Shell India Interview Experience for Associate Software Engineer FTE(On-Campus) 2022

Shell India came to our campus in June 2022 and was the first company to visit our campus to recruit students from B.Tech CS/IT branches. 

About Shell India: Shell is one of the world’s major energy companies, employing an average of 93,000 people and operating in more than 70 countries. Our strategy seeks to reinforce our position as a leader in the oil and gas industry while helping to meet global energy demand in a responsible way. Safety, environmental and social responsibility are at the heart of our activities. Shell India is one of the most diversified international energy companies with over 10500 employees and has a presence upstream. 

The roles offered were :

1. Associate Software Engineer 
2. IT Business Analyst 
3. Transformational Change Analyst

I applied for the Associate Software Engineer Role, and more than 600 students had applied for the same role. In the pre-placement talk, we were told that there will be 2 rounds : 

• Round 1 : Coding + Aptitude + CS Fundamentals MCQ
• Round 2: Technical + HR Interview

Round 1 (Test: 115 minutes): The first round lasted for 115 minutes where :

1. The Coding Round was of 60 minutes in which 2 questions were asked, both of them were easy, and I was able to solve them within 20 minutes. The questions were similar:
   • https://leetcode.com/problems/best-time-to-buy-and-sell-stock/
   • https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/program-for-k-most-recently-used-mru-apps/
2. Then we had to write a MySQL query for a given question, and the time allotted for that was 15 minutes.
3. Then it was a Technical MCQ round where MCQs based on OOPs, OS, DBMS, and Networks were asked. There were 25 questions and the time allotted was also 25 minutes.
4. The last round was Aptitude, where there were 25 aptitude questions and the time allotted was 25 minutes.

Round 2 (Interview: 60 minutes ): I was able to clear round 1 and received the invitation for the 2nd round as well. There were 2 interviewers in the meeting, ( one for the Technical and another one for HR ). After introducing each other, my technical interview started.

The questions asked were :

• Explain concepts of OOPs with real-life examples.
• Friend Functions in C++.
• Abstract Classes in C++.
• Features of Python.
• Why Python is an interpreted language?
• Difference between List and Tuples.
• Types of Joins in MySQL.
• Write query for left join and right join in MySQL
• Views in MySQL.

I was able to answer all of these questions within 25 minutes. And then HR Interview started.

The questions asked were : ( This round lasted for 40 minutes )

• Tell me about the organization in which you are working as an intern.
• Explain your role in the project. ( About my internship )
• Explain the project, and what it is about. ( About my internship )
• Are you facing any difficulties in your project? If yes, then how are you solving them? ( About my internship )
• Explain The Software Development Life Cycle.
• Which is the most important phase in Software Development Life Cycle and Why?
• Have you ever worked in a team? If yes, then how will you handle a person who is not doing anything?
• Suppose you and your teammate give different approaches to a problem, then with whose approach will you guys proceed?
• How can you tackle fights in a team without reporting to your Team Leader and Manager?
• And various other questions were asked related to teamwork, by giving some sort of situation and expecting us to give an honest and logical answer.

And then I asked them, ” What kind of Job Responsibilities can I expect in this role ?”. They said that it will be totally dependent on what kind of project and what kind of team you will be working with.

Result : 3 Days later the result was declared and among 600+ students only around 60 people were selected for this role and I was one of them.

Some Preparation Tips:

• Always know what you have written in your resume. My entire interview was based on what I had written in my resume and nothing else. Go through your projects, and work experience.
• Make sure not to write anything that you don’t know because they will catch you immediately, and you may end up getting rejected.
• Go through some HR questions which are easily available online, they will surely help you in your HR round.
• And don’t forget to study CS Fundamentals, they are very important and they carried a lot of weightage than the coding round.