Anmol More's Blogs

Microsoft Development Interview Hyderabad Round I

2015-08-06T21:31:00.000+05:30

Question -

Similar to candy crush game.

We have balls with different colors. If we touch a ball balls with similar color in line (adjacent to adjacent) go away.

Citicorp services telephonic round II

2015-08-06T21:26:00.002+05:30

Started with basic questions on my profile -

1. Difference between SOAP and REST service

2. Different in using JSON or XML in rest service

3. Difference in POST and PUT

4. How project works

1 Full round on cloneable

1. Cloneable interface, how we can use it

2. How will you implement your own clone method.

3. What about static items

4. What about primitive items and non primitive items

- How about Objects in your class, you essentially want to clone

5. How constructor, private or public would help us to use cloneable interface

6. Can we clone a singleton class

Full round on HashMap

1. How HashMap works

2. Implement your own HashMap

3. What are methods you will define

4. What is concept of bucketing, how buckets are decided

5. If we will just have unique hashcode for every element, why do we need to store values (only keys can be stored)

Components of SOA Suite, how bpel is used

Components of ADF, how adf is used

Goldman Sachs Telephonic Interview - Round I

2015-07-07T17:50:00.000+05:30

Core Java Questions -

Usage of synchronization and volatile
What is static class
Difference between static class and singleton class
What are the usages of static keyword ?
Where in our JDK implementation, we have static classes
Difference between Vector and Array class

Programming Questions -

How to reverse a String with and without recursion
How to find a single unique element in an array (all others are duplicates)

Design Patterns -

What are design patterns you have worked on
What is factory pattern, tell me one scenario where you have used factory ?
Tell me some implementations of design patterns in JDK ?
Classes where we have Singleton or

Databases -

Tell me different types of normalization.

JDK -

Why java is architecture independent ?
What is Just in time compiler ?

Rest services based -

Why prefer JSONover SOAP
What are the objects that can be stored as JSON object
Can we have a null value in JSON Object

Citi Bank Telephonic Interview

2015-07-03T19:00:00.002+05:30

Telephonic interview started with basic introduction about my project and what I've contributed towards this project. And then direct question on Java

Core Java questions -

Does java allow primitives in Generic types ? Why not
Collection interface
What is hierarchy of collection and Map interface
Difference between HashMap and HashSet
Given an employee class, what are the things you would like to take care of when overriding HashCode method
When will you use a List over a HashSet. Benefits of using a list or an array ?
Difference between HashMap and HashSet, can we have null keys in HashMap, Can we have null values in HashMap
Alphabetically sort a list of Strings in Java
Serialization ? Give real world example, when you would like to use serialization
What is heap memory, can heap memory equal to RAM space. How will application behave if we make heap memory equal to RAM space
Is there any memory threshold when defining head space
In a 4 CPU processor, how many threads can run in parallel. If we have 4 thread when will 5th thread run
Can we tell compiler to run 5th thread based on our program
What are concurrent APIs ? How they help us.
Do you know permGen

SQL -

When will you use indexes
What are views
Table joins queries

Questions related to my profile -

When will you prefer Rest over Soap
Is there any threshold on amount of data that can be sent over SOAP and after which we should prefer REST
In non mobile application, possibility of using rest
Many questions on why SOAP is preferred over Rest, scenarios where you would prefer Rest
WSDL equivalent in SOAP
When you would prefer MongoDb over Sql databases
Are transaction supported in MongoDB

Microsoft GTSC Interview

2011-03-22T23:25:00.008+05:30

This blog is on Microsoft GTSC group interview, not on Microsoft Development or Other Microsoft groups

Today 22 March, 2011. I got an opportunity to go through all rounds of Microsoft GTSC group placement process. But I could not make it to the final list of 3 candidates selected. Main reason I think of not getting selected was - Sometimes there was conflict between my interest (development and research) and the work profile (support engineer) and they felt I would not stay in Support Engineer Team (That happened in final round of interview with 3 Lady HRs interviewing me, "I said what I would like to be, nothing else". I think those ladies didn't liked it).

Personally, I feel now that I should have told them that - "I would not be good in the development industry (Or Support is the only thing I would like to be in), so This GTSC is the best place for me".
And another thing I feel is somewhere they were giving preference to girls. ( I'm not blaming but looks like their work profile matched more)
Their target was 2-3 candidates only, and I was "in top 5-6 but not in top 3"

Learned from Microsoft GTSC Interview -

Project yourself only what their work profile is. (Keep aside your interest)
Do some homework on what other companies in industry are doing with similar Work profile. (I just checked GTSC work and didn't knew any other company offering similar things)
Just project what their current need is, not the future need. (even if they lucrat you in PPT we have this that, Just don't go on PPT.)
Go on what homework you have done, and what you know about any company profile. Stick to that, prepare for that.
Be specific in technical (Answer exact sentences, I lacked this sometimes) and talk as much as you can in HR (I Did this and they were pleased with this at least)

I gave my best and I would like to share my experience of getting through all 5 rounds. All interview rounds were looonnnnggg and same is this Post. :) . Please add your comments at the end.

So lets start
Headed towards FISAT college, where Microsoft called us for placements. We reached there at 8:30 AM and PPT started at 9:30 AM Around. Long PPT.

