Principal Global Services is a part of Principal Global Financial Group, a Fortune 500 company, founded in 1879 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. PGS’s headquarter is located in Pune, India and they have one office in Hyderabad also.
Position – Trainee Analyst Software Engineer
Platform – eLitmus
Drive Duration – 1 Week
Round 1(Duration – 125 minutes): It was a proctored test on eLitmus, consist of three sections :
- Quantitative Aptitude
- Verbal
- Problem Solving
Round 2 (TR): Duration – 1hr
- I got an interview invite the next day.
- The interview started with an introduction.
- Then a detailed discussion on the project is mentioned in my Resume.
- One basic program in Java. He asked me to write code to print the repeated letters in a string on paper.
- Query to create a table in SQL.
- Tell me something about your family.
- What are your ambitions?
- When did you give the eLitmus test?
- Some questions about my hobbies and interests.
- I asked him about the operations of PGS in India.
- Overall he was a very friendly person and I was not at all nervous in front of him.
Round 3 (Puzzle Round): Next day I got invited for a puzzle round.
- This round was proctored and conducted on the eLitmus platform.
- Total 7 questions – 6 Mathematical Puzzles and 1 Scenario-based question.
- Puzzles were simple (guess next number in series type).
- Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years? (Scenario based question)
Round 4: After 1 day I got invited to the fourth round.
- It was a mixture of the technical and managerial rounds.
- Duration – 1 hr Mentioned(Mine lasted for 0.5 hr)
- Again interviewer was very friendly.
- He started with his introduction and then asked me to introduce myself.
- Again detailed discussion on the project mentioned in Resume.
- Where do we use HTML, CSS, Java, JSP and Servlets? (I have mentioned these technologies in my Resume)
- Tell me the lifecycle of a Servlet?
- How can we count the number of visitors to any website? Do you have any idea about it?
- I want to make an attendance system, in which I want to store attendance of students and in month-end, I want to show the student who attended maximum classes and also same for a student who attended minimum classes. Can you tell me how can you implement this? Tell me the simplest approach?
- I gave the example of the SQL table and told that if the student is present then we add 1 in the attendance column otherwise 0. At month end we can use MAX(SUM(Attendance)) to get students who attended maximum classes and for minimum, we can use MIN(SUM(Attendance)).
- Then he asked me a scenario-based question.
- Suppose I give you an unlimited amount of funds then what problem you would solve with that?
- I gave one example but I did not know the implementation of that solution so he told me that give me an example that you can solve by yourself.
- Then I gave an example of my branch-related problem and also gave the solution with implementation. (I am from Electrical Engineering Background)
- Then he asked Who else do you have in your family and what do they Do?
- Then he said Ok I am done, if you have any query then you can ask. I asked about technologies they give to Trainee.
- Tip: When I asked him this question, he asked me whether I have asked the same question in the first interview round? I told No, then he explained technologies. So never ask the same question in an interview.
Round 5 (HR Round): After 1hr or maybe less than 1 hr of fourth-round I got a call for the final round. HR round was scheduled for the next day.
- This round was just like a formality.
- Duration – 8 to 10 minutes
- First, he asked me to introduce myself.
- Tell me your two strengths and weaknesses.
- Then he asked whether I was comfortable in relocation or not? ( Always say Yes )
- Then he explained about training and other details related to the job.
- After 3 hours I got a selection call.
- Then after 2 days, I got an offer letter.
Conclusion
- The duration of the whole process was around 1 week. (excluding round 1)
- Prepare your Resume very well because they literally ask everything from your Resume.
- Round 1 was very difficult, so prepare well for that round.
All the Best!