This was an On-Campus Opportunity
Round1: Online Assessment: There were only two coding questions which were of Leetcode medium-hard level( the hard one was pretty standard though), the total time allocated was 1hr.
- The first question was an application of two pointer approach and sorting,
- The main task was to comprehend the story given in the question and crack the approach.
- The second question was a slight modification of reverse-Pair, the modification was that we need to find the maximum no. of inversions among all numbers(numbers were unique).
- I was able to solve both questions in around 30-40 minutes. 16 students were shortlisted including me.
Round 2: Technical and HR Interview(online): We started by greeting each other, the interviewer then asked me to give my introduction And also why I wanted to join VISA. I was well prepared for both questions though the second one was expected to be asked at last in general never mind I mentioned all things I found fascinating(don’t exaggerate but still) about Visa, especially the numbers(transactions and all )which showed that proper research was done priorly and also showed my seriousness towards their company and role.
- The interviewer then asked me about my project and after that,
- He asked whether I knew some backend technology or not, which I was not knowing at that time so I declined and said I would learn it in the future.
- He then asked me to open the code-pair link and asked for a standard DSA question which was Remove loop in Linked List | Practice | GeeksforGeeks
- I was asked to code from scratch i.e to create the Node class and then create a new linked list, Print it, And then add a cycle(loop) in that list.
- After that remove that cycle and print the list again. I told him the brute force first, then the better one, and finally the most optimal one (Floyd cycle detection here).
- I was asked to code the most optimal one and I tried to code it along with explaining each and every line of code which kinda gave a good impression on him.
- Lastly, I was asked about the space and time complexity of the algorithm implemented and then it was tested on some test cases given by him. He was satisfied with the approach and so the code quality and then moved on
to some theory questions. - He asked whether I know about disk scheduling algorithms (O.S), and to that, I answered yes and was questioned about the most optimal one and also explained it with the help of an elevator.
- Finally, he told me about the role and responsibility of an intern at VISA And then asked me if I have any questions for him so I asked about the work culture and tech stacks used and also about the type of project interns get to work on.
So that’s how it was xD
Following are some standard tips everyone should follow:
- A crisp and informative intro should be given to enhance your first impression, this will also increase your self-confidence.
- Try to tell everything a bit calmly and slowly so that you can give a thought before claiming something which might ruin your interview
- A dry run should be given in a descriptive manner, it shows how well you have understood the problem and so the algorithm.
- Be ready with some HR questions as well and always ask questions after the interview, this shows your curiosity about their company
- Lastly, carry a decent smile with you throughout the interview.