He showed that Its not a call center Job. They deal with 2-3 customers a day. Higher level of support. Technical complexity they deal with.
You have options to go in development, testing, research, consultancy.
Values at Microsoft - Honesty, Open and Respectful, Passion, self criticality, accountable and big challenges.
Package during training of 7-8 months was shown as 5.04 around and after training basic remains the same, but the extra benefits increases so CTC goes to 6.78

First Round (Written by Merittrac ) -
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total time was 100 minutes - 10 - 10 - 30 - 50 minutes divided in four sections. After each section they were taking back the questions and giving the new questions -

First was 10 minutes, 10 verbal ability questions simple.
Next 10 minutes, 10 questions based on two passages.
Next 30 minutes, 30 questions aptitude . Aptitude had simple aptitude questions based of Figures, charts. 5 questions were from Data Solvency and another 5 were from Logical Reasoning.
Next 25 "C" Programming questions, 50 minutes, we were asked to give output in each case. Each question was having long for loops like 1 to 2000 like that, inside again a for loop and there again a while loop. Every question was like that.

Finally out of around 80-90 students I was one of the 20 students selected from CUSAT after written round, Another 16 students were selected from FISAT College. So total 36 out of 90 were shortlisted for GD.

Next GD Round -
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Four groups were formed mixing students from FISAT and CUSAT each of 9 students for GD. Each of us was asked to introduce ourself. I was in the group with Rajesh Rai (IT), Apoorva Gaurava (CS), Awanish Vatsa (CS), Vinesh Balan (CS), Mulom from FISAT, 3 girls Tina, Sameera and Meenu from FISAT.

We were given option between two topics -
Pros and Cons of Open Source.
Pros and Cons of Social Networking.
Since FISAT students were reluctant to Open source topic final topic decided was "Pros and Cons for Social Networking".
We were given a minute to think and total time alloted from GD was 10 minutes.
Apoorva started saying merits of network formation with college friends and all. I said next in cons, saying abt its addiction and all. Like that it continued. People were fighting , no one was listening to each other. GD Panel was always stopping in between and asked one to speak. I kept my final point as - Social Networking is the most cost effective method to convey our message to a mass. Though there is a small pool which is suffering with its bad effects, but still a larger pool is getting benefited. And for that smaller pool even we can teach them about privacy settings, make them aware of the things. Then in coming years it would be also useful to them.
I believe I got points for this and I was shortlisted for interview round along with 3 others in my Group i.e. Vinesh Balan (CS) from CUSAT and Mulom and Tina from FISAT.

In other GD groups they took 2, 5, 5 like that (Not sure). But finally total of 16 candidates were selected to go through interview rounds

So here comes Interview Rounds - Three rounds - Tech, Tech HR and HR

While I was waiting for my Tech round, one of the Microsoft Technical interview panel (He was their during the GD) person saw me sitting lonely. So He came and started asking me questions about my final year project. What else I have done ? and all that.
I answered everything in a nice and short manner, as it was going in an informal way. It went about 10 minutes.

Tech Interview for Microsoft GTSC (Round 1) - Around 1/2 hr
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interviewer aged around 40, had 7+ years of experience shake hands with me. I told Good Afternoon sir. Got seated.
He went through my resume for a minute
Interviewer - Anmol, Tell me something about yourself
Me - told

I showed him calligraphy, as my hobby.
Interviewer - How you get time for this ?
Me - Told, I recently wrote it on farewell occasion, so made everyone look into my work....... (he was pleased)

Interviewer - You have done a lot of projects, what project are you working on ?
Me - Sir we recently finished our final year project on Online C Compiler.. explained him my project.

Interviewer - What did you do in these IIT projects ?
Me - explained how I got selected, what I did ...

Interviewer - How did you get these projects ?
Me - explained

This type of question answers from my resume went for around 5 minutes and then he kept aside his resume . He was having set of sections in his paper , where scores were to be given for each question asked.

Interviewer - Ok, Anmol I would ask you few questions in different fields and we would start with Operating systems, So you had operating systems in your course right. Define Operating systems ?
Me - Its an interface between user and machine

Interviewer - Can you explain me little bit dipper
Me - I told him application are managed, this that.. machine code conversion and all.

Interviewer -

What are processes ? (I don't remember the exact order of these questions)
What are threads ?
What is multiprocessing ?
What is Memory Management ?
How memory will be allocated if RAM is full ?
What is Virtual Memory ?
If hard disk is 10 GB and RAM is 1 GB, what would be the size of virtual memory ?
Can we change the value of virtual memory allocated ?
What is multi threading ?

I answered all, he told good enough, Lets move to next section.

Interviewer - Ok How much you rate yourself in networking out of 5, just be frank
Me - Sir I don't love reading networking and I don't like that much so I would rate myself as 2.

Interviewer - Ok, I would ask some very simple questions, I am sure you can answer them .

Explain OSI Layers ?
Where does the http protocol lies ?
What is DNS Server ?
In Layman language, you explain a person who don't know anything about all these high funda IT thing, What is DNS

Me - I answered, Like everyone can't remember IP addresses, but they can remember the names

Interviewer -

What is sub netting ?
What is subnet ?
Why we need a subnet ?

I answered all not to the point, but satisfactorily.

Interviewer - You are good enough in networking, why you are saying that you are not good. He gave me a paper and pencil and told me that I would like to check you C Skills, Fine with C ?
Me - yes sir

Interviewer - Ok, write a program to print hello world without semicolon ? He insisted to write from the header itself from the beginning
Me - I wrote this -
#include
void main()
{
while(printf("hello world"))
}
But I was not sure. I told him that sir, I think it is not possible because if the ; (semicolon ) is no there between the braces, compiler won't read a single line. I got confused....:(

Interviewer - Ok, sir no need to think more, fine enough. He wrote some code on his laptop and showed it to me
#include
void main()
{
char *p;
printf("%d %d",sizeof(*p), sizeof(p));
}
What output it would give ?
Me - It should give 1,2 on a 32 bit compiler . He repeated 1,2 or 1 space 2. I told again 1,2 . But I rectified 1 space 2.

