The entire selection process was divided into 3 stages:
1. Coding, Computer Science Fundamentals and Aptitude test on the platform Hackerearth.
2. Group Discussion
3. Personal Interviews comprising of Technical Round, Managerial Round and HR.
All the above three stages acted as a filtering mechanism for the subsequent stage(s).
Close to 80 students sat for the coding round and 36 were selected.
The coding Round on Hackerearth consisted of about 40 MCQs from Computer Science Fundamentals like C, Data Structures, Algorithms, Java and Quantitative Aptitude in addition to 3 Coding Problems of Easy to Hard difficulty. Time Allowed-> 2hrs.
36 Students selected in the Coding round were then divided among 3 groups of 12 each for GD round. Interesting topics were given to all the groups and typical GD lasted for about 30 mins for each group.
21 Students were then selected from the GD round.
By the time Personal Interviews started, it was already around 4-5pm.
Candidates were then called in for a 1:1 Technical Round 1st. Typical Duration around 35 to 40 mins. Interesting discussion on projects, Algorithms, Data Structures, OOPs. Experience with Java was a plus.
I had 0 experience with Java but things turned out well for me. The interviewer was very friendly and was asking interesting questions. Enough chances to think and respond with a quality answer. Confidence, fluency with English and presence of mind can be helpful.
Right after the Technical Round, Candidates had to wait for their turn in Managerial Round. MR round was tricky and fun. Interesting situational questions were posed like you are so and so lead of your product team and a dash-dash issue occurs very unexpectedly, how will you deal with the situation. A couple of more questions of similar nature and a discussion on Software Product Development Life Cycle like how a software product's idea is first conceived and is later on turned into a full-fledged working platform.
Experience of MR- Positive. Friendly interviewer. Got to know about the insights of a lot of things including Product development, brainstorming, testing etc. Went on for about 35-40 mins.
Waiting for close to 2 hours after MR, came the turn for HR. It was around 10 pm now. HR round was the most fun as well as in some cases, a very critical round in regard to the final result.
Extremely interactive and friendly HR. No typical HR based questions as such but I was asked to tell all about my life so far. Discussion on what I felt were my weaknesses and strong points. How to overcome them and to be comfortable in and with every situation. Discussion on a few more things, which seemed was aimed to analyze my overall personality and get an assessment of it.
Overall Experience of HR: Very positive and Jolly. Ended in about 40-45 mins.
Overall Interview Experience: A very positive one and energetic. Fair and transparent. Quick results but a thorough evaluation of a candidate's overall skills(technical, managerial and behavioural).
Result: Selected. :) Announced same day at about 12:30 am. Offer letter was handed over to the selected 13 candidates right then and there itself. A smiling photo with the GL team. A big thank you and series of congratulatory greetings. And lights out after that.
PS: CTC offered was hiked in comparison to last year and the hike was kept undisclosed till the point we were handed over the Offer Letters. So be ready for surprises. :)
