Sabre Interview Experience for SDE 2022

Sabre onsite recruiting drew a total of 240 students, but only six were chosen. There were four rounds to the procedure. Let’s discuss the experience and look at some pointers for each round.

Round 1(Online Test): This round is comprised of 45 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and two coding problems. 

• Twenty of the 45 questions were attitude-based, while the other 25 were technical.
• This round had a time limit of 100 minutes.
• During the procedure, the webcam was turned on.

Details-

• All of the core subjects of computer science (DBMS, Operating System, Data Structures & Algorithms, Computer Networks) were covered in the MCQ part, as well as a variety of aptitude questions from diverse topics (Pattern recognition, Distance and time, Compound Interest, Data Interpretation, Next number in series, Loss, and profit, Time and days).
• Technical MCQs also consisted of predicting the output of C programs, questions on enqueue & dequeue operations in stack & queue, and debugging.

The coding section had two questions. The first question was of 10 marks (easy). The second question was also of 10 marks (medium). The coding questions asked were

1. You are given a 2-D array of integers of size M X N. If the array is not a square array then make it one by filling the remaining positions with 1. Check if all elements present in the left diagonal occur in the matrix (apart from their occurrence in the left diagonal) strictly more than k times, where “k” is an integer provided as an input. If yes, print “Present” else print “Not Present”.

   Example 1 -  
   Input -
   A[][] = { {1, 2, 3}, 
             {4, 5, 6} }
   k = 2
   Output - Not Present 
   Explanation -
   Converted Square Matrix -
   A[][] = { {1, 2, 3},
                {4, 5, 6}
                {1, 1, 1} }
   1 is present two times if we count 
   its occurrences apart from left diagonal. 
   And 5 is also not more than two times. 

2. Given two arrays A & B of integers of size “m” and “n” respectively, find the sum of all the elements present at “k” points distance from each other and check if this sum can be represented as the sum of “k” prime numbers. If yes print the union of the two arrays if not, print the intersection of the two arrays.

   Example 1.  
   A[] = {6, 5, 8, 5, ,9, 2, 3}
   B[] = {2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 13}
   k = 3
   Output - 2 3 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 13
   Explanation -
   Sum of all elements present 
   at "3" points distance in A[]:
   6 + 5 + 3 = 14 
   5 + 9 = 14
   8 + 2 = 10
   5+ 3 =8
   Now 14, 10, 8 can be represented as 
   the sum of "3" prime numbers as follows:
   14 = 5 + 7 + 2
   10 = 5 + 2 + 3
   8 = 5 + 3
   So, we print the union of the two arrays.

Tips for this round –

• Try a few questions about data interpretation.
• Examine well-known algorithms.
• It’s a good idea to practice SQL syntax difficulties.
• This round, it’ll be preferable if you write unoptimized code. It will aid you in the next phase of the interview when the interviewer asks you to improve your solution.

Round 2(Technical Interview): This round was focused on coding as well as core computer science subjects. The interviewer requested me to describe the solutions to both of the coding questions I wrote in the previous round in this round. He inquired as to if I could improve my solution.

He then proceeded to ask me a few generic questions about myself and my COVID-19 lessons. 

He then proceeded to ask coding questions after this ice-breaker. The coding question asked was-

1. You will be given an M*N matrix. Each item in this matrix is either a ‘*’ or a ‘.’. A ‘*’ indicates a mine, whereas a ‘.’ does not. The objective of the challenge is to output an M*N matrix where each element contains a number (except the positions which actually contain a mine that will remain as ‘*’) which indicates the number of mines adjacent to it. Notice that each position has at most 8 adjacent positions e.g. left, top left, top, top right, right, etc.

   In the first sample 
   test case, the matrix:
   * *. . .
   . . . . .
   . * . . .
   becomes
   * * 1 0 0
   3 3 2 0 0
   1 * 1 0 0
   Input: Your program should read lines 
   from standard input. Each line contains M, N, 
   a semicolon and the M*N matrix in row-major form.

After this, some questions based upon CS subjects:

1. What is the difference between Core & Processor in OS?
2. Tell me all the core subjects that you know. What do I know about Software Engineering?
3. What are SDLC and its various stages?
4. What is the Agile Software Development Model with an application?
5. What are microservices for example?
6. Am I familiar with OOPs?
7. Few questions about the difficulty of the previous round.
8. He then told me to write a SQL query to print the top 5 records from the Student database table according to the total marks obtained by them.

Advice for this round –

• DSA should be thoroughly studied.
• Prepare thoroughly for the essential subjects (DBMS, Operating System, Data Structures & Algorithm, Computer Networks)
• Prepare for the next set of coding tasks by optimizing your prior solutions.
• Be self-assured and humble in your acceptance of your error.

Round 3(Management Interview): This round mostly focused on project and internship-related questions. The interviewer asked me to introduce myself as soon as the interview began. Then he asked me to go over two of my past internship projects in great detail. Then there are a few project-related questions.

• Gave a scenario of making an airline ticket booking website just like make my trip and discussed its functionalities.
• He asked about the programming language I usually code in and my level of understanding in other programming languages as well.

This round’s recommendation –

• Prepare yourself to answer inquiries regarding your project.
• Make sure you’re prepared to introduce yourself.

Round 4(HR interview): This round was all about getting to know me as a person. Every question and response revolves around you. So this shouldn’t be too difficult.

This round’s advice:

• Prepare for all of the typical HR questions, but don’t memorize the answers.
• Make an effort to be spontaneous.
• If you’re asked to describe your strengths and flaws, use your own words rather than those you found on the internet. Also, have use cases ready to demonstrate your abilities.
• Make sure you’re not contradicting yourself.
• Have faith in yourself.
• Maintain a positive attitude.

Verdict – Selected

Best wishes!