Interviewer - Gave me another code from C on his laptop
#include
void main()
{
printf("%d", out);
}
int out = 100;
What will be the output or will it give an error ?
Me - First I told that it would print 100, but later i recognized its a c program so it couldn't identify "out" variable. So I changed my answer and told, Sir it would not give an output so surely it would give an error.

Interviewer - Ok, then lets move on to another section. You have read electronics in your first year. Just few basic questions.
Me - Yes sir, we read it in first year. ( I knew I would not be able to answer anything in this section)

Interviewer -

What is Rectifier ?
What is inverter ?
What are multiplexers ?
What is difference between a micro controller and a micro processor ?
What are diodes ?
What is .... (Some complex electronic equipment name, I don't remember )

Me - I didn't answered a single questions, I was blank. I told him that we read it long back. He was not satisfied.

Interviewer - Electronics pura gol hai (You know nothing in electronics) .

Interviewer - What does CE means written on the back of electronic equipments, you have seen that ? in calculators..

Me - Sorry sir, I don't know. But if I would guess, is it something related to environment .

Interviewer - No, ok leave. Go and check at your home.

Interviewer - Ok lets move on to another section - Data Structures . Fine enough, you should be able to answer ?
Me - Yes sir

Interviewer - Define data structure ?
Me - structured data ... array, link list

Interviewer - Just recollect and define it in a nice manner, elaborate it ?
Me - told something....

Interviewer - You told array, what is array ?
How array is stored ?
Me -answered.

Interviewer - What is an algorithm ?
Me - I told him steps to do a work.

Interviewer - Elaborate more? Can you give an example ?
Me - Then I explained him with a example of motor fitting process. How machine would be brought first, then screws, then screw driver.. this that....blah blah

Interviewer - I would like to know, how well suited you are for support engineer. I would give you a case to troubleshoot. Just explain me how you troubleshoot ?
Case was - You are suddenly unable to connect to internet. So what you would do ?
Me - I explained him what all we do when Tata Indicom connection goes. I was using the friend word again and again. Like I would ask my friend. Check my friend connection...

Interviewer - Everything friend is doing, friend friend ..
Me - No sir, Of course I am doing the things, I am asking him. As he is able to connect and I'm not

Interviewer - Ok, Anmol , I am done with this. You have anything to ask to me ?
Me - Sir, I would like to know, how long you have been in Microsoft ?
Interviewer - he told abt his profile and work culture ...

Interviewer - Ok, so Anmol, I am sending you to HR Round, See you know things, You need to be more confident, So thats what I would like to see in the next round.
Me - Yes sir . Thank you (Then I left and waited outside)

Tech HR Interview round for Microsoft GTSC (Round 2) - Around 15 minutes
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In this round the person, who gave the PPT, was the HR. Aged around 45 with 7+ years of experience at Microsoft. Really cool person. He was pleased with me in this round. He remembered me due to the "answer I gave in PPT that I would like to be support engineer for whole my life" :) . Later I changed it to I would like to live with Microsoft whole life.

Interviewer - Hello Anmol
Me - Good evening sir
Interviewer - Good Evening

Interviewer - Tell me about yourself ..
Me - :)

Interviewer - What business it is (my family business) ?
Me - told

Interviewer - What companies you are placed ?

Me - TCS and Wipro.

Interviewer - How is that everyone out there is placed in TCS ?
Me - Told him 50000 need is there, if anyone is good enough, he will get in that 50k list.

Interviewer - Would you like to join those companies ?

Me - No sir, I would not join consultancy at all. I explained him that I would like to work at product based company, develop products, support for the products what the company is developing rather than supporting products of others. (Tried to maintain what they needed)

Interviewer - So, how did you get selected in all these projects ?
Me - Explained.

Interviewer - Anmol, looking at your profile, I would like to suggest you one thing. My Job is not just taking interviews, but also to help....... you should go for higher studies, your parents can support you as you told its a good business, your profile is really good. We need today engineers like you who should go for higher studies and come back and serve for development. You should create Jobs, be entrepreneur.
Me - I told him, that I agree with you sir, but at this stage, I would like to join the industry first. Then I told him that I already have a lot of experience with IITs, I know what good profs are, what is an IIT. I have only 95 %le in GATE, not fair enough to get into a IIT. Blah...Blah...So I would like to know what the industry is. Of course if an industry would sponsor me, I would like to go for higher studies ( Talk with this interviewer was going in more of conversational way, rather than just questioning. I am presenting it just to make my friends understand the scene)

Interviewer - Ok, Why you chose IT ? Why you came to CUSAT ? How you came CUSAT ?
Me - I explained him that here I was getting IT branch so I came, that when I entered class XI, I never knew a IIT exists and my younger brother is an IITian now. Then I told him that I use to perform better than the topper girl of my class in class Xth in IT subject always. So I loved this IT from there itself. Blah Blah...Simply crap
Me - I love this IT. I use windows and other Microsoft products and I love working on it. I use windows server that is free for 180 days, My PC never get a virus from last 3 years. This that. I am happy that I can troubleshoot the problems of others PCs.

