So, we had 3 campuses on the same day. Forescout, NICE and Emerson. I was shortlisted for Emerson and NICE.
The Aptitude test for NICE was conducted a day earlier, which consisted of multiple sections:
General Aptitude
Core Java
DBMS
Operating Systems
And 2 coding questions. For me, both were simple coding questions based on arrays. I was lucky to get them, some people got questions of graphs, so be prepared. PPT and interview were scheduled the next day. There were 2 rounds. One technical, one technical + HR. 46 students were shortlisted for Interviews.
Immediately after the PPT, I was one of the first to go for the technical round. Actually I was not expecting for my round to be so early, and was way too nervous to appear for the round. The interviewer noticed it, offered me some water to drink and tried to calm me down by asking some general questions.
Technical Round:
Moving on to the technical, he was the senior frontend developer. And fortunately or unfortunately, our tech stacks were poles apart. I had no projects on web technologies, I had 2 in ML, one in android and one in DBMS. So, he was not that much interested into projects. He just asked me to explain them in brief.
In DBMS, he asked me to write a query to join 3 tables.
He asked about android studio, build.gradle, I didn't know much about it, but I told him how the code is compiled and how the apk file is formed. He wanted to ask about java, but I told him that I did the project by watching some YouTube videos, I knew only basics of Java and he started laughing. But still, he asked a few basic questions about Java, like what is public static void main?
Then, he moved on to python, since I had it in my resume, he asked a few data structures in python like set, list and list comprehension. I didn't know about list comprehension either. Although later I found out that I had used it previously, I was just not familiar with the term.
Next, he went on to OOPs and this is where the interview changed. In OOPs, he covered everything. No stone was left unturned, from classes and objects, to virtual functions, virtual destructors, he asked me everything. And I answered everything correctly. Interview lasted for about 1 - 1.25 hrs
But still, I was not much confident as my interview spanned double the time of others, and I was a bit nervous during it as well. But I was one of the first ones to get shortlisted for the HR round. So, be strong in one of the core aspects, if the tech stack of you and your interviewer does not match, the interview can be diverted to one of your technical skills / core subjects.
Technical + HR:
For the HR round, there was a panel of 2 members. One was the director of Engineering and the other was the Senior HR manager. Initially, they asked me to introduce myself. And from there on, they began to ask about the projects. They asked me to list down the requirements to design an application for the IT CCF (related to my project).
Then they asked about what was my main aim in my career? For me, I said it was to become a data scientist. So, they began asking questions regarding data science, like why do I want to become a data scientist? What is the difference between data science and machine learning? Will chatgpt replace data scientists? In which sector do I want to work with data science?
Then they asked me a tricky one, like if you want to estimate the number of cancer patients in a district, what will be the high level data that you'll require? They were just checking my thought process, there was no right or wrong answer.
Since I mentioned writing, making cricket videos in my resume, they asked me that how do I use data in making these videos?
They also asked what about my video editing career if I get selected? To which I replied that it's not a career and all 3 of us shared a laugh.
Then they asked about the things that I have achieved in technical, non-technical and academics and of which I am proud of.
And then finally, they asked me what I knew about NICE and whether I have any questions for them. I asked about how was their experience working with NICE, and what should I do to make the most out of my Final Year?
I was way more confident in HR than in technical, and it was really nice experience interacting with such senior personnel.
This round too lasted for about an hour or more.
Tips:
Focus on OOPs, seriously, if your OOPs is weak, it gets way more difficult for the interviewer to ask you questions.
If you don't know the answer to any question, try answering something related to it, don't directly say no especially if it is mentioned in your resume.
Work on some unique non-tech skill, learn something new about what you're passionate about. So you'll at least have something else to talk about rather than just technical areas. Both of the interviewers seemed impressed a little bit when I mentioned about script writing and video editing skills.
I don't know who needs to read this, but many of you might be going through a lot. Maybe all of your roommates are placed. Maybe you've been rejected by 5 companies. All you got to do, is just hang in there. Keep trying and finally your time will come. I was the last one to get placed in my room, and in the end, it didn't even matter. Writing this seems easy, but going through it has been rough, and now I know, that times like these do pass, if you're having one, it shall pass too. Trust Yourself, if you can pass in ESE just by studying a night earlier, you can definitely crack a bunch of interviews. It's just a matter of time, you will get there. And finally to quote Steve Jobs, "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish". Best Of Luck!!