance. There will be a yes or no answer, and if they are unsure about you, they might take one more technical round. For my benefit, I promptly received the mail for the HR round.

Round 3: HR Interview

If you receive the letter for this round, you have already been chosen. The HR manager will ask you a few HR-related inquiries and have a brief conversation with you about your background. Then, if everything proceeds according to plan, he will inform you that he will send the final confirmation email following one last internal discussion.
I got selected and received my offer letter the next week.

I would say that Nokia has a great Interview process. Having positive interactions with the interviewers, who are very helpful throughout the process, seems to be the key. Additionally, Nokia seeks individuals who are ambitious and genuinely interested in learning new things, so be sure to demonstrate these qualities to your recruiter.

Finally, they selected 3 people from my college!