Interviewer - Would you like to prepare well for GATE again dropping one year, or join the Post graduate courses after going in industry.. like that
Me - I would not like to drop a year, as we need to keep moving. (Told my experience at engineering entrance exams preparation, when I dropped 1 year). I would like to join PG if industry sponsors me.

(I tried to use the word troubleshoot and support wherever possible)

Interviewer - Ok, I would like to give you a simple puzzle. I would like to see how well you suit in support industry
He gave me a case - I am connecting to my TV, but everything is gone, no picture is coming, its blurred dots only.. My TV is connected to a DVD Player and a cable connection. I call you the support engineer, what you would do. How you would troubleshoot ?
Me - I explained him with basic steps

Interviewer - Are you satisfied with this troubleshooting ? Not quite enough no. Because I called you to rectify and help me watch my favorite channel, but you didn't helped me
Me - ( I was also not happy, as i felt i could have gave more details like a call center :), you understand )

Interviewer - There was a little conversation, few more questions then he told me if I would like to ask any question to him ?
Me - Sir in silicon valley a lot new companies are formed by Microsoft employees, but in India we don't have that trend ?
( he was reluctant to answer, he just told in India also we have same thing, but later kept quite). Anyway he was happy with me and told me to wait outside. He told that lets see your tech, tried to find out who took my tech round.
He called me once again, when I was sitting outside and told, not to tell questions of the interview to others.

Managerial HR Interview round for Microsoft GTSC (Round 3) - Around 45 minutes
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One of the lady HR came to me and asked if I was Anmol, while I was waiting outside. This was the round that I personally think didn't went the way it should have. Three Lady HRs were there to interview me. ( They just wanted to know how well I'm suited to their work profile and thats why they digged all the time during the interview).This round was really tough for me, all time questions and questions and questions and nothing else. 3 persons were creating questions for a single "Anmol" :( , as I was the first person to enter into the third round out of 16 students selected for interview round. First 6-7 were asked to leave for the day in between itself after round 1 or round 2 or after both.
I entered the room and they greeted, I told good evening to everyone.

Itvw1 - We would like to know about Anmol from Anmol .
Me - :)

Itvw2 - What kind of business is of your family ?
Me - told

They asked unlimited no of questions here both Itvw1 and Itvw2 together, meanwhile Itvw3 always kept quite as she was entering in the HR industry, so I think she was undergoing her training with these two senior HRs. But yes, in between she was also suggesting them the questions to ask in their ear :).

Invw1 - How you did these projects at IITs ?
Me - explained

Invw2 - How you get into CUSAT ? What was your rank ?
Me -explained

Invw1 - You didn't get any other college ?
Invw2 - What was your rank at CUSAT ?
Me - explained them that I couldn't get a IIT JEE rank and AIEEE rank was not close enough to give me a IT branch or CS branch any other college ... blah blah

Questions were asked one after other by both interviewers -
Invw1 - Which companies you are placed ?
Me - Wipro and TCS

Invw1 - What is the work profile ?
Me - I told him ASE, but no such profile is there, we may end up working on mainframe or development. I tried to show TCS and Wipro as poor company. We don't have freedom, I have asked my seniors

Invw2 - What would you choose between TCS and Wipro ?
Me - Based on what I have discussed with my friends and seniors, I would join TCS, told why and all.....

Invw1 - You like this Job ? (Referring to above TCS job)
Me - No Ma'am, I don't like consulting industry. I would like to join a company which makes its own product, I would love to support it and work on it.

Invw - If you not join any company what would you do ?
Me - Ma'am, I believe I would be selected in Microsoft and would like to work on the products company develops and all like that......

Invw2 - If you don't like TCS, why you got placement in it ?
Intw1 - If you are sure that you would not join TCS, why you went for its interview ?
Me - told first job, this that.....

Invw - Why don't you go for higher studies ?
Me - told

Invw - What companies you would join if you couldn't get into Microsoft ?
Me - I told I'm confident that I will be selected in MS.

Invw1 - You didn't answered my question, if you are not selected in MS, which companies you would join ?
Me - I would prefer to stay with my higher studies, if I couldn't get into Microsoft, I have applied for CDAC and ISRO, I would join those

Invw1 - Other than Microsoft what other companies you have applied for ?
Me - Ma'am no other companies, I have applied .

Invw1 - What kind of Job profile you would like to join ?
Me - Of course, since I have done a lot of research projects, I would like to go for research projects, next I would like to go for developer. I gave the example of slide they showed in the PPT

This was the answer they were not happy with, because they don't want to hear that developers want to join GTSC

Invw1 - What companies you would apply for if not selected ?
Me - Google, Oracle, Motorola

This was again a mistake, I should have known some names in the industry who they work on this kind of Support center as of GTSC

Intvw2 - Why you would like to join Microsoft ?
Me - explained referencing the slide that multiple options, one can work as support engineers, developer, move to testing phase, like that.... blah blah..

Intrw - Where do you see yourself after 5 years ?
Intrw2 - How many years would you like to stay as support engineer, what would you do in future ?
Me - explained him that I would like to become a project leader after 5-10 years, I don't know why they made faces on this. I told them - I had conversation with industry people, they say 3-4 years in fair enough to move on. Explained what I would like to be. Gave Gave reference to PPT that I can be support engineer, researcher, developer, testing.
But one thing was clear they do not wanted developers in GTSC

Intvw - Why would you like to start your career with GTSC, We would like to introduce your name to Microsoft Hyderabad development section ?
Me - (Totally confused ) I told No Ma'am, I know customer is the key, I gave example of my family business, that customers come, we sell. We need to understand our customers. like that blah blah

Then these questions -

What product based company visited your campus ?
What other companies visited ?
Why you would not go for higher studies ?
What are your values in life ?
Have you ever been dishonest ?
Have you ever felt that you should have been honest on that occasion ?
Have you been dishonest in saying that, you would not join either TCS or Wipro ? - Tough

Intvw - What are the qualities you should have to handle customers ?
me - We need to be polite, Understand needs of the customer. We need to think the customer way rather than thinking Technical way.

