Selection Type: 6 months Internship + FTE (job)
Online test pattern: Aptitude Test (90 questions in 60 minutes, 3 sections of 30 questions each)
Interview Rounds:
Round 1: Technical + a bit of Hr
Time: 50 mins approx
Interviewer: Lead Frontend Developer (Very cool and calm person)
- He asked me to tell him about my most favorite project (Cowin Vaccine Notifier in my case), we then discussed a lot and even thought of new future updates. He really enjoyed this discussion
- He asked me that how does a website work whenever a user hits a URL (endpoint -> API -> permissions -> Backend -> Database -> Backend -> delivers frontend), What happens when www.testbook.com is entered on the web browser
- What kind of file is returned by the website (HTML/CSS/JS) [Answer is HTML]
- If only HTML is returned, then how do the browser process CSS and JS [Answer is that path to CSS and JS files is mentioned in the head tag and then request is sent for CSS and JS files]
- Backend Design for Authentication System. He asked just for the approach and I explained all the things with the example of developing it in Django (my favorite Backend framework). I also informed him that I have also even made a video lecture of around more than 1 hour on “How to create a login system in Django” which is published on the YouTube channel of GeeksForGeeks (He was impressed).
- A basic discussion on passwords hashing (kind of encrypting).
- 2 Factor Authentication (He asked me that how can you add another level of security other than just passwords) [I answered “Security Questions” like “What was the name of your first pet?”]
- A simple question on DS (Check if two given strings are anagram) [only approach]
- Any questions? (I asked 2)
Out of 30, 12 candidates were shortlisted for Round 2
Round 2: Technical
Time: 50 mins approx
Interviewer: Lead Backend Developer (A quiet and friendly guy)
- Introduction, Projects, and Past experiences (How has been your experience in your college yet?)
- Backend Design for Stack Overflow Like System (Discussed the database design majorly, tables, column names, and relations or foreign keys) [Features – Question, Answers, Upvotes, and Downvotes]
- A simple question on DS (A array with length n-1 with a number from 0 to n are given with one number missing from the range of 0 to n. find the missing number) [asked only for approach]
- Any questions? (Again I asked two)
- One of my questions was “How many total rounds are there?”. He answered, “Generally, there are only 2 rounds but we can also have a 3rd round especially”.
Note: Testbook generally conducts 2 rounds but an extra special round was conducted for me and 1 more candidate.
At the end of the day, they informed us that they’ve already selected 4 candidates
Round 3: Technical + HR [Interviewer: Ayush Varshney (CTO of Testbook – Forbes Under 30 Asia)]
Time: Duration: 50 minutes approx
- Introduce Yourself, Discussed in detail my Summer Internship Experience at a company in Sweden (I briefly told that it was a diverse team where people worked from various different countries like India, Pakistan, Venezuela, Belgium, Jordan, etc. and also that I completed 2 projects for the company individually and also worked with a team for an external project of a client in the USA)
- He asked me to open the code editor and “Convert JSON to a dictionary in python”. I said that it can be easily done by importing the “JSON” module. Then he said that try it without using any library/module. Implement it from scratch. He allowed me to Google for the syntax. I was “thinking out loud” i.e. whatever I was thinking I was also speaking the same. He was noticing my thought patterns and gradually I was moving towards the solution. As I was about to reach the solution, he asked me to close it by saying that it’s enough.
- We then discussed briefly my college life and my personality and nature.
- “How do you help people spiritually?”, as I mentioned the same while introducing myself, then we had a good discussion over it.
- Any questions? (I asked just one this time)
Result: Selected for Software Development Engineer (SDE) Role
Tips (dos and don’ts): Try to keep all the rounds more like a conversation and not just a Q&A round. Highlight your past amazing work and experiences anyhow, even if they haven’t asked, mention it indirectly. It’ll be great if you can anyhow relate your experience/work to the question.
Tips:
- CTOs/CEOs prefer personality over skills. Just be confident throughout.
- In case of Data Structures questions, think out loud and you can even ask your interviewer whether you’re thinking in the right direction or not, and if not then ask for a hint, they’re here to help you.
- Basic knowledge of development like how a website works, networking, system designs, and database. Also, a quite good grip over basic Data Structures will help.