Recently, Sabre visited our college Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, to recruit final year engineering students. The eligibility criteria were as follows:
- Education degree: BE in Computer Science and Engineering (COE/CSE), Electronics and Computer Engineering (ENC), and Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE)
- Year of passing: 2022
- Marks: 7 CGPA or more, in all semesters for which results are declared, as on date of hiring event
- Backlogs: No active backlogs, as on date of hiring event
- Job Location: Bengaluru
Round 1 Coding Round + Aptitude 1.5 hour: Around 235 students were allowed to take the test who satisfied the eligibility criteria.
Round 1 consists of (No Negative Marking)
- 20 Aptitude questions (includes sequences, reasoning, logic, etc.)
- 25 CS Fundamentals questions which were a mixture of Operating Systems, Database Management Systems, SQL, OOPS, and Output based questions.
2 coding questions (Languages Allowed: C, C++, Java, Python)
Coding Questions were of medium to hard level problems which were as follows:
- Given N strings find all the connections among the strings. Two strings are directly connected if they are of the same length and differ in exactly one alphabet. The connections also follow the Transitivity Rule, ie if string A is connected to string B and string B is connected to string C, then string A is also connected to string C
- Write a program that accepts N-words and print the chain of all words that can be created by following the above constraints print them in a single line if one chain can be formed else if multiple chains are possible then print them in separate lines in the order of input
Input Format:
The first line of input contains N, the number of strings. Next N lines contain N strings.
Output Format:
One or multiple lines of output contain the various connected strings. The connected strings are separated by a single white space. The sequence of output is according to the input.
Sample Input:
5 CAR BET BAR BAT BED
Sample Output: CAR BAR BAT BET BED
Explanation1:
All the strings have the same length. Here, CAR is connected to BAR as A and R have a match. Similarly, BAR is connected to BAT, BAT is connected to BET and BET is connected to BED. Due to the Transitivity Rule, as all are inter-connected, they are printed in the same line.
Similar Question:
- https://leetcode.com/problems/word-ladder-ii/
- https://www.codingninjas.com/codestudio/problem-details/count-nodes-within-k-distance_992849
18 students were shortlisted from round 1 to follow up for round 2.
Note: Candidates will be heavily filtered after this round. So, you need to solve a good no. of questions to get shortlisted for further rounds.
Advice: If you find the coding questions difficult, then try to solve the maximum no. of aptitude and cs fundamental questions. It will increase your chance to get shortlisted.
Round 2 (Technical Round 1 hour): Scheduled on Microsoft Teams.
We started by greeting each other. The interviewer was a senior software engineer.
Then, Interviewer asked me how was my coding round.
- She saw my code and then asked me I wasn’t able to solve 1st coding question if I have come up with an approach for the same. Then, I explained to her a brute force approach which I applied during the test. Then, she asked whether I found what was the problem with it. I explained to her the conditions in which my solution would not pass the edge test cases.
- Then, she asked me to explain the second coding question asked in the previous round. I explained my approach. Then, she asked to analyze time and space complexity for the same question and asked if I could optimize my solution further. I already gave an optimized solution so, we move further.
Then, she asked me whether I know Java. But, I usually code in C++ so, I said the same.
Thereafter, the following questions were asked from OOP:
- Explain all the four pillars of OOP i.e. Inheritance, Polymorphism, Encapsulation, and Abstraction with examples.
- What is an abstract class? Can we create an object of abstract class?
- Write the syntax of pure virtual function.
Then, she asked me the question from Data Structures and Algorithms. I was asked the following dynamic programming coding question:
- https://leetcode.com/problems/decode-ways/
- She explained the question and asked me to code for the same.
- I coded the above solution on my personal IDE with screen sharing. First of all, I told her about what I deduced from the problem and then told her a recursive approach.
- Since the recursive approach was bad in time complexity. So, I showed the overlapping problems by taking the test case and move towards the Dynamic Programming approach.
- In the end, I managed to solve the problem with DP but one test case was stuck. So, she told me to check for the conditions I applied for. But according to me, the approach was all correct. So, she asked me to dry run my solution for that test case. But then, we ran out of time and the round was finished.
- I wasn’t sure if I would be clearing this round. But then, the list came and I was shortlisted for a further round.
Note:
- If you get stuck take help from the interviewer.
- Always keep on telling your approach and what you are thinking.
- They want to check your thought process for the problem and how you tackle it.
14 students were shortlisted for the Managerial Round.
Round 3 (Managerial Round 30 minutes): Scheduled on Microsoft Teams.
The interviewer was a senior engineering manager. He asked me to introduce myself and then we straight move towards the project.
- He asked me to explain any one project from my resume whichever I find to be comfortable with telling.
- So, I explain my project and it took me around 10 minutes for the same to tell each and everything in detail with all technicalities involved in-depth.
- He then asked me some questions related to the project. I answer all his questions and then he asked me to show the source code of my project if it is pushed on Github or available with me on my laptop. Unfortunately, I wasn’t having the source code of my project since it was a team project.
- Then, he made up some situations that I can face as a software engineer to check my thought process. The questions were like how you’ll convince your project leader to go with your design etc.
- The round lasted for sharp 30 minutes and then he told me if I have any questions for him.
- I asked a question and then after it, he said I would get another link to give the HR round.
- I was happy to listen to it as HR was the last round of the process.
Tips:
- Be thorough with your project and try to cover all sorts of questions made from them.
- Be ready with the source code of your project.
Round 4 (HR 20 minutes): Scheduled on Microsoft Teams.
- The interviewer began by telling me to introduce myself.
- Then, she asked me about the specialty of my hometown.
- Then asked me about my weaknesses.
- Then, she told me to tell something that wasn’t listed on my resume. I told her about my non-technical stuff which I did in different societies during my initial years. She seemed impressed with it.
- Then she looked at my academic background and praised that I managed a good academic record and co-curricular activities. She enquired whether I am having a plan to go for a master’s in the future. To which I said I have no such plans.
- Then she concluded and asked if I am having any questions for her and round finished.
Tips:
- Try to be realistic and don’t give the crammed answers.
- In this round, they want to know you as a person. So, talk with them as you talk with your friends.
Finally, 8 were selected from our college for 6 months internship and full-time offer and I was one of them.
Verdict: Selected