What you think one needs when he wants to satisfy a customer ?
What you would do being a support engineer ?

Then these all questions ......

What is your passion ?
Your strengths ?
Your weaknesses ?
What is a good team player ?
How you are a good team player ?

Intrw - What friends would tell about Anmol, if we ask them ?

Me - They would say I am good at studies, I then I have been cooperative. I helped them alot of times

Intrw2 - What your friends suggest you to improve ?

Me - Explained them with my weakness, that I should not be arrogant. I get angry with people when I don't find they are performing well. So I would not like to ... blah blah

Intrw - Are you just perfect ? You have already come over your weakness also ?
Intrw - You already said, you are good for Microsoft ?

Me - No then explained blah blah...

The again they started ....

Do you have many friends ? - I told I have few, not many
What kind of life you live ? - told more of virtual life
What was the toughest decision in your life ? - told something related to my personal life
Other than the personal aspect, what mistakes you have done in your life ? She asked in the context that, If I made any mistakes in my Work sometime (I couldn't get this context at that moment during the interview So - I told them that I don't remember any such thing.
You are saying that you don't make mistakes ? - (They digged too much on this)
Again you are projecting that you are the perfect guy, you are good at everything ?
You have any problem with night shifts ?

Interv - You are passionate about your work , what other than technology you are passionate ?
Me - Explained him about the way I did projects and then Dhishna Fest online Event. We need to find out puzzles for the event, this that.... blah blah

You work in technology, IT Industry, what you understand with this ?
Where you see yourself in this IT Industry ?

Me - Again the same thing , this that... (Again conflict, developer or support engineer) . Now to convince them, I told in PPT itself there was, you would not like to be support engineer for your whole life, so you can move on to this that)

My resume and I projected that I love development and research, that was my strong point. But I don't know like they were not at all interested in this

List is more, just think of any other HR interview question and she must have asked that, I only remember this much of this round. I kept cool during whole round, smiling and just giving answers whatever came in my mind.

At the end they asked me, if I would like to ask anything to them. I asked them how many years they are in Microsoft and which all colleges they are coming. Itw2 from Bombay University with MBA from Symbiosis with 3-4 years industry experience and Intw1 Btech from nagpur university and then going for MBA and then as a HR 1 year of experience.

Itw3 was not a engineer at all, she did her MBA a year ago and joined Microsoft..

Lastly I was asked to leave and they told me that results would be conveyed to your placement officer today or tomorrow.

Finally result came around 7 PM on 22 march itself, I am Not Selected.
1 Girl and Boy from FISAT and 1 Girl (Aishwarya) from EC at CUSAT was selected
Please add your comments ! Would help me to improve

Wipro Infotech Interview

2011-02-16T21:15:00.006+05:30

Today I had my Wipro Infotech Interview through Shreds Kerala recruitment agency and would like to share my experience with Wipro.
Stage I - Shreds Screening Test
This was a screening test by Shreds Kerala to cut the no of candidates to be sent for the second round of the recruitment process. Test was conducted at Ashirbhavan, Ernakulam North, Kochi around 10 AM on 15 Feb, 2011. The eligibility criteria was 70% above in X, XII and B. Tech. with no current arrears/ Backlogs. Other than this there should not be more than 1 year gap in study. Total around 1000 students gave the screening test from different colleges in Kerala.
Screening test was paper based aptitude test. It had total of 45 questions, 3 sections, 15 questions each. Time alloted was 40 minutes. Sections were on General aptitude, analytical reasoning and sentence completion (Verbal Skills). Questions were of easy level, with no word meanings in verbal section and data sufficiency type of questions in analytical reasoning. Questions were on "Sets" in Aptitude section. (Suggestion : Go for such questions as solving 1 can help you solve similar 2-3 questions and score more) . Pictorial reasoning was there other than these all. Questions were easy, but speed was needed. I attempted 15 in verbal, 10 in aptitude and 13 in verbal reasoning approx. Not all correct. Since there was no negative marking I answered all the questions at the end.
Other than this in this screening test itself, we were asked to write a Essay on "Technical Education scene in Kerala" . We were asked to write 1 page essay on it in 20 minutes. I wrote something...
So finally the results came after 3 hrs around 1 PM on Feb 15, and I was shortlisted for next stage.

Stage II - Wipro Online Aptitude Test
So, at the next stage at KMEA Engineering college, Cochin from 8 AM onwards on 16th February, 2011 we had our online test. There were long pages to be filled up there on the online test site, each and everything about us. Finally we saw the test pattern - 3 sections, total 50 questions, 60 minutes duration. There was no negative marking. Sections were divided in Verbal Reasoning, Aptitude, Customer service orientation. Verbal reasoning and Aptitude consists of 20 - 20 questions each and Customer Service orientation had 10 questions. So I started the test. (Suggestion - Few people struggled with online test pattern system, as they didn't had any exposure to it and lost it. Better practice some online tests from gild.com before you go for online test) . Wipro online test software was good and gave option to switch to any section and any question anywhere and bookmark a question for review as well. I attempted all the questions. Scores were not declared but I did well in Aptitude section. Customer Service Orientation was easy 10 marks section, so don't miss it. Verbal few answers were tricky and I was not sure with them.
After 1 hr of Online Test, shortlisting for online test came around 12 PM, and I was in. They took about 70 % of the students, those who attended the online test for the next round.

