CDC Chronicles

Introduction

Hello! I am Pranav Gupta, a fourth year undergraduate in the Department of Mathematics, IIT Kharagpur. I was offered the role of Software Engineer Intern at Rubrik, Palo Alto for Summer 2022 (via the internship drive of IIT Kharagpur).

Coding Rounds

I appeared for coding rounds of almost all Day-1 and Day-2 companies (only Software and High Frequency Trading firms considered here). Quadeye and Quantbox were the only ones that shortlisted candidates based on their resumes.
A day before interviews were held, the list of shortlisted candidates was released. I was shortlisted for — Rubrik, AlphaGrep (Software & Quant), Microsoft (SWE), Quadeye (Quant & Systems), APT Portfolio (SDE), Sprinklr and NK Securities.

I decided the first three preferences for interviews with lot of care, deliberation and consultation. The first two choices were relatively “brave” and ambitious, while the third was a “safe” one. It was very less likely that I would have got the opportunity to be interviewed by more than three companies.

Interviews

Rubrik : 2 Technical Rounds + 1 HR Round
Round 1 — After a brief introduction, I was asked a question on graphs, involving concepts like Shortest Paths and Multi-Source BFS. After I’d explained my approach, I was asked to perform a dry run on a test case. When the interviewers were convinced of the correctness of my algorithm, they asked me to code it up. Later, some additional constraints were added and we discussed how one would modify the existing solution to account for the extra conditions.
Round 2 — This time, there was a problem which required Binary Search, Dynamic Programming and some basic Probability. After some pondering, I came up with a solution which I presented to the interviewer. As she seemed satisfied, I went ahead and implemented it. At this point I was informed that I will have an HR round soon.
Round 3 — The HR round started with a discussion on a project that I’d done on Genetic Algorithms. The interviewer went on to ask me what my long-term plans were, if I was interested in going for higher studies, and why I was interested in joining Rubrik. In addition to this there was a brief discussion on my hobby of reading. She then went on to tell how her experience in the company had been so far. After some chit-chat she said that a PlaceCom member will get in touch with me to let me know if I was selected or not.
All the interviewers were very friendly and easy-going. I was a bit nervous before my first interview, but it was a pleasant surprise to see how relaxed everyone was.

Quadeye : 1 Technical Round
I was asked some questions on Probability, primality test and square roots. Then I was asked to write a program to implement a Queue. My initial implementation contained a memory leak, which I corrected once the interviewer pointed it out. The interview ended with him narrating how his experience in the company had been so far. The interviewer appeared favourably inclined to offer me the internship in Quant role.

AlphaGrep : 1 Technical Round (could not qualify for further rounds)
Although this was just one round, I was interviewed by 3 interviewers one after another. The first one, I believe, was a Quant guy, as he asked questions on Probability (mostly on expected values). After this, the second interviewer joined, and I was given a question on Binary-Trees (which I could only solve after a hint). He then gave me another algorithmic problem, after which he proceeded to test my knowledge of Object Oriented Programming. I was asked if I know Operating Systems, to which I replied in the negative. Then the third interviewer joined and asked me to implement the ‘vector’ class. They wrapped up the interview with a problem on Linked-Lists.

By noon, I was informed that I have offers from Rubrik and Quadeye (Quant). Whew!
I didn’t have to sit for other interviews and called it a day.

Key Takeaways

1. Good communication skills are a plus. Always think out loud. If you feel the problem statement is unclear, ask questions. The interviewers are usually very helpful and asking them for clarification won’t affect your candidature negatively.
2. Keep things simple. One doesn’t need to go after tons of resources. I chose the ones I liked and stuck to them. I practised on Codeforces and InterviewBit almost exclusively.
3. Start with competitive programming as early as you can (guilty of not doing this). Introduction to Algorithms by CLRS is a wonderful book to learn Data Structures and Algorithms. Websites like cp-algorithms and HackerEarth are great resources for tutorials.
4. Having a decent CGPA never hurts. High Frequency Trading firms usually have a 9+ cutoff. Also, a good CGPA can make up for a suboptimal JEE rank (yes, some HFTs look at your JEE ranks!).
5. Lastly, write clean code with proper spacing, indentation and appropriate variable names. Make functions wherever required, so that you don’t end up writing the entire code in ‘main’.

The internship season gets quite taxing and can at times get the better of you. I can’t stress this enough - keep in touch with your peers. I am indebted to all my seniors for guiding me throughout the process. To the PlaceCom members who entertained my persistent queries and all my friends who believed in me and were always there — Thank you!!

Feel free to ping me if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to help.
Cheerio !!