Samsung R&D Interview Experience Bangalore (May 2022)

I have 10 months of experience in software development and I applied for an engineering role in SRI-B through the E-litmus website in April. After the application, I got a mail from SRI-B asking for details and a preferred slot for the online coding test. I chose a slot for 9th May then I got a mail having my login credentials a day before the test. There were some system requirements and software mentioned that needed to be set up before the test day. 

The important point is –  You can only use windows laptop/system for the test as the Samsung Test environment/software is only designed for windows, not for mac/Linux and there are so many things to set up before the test including VDI installation to mobile app installation. So, I would suggest setting up all these things before the test day, to avoid the last-minute hassle.

I didn’t have a windows system on the test day due to which I was not able to give a test. So I sent a mail and asked the hiring team to reschedule with the actual reason. After 15 days I got another mail asking for details and a preferred slot. This time I was fully prepared and I gave a test on 5th June.

One more thing I want to share –  Samsung has a strict proctoring environment and I never see this type of proctoring during the online test. In their VDI You don’t have internet access and you need to install an app on mobile and join a call before starting the test, on the other end There will be a guy who will be watching you for the entire duration and if you have any doubts you can ask him during test and vice versa.   

Round 1 – Online Test

• 1 coding question with 50 test cases. You need to pass all test cases in order to proceed to the next rounds.
• Time duration – 3 hours
• Difficulty – GFG Medium to Hard, In my case A standard graph question was asked.
• I completed the question in 1 hour but it was passing only 4 test cases. After debugging for 1.5 hours I was able to pass all test cases.
• Suggestion: Practice previously asked questions in the Samsung Online test.
• Note: You can not use STL (sort, swap, etc.)  

Round 2 – Technical Interview

• 2 days after clearing the test I got a mail for technical interview. This was the first technical interview scheduled on 11th June. I joined call 5 minutes before the actual time and I was waiting for the interviewer to join but no one joined. After 10 mins I got a call from the interviewer he will join after 30 mins. After 45 mins Interviewer joined the call. 
• Interviewer was quite rude. He said If he saw someone in room other than me he will leave the call instantly. I said Ok. 
• Then he said, I will ask only 1 question if you will be able to solve it then I’ll ask 2nd question otherwise I will leave the call. I said Ok.
• He explained me first question with few test cases. The question was –  He wants me to design phone contacts searching system, By writing each character, suggestion should come just like we search contacts in phone, he added some more test cases like assume someone mistyped last char and considering last char as wrong char I need to return suggestions etc.
• Then he said These are test cases. I am going on mute and I will unmute myself after 30 mins. you can start solving.
• I tried to solve using Trie approach and somehow I managed to write working code but it was not working for 2 3 test cases that he extra added.
• After 30 mins he unmuted himself. I tried to explain my approach but he interrupted me and said just run the code I ran the code for all given test cases It didn’t work for 3 test cases he said those are the important test cases and your code is not working for those test cases.
• After this I said, there may be some silly mistake in code implementation. I can explain my approach he said No no I don’t want you to explain and I have already seen it and I will share feedback with HR team and by saying this he instantly cut the call.

This was the first technical round. After this I was not expecting any positive feedback from HR team but miracle happens.  

After 2 days, I got a call from HR stating that your first technical interview performance was not up to the mark but we are giving you one more chance, Will you be available for 2nd technical interview tomorrow. I instantly said yes. He scheduled the call for tomorrow.

Round 3 – Technical Interview

• This was the 2nd technical interview. This time, Interviewer was really a nice guy.
• I joined 5 mins before the scheduled time. Interviewer also joined on time he started with his introduction then he asked me to introduce yourself. It was going smooth till that time.
• He asked my total experience and current work that I am doing in my current org. I explained briefly and we also discussed my internship work.
• Then he moved to DSA. He pasted 1st question in the chat and asked me to share my screen. It was a binary tree question he explained question with test cases then he said let’s discuss the approach first then you can write code.
• So I tried to explain different approaches, In every approach he asked me will this approach work for all the test cases. After thinking a lot I told him the best approach he was quite satisfied with this approach. It was already 35 mins then he asked to start writing code in notepad where no auto complete and suggestion works. 
• I wrote the code quickly and give it a dry run and he was satisfied with the code.
• Interview duration was of 1 Hour and already it was 45 mins so he said we have only 10 mins I will give you one more question just tell me the optimized approach.
• He asked me a stack question that After thinking of 2-3 minutes I explained him the optimized approach with O(N) time complexity. He said he was expecting this approach only. 
• Then he said we are on time if you have any questions you can ask. I ask work culture and his journey in SRI-B related questions and I asked him for the feedback as well. Then the interview ended.

This round was quite good. Interviewer was also nice. He was listening all my approaches and also showing me right directions when I was constructing the approaches as well he gave a constructive feedback in the end.

Suggestion: Try to practice medium-level DSA questions from GeeksForGeeks for topics such as List, Queue, Stack, BST, Arrays, Searching, and Sorting After 5 days I got a call that I cleared technical interviews. Would you be available for final HR round today. I said yes. 

Round 4 – HR Interview

• Again I joined 5 mins before the scheduled time. Interviewer joined 5 mins late. He started with his introduction and He asked me to introduce myself. 
• He has my resume. He asked my current role in current org.
• Why you are leaving?
• Notice Period and Current CTC
• This is what we can offer.
• Explained SRI-B culture and work life.
• In the end He said He will roll out the offer letter in next 2-3 days. 

After 7 days of HR interview. I got a congratulations mail attached with the offer letter. That’s all.

I would like to suggest one thing that I learnt in this process, Never lose hope no matter how bad your interview experience was! It was due to interviewer or any other reason, There is always one ray of hope So never give up and hope for the best.

Complete process Duration – 20 days
Verdict – Selected

If you have any queries. Feel free to ask in comment section. I will be more happy to answer.