Break - Pre Placement Talk
After announcing the results for online test shortlisting, they had a quick PPT and introduced us to the HRs who came for placements. There was a team of 11 persons. Main HR was Miss Ann (around 30-35 yrs). Then Mr Arvind (Late 20s) , Mr Bhupati (35 yrs around), and Mr. Varghese (40 above) were from technical section. All were looking cool. So the offer the Wipro came with was 2.75-3.25 Lpa based on training performance. Other than this, they were offering relocation expenses, travel allowance, 14 Lacs personal accidental insurance cover, medical cover, spouse insurance, and other things above CTC of 3.25. It was nice to hear. Personally I think, whole CTC was around 3.5 Lpa including all these.
During training period they were offering Rs 15,100 per month for first 3 months. There was a service bond total of 15 months of Rs 75000. That was needed to pay only if a person leaves Wipro before completion of 15 months, after joining .

Stage III - Group discussion
Here we were divided in groups of 15 each. There were two people from Wipro to evaluate us, they started with short intro about ourself ( Name and branch, college). So there were 6 boys and 9 girls in my group. Topic of the GD was - "Democracy is good for development" . So Rohit John from TocH college started the topic discussion and he told in favor of the topic. Suddenly I made my mind, to say in against as a good speaker was there in favor of the topic. So next to him I started speaking. I was simply making baseless points sometimes, as it was difficult to say that non democratic country is better to a democratic country, but I managed. 2-3 others also spoke in against of the topic.
Few girls joined the discussion, but it was going in a cool manner. Discussion didn't took a heated stage. Those who grabbed the opportunity were able to speak and people were listening silently to everyone. But some were there who didn't spoke a word. So finally we were asked to summarize the topic after 15 minutes of the discussion and I added a statement to summary that "Democracy is good but not necessary for development" . Results for GD were announced quickly. Those who didn't spoke a single word they lost. One girl spoke only 2 lines during whole GD, and she was in. So, thing was very clear, we need to talk atleast something in GD.

Stage IV - Essay Writing
So after getting shortlisted from GD round, I was confident enough. We were asked to write a quick essay on "My Home Town" in 10 minutes, in this round. I gave the topic name as "Gaya - Land of Lords", my hometown being Gaya in Bihar. It was not a elimination round and they asked to attach a CV to that essay page and a photograph.

Stage V - Wipro Technical Interview
Finally, after 15-20 minutes of completion of Essay Writing stage, my name for Technical interview round appeared. I was not much frightened as I was not so serious about Wipro ( I already had an offer from TCS ). Few Persons were coming out from the interview, they told that questions are not in deep.
So interview starts -
Me - Good Morning sir
Interviewer - Yes Anmol

He went through my resume, and saw my projects and all.
Interviewer - Introduce yourself in very short .
Me - I just gave a short intro and kept quiet.

Interviewer - So, you have done a lot of projects. he pointed out at IIT Kgp project of 2009 in my resume. Topic of the project was "Development of Multi modal user interface for common people in India". So this is your recent project.
Me - No sir, this was the very first project I did in 2009 (I arranged the things in chronological order)

Interviewer - Oh! so which is recent
Me - IIT Bombay one sir.

Interviewer - Ok, this multi modal project, explain it in short.
Me - Small discussion was there on things, for 1 minute on this project.

Interviewer - On which language, you did this project.
Me - in C#

Interviewer - How did you get admission in Cochin University ? (He asked me because, I was a single Hindi speaking person, not a native of Kerala in whole group of students that was there)
Me - There was a common admission test, I got selected through that.

Interviewer - How do you like things in your college ? you like the place ?
Me - Yes sir, everything is fine. Then i paused.
I should say kerala is quite good ( Just to butter him :) )

Interviewer - Looking at my resume, so what all subjects you have in your final year.
Me - I named them, He listed to Software project management

Interviewer - You know waterfall model.
Me - answered

Interviewer - What is spiral model
Me - answered.

Interviewer - So, you had databases, you have studied it.
Me - Yes sir, we had it in our course.

Interviewer - What is primary Key ?
What is Foreign Key ?
Me - answered both

Interviewer - So these all Rational Rose, Lotus Symphony etc you have used them
Me - Yes sir, I have used them. I'm not proficient in it, but i had a little exposure to them.

Interviewer - Why did you used Rational Rose
Me - for class diagrams sir

Interviewer - What is a sequence diagram
Me - Answered something, I didn't knew the exact answer.

Interviewer - So when did you learned all these things, it was in your syllabus.
Me - Sir few projects that i did had restriction to use these all, so I learned this that time.

Interviewer - Ok Anmol, wait for the HR round outside. We are done with this.
Me - May I leave sir ?
Interviewer - Yes you can leave.
I came out from interview room. Things went fine. Whole technical round was for 15 minutes around.

Stage VI - Wipro HR Interview
After 20-25 minutes i was called for an HR interview. As i entered the room the interviewer, Mr Arvind, said Hi to me. I replied with a Hi. He was the one, who said in the morning not to say sir. We at wipro feel that sir is a abusing word. I took my seat.

Interviewer - So Anmol, just introduce yourself.
Me - did

Interviewer - Tell me something which is not there in the resume
Me - (I didn't expected this question, nothing was there in my mind that time) . I started repeating my strengths, as good team player and self motivated.

Then few straight questions were there in this round -
Interviewer - Why you feel you are a good team player ?
What are the qualities of a good team player ?
Where you see yourself after 5 years ?
How would you achieve that ?

Interviewer - Tell me something which is not at all in your resume, something interesting .
Me - Sir I do calligraphy writing (he appreciated) . He watched my resume and checked that it was written there and smiled and all

Lot of questions were there in this round, I answered them in a normal manner
Interviewer - What you do on weekend ?
What places you go around on weekends ?
What kind of movies you watch ?

Interviewer - What kind of person you are ? He said two words to choose one for me. I was unable to understand those words.
Me - Sorry Sir !, but I couldn't understand what you meant.

Interviewer - Ok, Do you go deep in the things or just see things from above
Me - I would see the thing, if it demands to go deeper, then I would, otherwise I would just go from above and quick.

Interviewer - Why would you like to join Wipro ?
Me - Sir, Wipro is third largest company in India and its quite good company for freshers. Next thing is its offering very good salary for a fresher.

Interviewer - But this is not the best salary, no ?
Me - (He wanted to know I was happy with it or not). Sir as far as I know, this is the best salary for a fresher in the marked, like 3.25 + incentives is quite good.

Interviewer - But, that is not the fixed, you may get 2.75 only ?
Me - Sir, I believe that I can get 3.25 Lakhs, as I would work hard and perform well and learn more and more at Wipro.

Interviewer - So what are your interests, which subjects you like or, is there any subject you don't like ?
Me - ( I was not worried much as it was HR round, I knew) . I like OS, Distributed computing, I personally don't have interest in networking

Interviewer - Why you don't like networking ?
Me - Sir Its a interesting subject, but for me it is not so much interesting

Interviewer - Say one thing, Interesting or not interesting ?
Me - Ok, not interesting for me. (He was just grilling)

Interviewer - Why ?
Me - Thought for a second, then - I like learning more about things going inside a computer than how they are communicating. ( He smiled and was satisfied with the answer i feel, as it was a HR round)

Interviewer - How did you got these internships, you had any source ?
Me - I explained him, that i don't have any sources and I got though applications invited every year. I was the one to get selected along with others.

With that it was almost over. HR interview went for around 10-15 minutes
Interviewer - So We are done with this round Anmol, few quick questions ...
They were all about location constraints, agree to wipro bond and all

He told me to fill a personal form, and we were needed to give all the details in that form. I filled it and submitted it. Finally Shreds volunteers told me that I can leave and results would come on shreds website on Monday, i.e. 21 February

Results came on 22 Feb. Selected !

My First Interview - TCS

2010-12-10T19:48:00.005+05:30

December 10, 2010 my first blog is here on my experience at TCS interview. I got 75 % overall Xth onwards and got a direct interview opportunity. So no written or online test was there for me.

Sharp at 8:30 AM, I was at the interview site. We got a form for filling our details. Spaces were there for personal details, marks, year gap, projects, PAN No, Passport No etc. I was not having my passport size photo with me to be affixed on that form. Somehow my friends Rajesh and Satya managed to get me my passport size photo within half an hour (Thanks to both of them). We all filled our forms within half an hour and were told to wait for the interview. (Suggestion - Have at least 2 copies of resume and photos always with you)

Waiting continued..we were watching people coming out from interview hall excited, smiling, and with many other faces. People rushing to them to know the questions.... till 12:30 PM.

My turn for the first round of interview that was technical, came around 12:30 PM. I entered the hall. Interviewer aged 35 above greeted with handshake and a smile. I too smiled, felt comfortable. He went through the form and the resume attached with it. He was quite impressed with my resume. Particularly looking at my projects, he made a posture like fantastic. This went for 30-45 sec.

Now interview starts

Interviewer : So, Anmol I am quite impressed with your resume, I have never seen this before. Why are these Academic and Research Projects separately ?
Me : Sir, I did a lot of projects at different IITs which were research based and I got a IIT feel there and learned alot there. That's why I have mentioned them separately.

Interviewer : So you did under Prof D. B. Phatak.
Me : Yes sir, he is one of the top 36th most powerful persons in India for 2009 ranking

Interviewer : How you manged that ?
Me : Sir I mailed a lot of professors, we get 2 months summer vacation, 1 month winter vacation. I utilized my time in that (explained him how I got that IITB internship along with others from 13 different colleges, NITs)

Interviewer : You have done projects under some very good professors, just in short tell me about these projects, just to make me understand.

Comment - I didn't knew at that moment that he is impressed with the name of Prof. D. B. Phatak in my resume

Me : "He pointed his fingers on IIT B project". This project was on development of multimedia integration. At present a no. of professors at IITs create lectures and publish them over the internet. But they need a studio for this which would cost crores. (This only I got at the moment, crores, i don't think :) ) . But the colleges like Cochin university can't afford those studios. So we were developing a software that they can install in their laptops, integrate videos, lectures, slides, ppts etc and create the lectures and publish them over the internet.

Interviewer : So they can record lectures on their laptops with webcam
Me : Yes sir, we have webcams in our laptops, they can record their voices video there.

Interviewer : Ok, next IIT Kharagpur, project ? Speech based interface design. What you did in that ?
Me : ( I knew almost nothing about speech based interface because that was not my work at internship) I started explaining him, that today we say technology is everywhere, but still it is away from the reach of common people in India. So if a common people don't know about Google, this doesn't mean technology is not for them. ( He said : Right ) . So we developed a interface Blah Blah

Interviewer : But how you managed to recognize the voice of a person to give instructions to the system.
Me : Then i started, but I stopped and asked him, sir are you comfortable with Hindi. He told no, I'm ok with English, but you can say in this context. I told him that if a person is saying "onn" (means 1 in Malayalam) . So we have the frequency stored in the database , this frequency of a Keralite person means "o" "o" "n" . So we can then recognize with frequency that he told "onn" and search the term.

Interviewer : Ok, next third project.
Me : This project was development of multimodal user interfaces for common people in India. Here we present a the common people a icon of Indian railways, so there he can search with it. Here the common people refers to village people, rickshaw pullers. Blah Blah..
Again, currently there is a site : www.nid.iitkgp.ernet.in . (he noted that site)

Interviewer : ok, so what is SDLC ?
Me : Software development life cycle

Interviewer : What are different stages in it ?
Me : I started telling, he helped me when I forgot to tell "Deployment" phase. He noted these steps on a paper.

Interviewer : So what is your recent project ?
Me : online C Compiler

Interviewer : yes so what have you done during your analysis phase ? (something unexpected for me)
Me : We have gathered a survey, on about 100 people.

Interviewer : So what is the outcome of that phase ?
Me : (I thought for some time) . Sir we have gathered data on excel sheet. (He noted that down)

Interviewer : What in design phase ?
Me : We have a working prototype for the project, and architecture of the whole project.

Interviewer : So you have the SDD (noted) . What you do in testing phase ?
Me : Sir, we check for the errors in the program.

Interviewer : What you plan in that, when you plan that ?
Me : First i told him development phase (then he told no and i thought again) then i told him analysis phase

Interviewer : Then he told you are right, but where we plan test cases
Me : I had no idea so I kept silent, then he explained,. I too discussed the things with him. cleared the doubts.

Interviewer : I am teaching you also, these all phases you have to follow. Prof like D . B. Phatak is very highly qualified persons, he has the idea in his mind, so they make you do the work. But our client would like to document each phase, then only you can proceed to next phase. Blah Blah
( I realized, he is quite impressed with my work under Prof D. B. Phatak)

Now he turned, and checked my CV, so you have done C, C++. C# . Now he started the real interview leaving all discussions apart.

Interviewer : very quickly answer me these questions, 20 seconds . Difference between C and C++

Next OOPS properties

Next difference between encapsulation and abstraction

What encapsulation does

Me : answered all quickly

Interviewer : What is abstract class ?

Me : I was blank, didn't answered. He told me come out of previous discussions. Told me the answer

Interviewer : What is enumerated data types ?

Me : Explained somehow, he helped. Then asked me to write the code . I wrote a wrong code something . Again he discussed and told me the things.

Interviewer : You don't know programming at all

Interviewer : What is overloading ?

Me : Explained

Interviewer : Difference between Char and Varchar ?

Me : I answered something wrong ! He told me that I have never heard such a high funda difference between them. Then he explained

Interviewer : So Anmol, you are not answering the questions, it don't looks like you had a good interview. What do you feel ?

Me : I feel sir, I had a good interview and I have answered

Interviewer : But more than 50 % of the questions I have answered ?

Me : But still I feel I would be selected sir, some smile and something :) I don't know what to say ....

Interviewer : What is the difference between, do while and for loop ?

Me : answered

Interviewer : Ok, last two questions for you ? What is Ohms Law ?

Me : Didn't answered ! ( Who cares in IT someone would ask that, he looked at me with disappointment) . Saw my 10th percentage as 86 %, then told something :(

Interviewer : What is 1/sin(theta) ?

Me : I told sin (inverse) theta. He told that is a notation. Then asked me what is tan theta, tan 45, 1/cosec(theta) . Finally I got what he meant by 1/sin(theta)

Interviewer : What is Pythagoras Theorem ?

Me : I told lenth(square) + breadth(square) = hypotenuse(square) . He pointed breadth, I corrected

Interviewer : So what you learned from the interview ?

Me : We need to learn programming, rather than going for Google Search !

We had a small talk again on the topic Google search again, what industry does blah blah. Then I asked him, about expansion plans of TCS. I made a point that still many areas are lacking technology. He told nicely taken. Ok you can leave. Whole technical went for around 40-45 minutes

There my Technical round got over and I went for a HR Round. But suddenly they announced, that we are going for a break, so come after 20 minutes. We waited there. Then after 40-45 minutes. I got a call for HR Round. HR seemed to be in hurry, aged around 30. I entered, he asked me to take my seat

HR : Introduce yourself in short

Where do you see yourself after 5 years

What are the qualities of a project manager you see in yourself ?

What you know about TCS ?

Any location constraints ?

Any technology constraints ?

What are the recent advancements in IT you have heard of ?

Any questions you would like to ask ?

I answered something in all questions, then asked him if we can do our training during our VIIIth semester, he told no after completion only, explained that it can be anywhere, not necessary at cochin. Finally told me to leave.

HR Round was very quick, just 5 minutes, even less.

I came out, waited for around 40-45 minutes for MR. Then got the call. Mr Arun aged 40-45, was the HR in this round.

Interviewer : Introduce yourself ?

Me : I forgot my own introduction there, completed it in 4-5 lines ( Don't know what happened to me ) .

Then he told about Bond of TCS, this that, Told me that ok, you can leave now. Come for the results tomorrow .

Finally results came on 11th December, and I made it.