CDC INTERNSHIPS

the relief!!

Hello friends. I am Kumar Pratyush, 3rd year Undergraduate student of E&ECE department. I would be interning at Appdynamics, Bangalore in the summers of 2020.

Preparation

I got to know about Competitive Programming at the start of 3rd Semester from one of my seniors. I got to know that doing CP(the common slang for Competitive Programming) is fun,interesting, improves your problem solving skills, increases your command over Algorithms and Data Structures thus improving coding in general and the biggest thing- it would help me during the CDC internships which were scheduled an year later. The first step was learning Algorithms and Data Structures. As there was no Algorithms Course available for Non- CSE students during the 3rd semester, I did an online course(there are many options like MIT OCW, Stanford etc., you could choose any , all are equally good). After completing this I started participating in Codechef contests alongwith practicing questions on SPOJ (I feel practicing first 50 questions is very important but it’s a little boring due to it’s poor interface). In winters I did a small project on Machine Learning and Image Processing.

During the 4th sem I started doing contests on Codeforces.(I personally think that I should have started giving contests on Codeforces much earlier because the contests are timed and during CDC, time is a very big constraint). I also started practicing questions on Codeforces using the rating filter of 1800–2000. I thought of interning during summers but I realized that I wont be able to balance competitive programming along with an internship. During the summers I continued practicing on Codeforces with modified filter.

During the last few days of summer vacation I started doing questions on Interviewbit as I got to know that questions asked in interviews are different from the Codeforces questions. I found the Interviewbit questions much easier as I had decent CP practice so I skipped most of the Interviewbit questions without completely implementing them( It’s a very bad habit and it could have caused a lot of problems for me).

Coding Rounds

I appeared in the coding rounds of DE Shaw, Microsoft, UBER, Nutanix, Goldman Sachs, Tower Research (Day 1) and Intuit, Sprinklr, Appdynamics(Day 2).I will list out the questions asked in them.Most of the tests were conducted on Hackerrank. Sprinklr and Intutit were conducted on Hackerearth. Microsoft had it’s own IDE.

DE Shaw- 2 very easy questions and many were able to do both.First was an Ad-hoc CF B level problem. 2nd was a graph theory question very similar to http://codeforces.com/contest/1139/problem/C.

Microsoft- Very easy CF A or CF B level questions. There was a huge luck factor in this test as different people got different sets and one of the question had incomplete information.

Uber- I expected a lot from this test and the questions were of decent level. There was 1 ad-hoc question, 1 DP+ad-hoc, both of CF C level and 1 question on Bitmask between CF level C and D. I solved the Bitmask and the DP question but ran out of time to solve the ad-hoc question.

Nutanix- 2 tough questions. One was a repeated question(Sadly I came to know this after the contest).https://codeforces.com/contest/913/problem/C. One was a graph theory question.

Goldman Sachs- 2 Easy questions, one on prime factorization and sieve and second was ad-hoc.

Tower Reasearch- One easy question on interval shifting.Second was a question on Graph+Binary Search.

Appdynamics- 9 MCQs out of which one was on SQL, rest were routine Algo-DS. 3 simple questions of CF level B to C.

Sprinklr- 3 Questions- 2 questions were Maths based, of CF level C. One was a question on Min-Max heap.

Intuit- (To be told later, just a routine CDC trauma).

Interviews (Day -1)

In spite of repeated advice by seniors to keep those companies where you have higher chances of selection on higher priority I didn’t follow it. I had 3 shortlists Nutanix,DE Shaw and GS. Although my chances of selection were higher in GS I filled Nutanix and DE Shaw on higher preference because they were more lucrative.In Nutanix interview there was a question which was on DFS. I told a solution first but it was failing on some test cases. Then I told the DFS solution and I coded it. He was impressed. I was told by the HR that they would call me for later rounds if I was selected but sadly I wasn’t.

In DE Shaw there were 2 rounds. In the first round the interviewer asked me 1 basic question on binary search. Then he asked me the question “Find the Missing Number” (Geeks for Geeks). He asked me another question which was to find the greater number of two given numbers without using comparison or loop.The third question he asked was to generate completely random numbers.I was selected for the 2nd round. In the 2nd round the interviewer asked me many questions on Operating Systems and other core CSE subjects. The questions were so tough that none of my co-interviewees were able to answer them in spite of the questions being repeated. I was also asked 2 Algorithm questions and a puzzle which I was able to answer.

After DE Shaw and Nutanix it was already 2 pm. The DE Shaw interview extended for a very long time and thus the GS interview process had ended so I couldn’t appear for that interview.Having received no offers I was very sad and dejected, I returned to my room.

Interviews(Day-2)

I realised my mistake on Day-1 and filled the companies I had higher chance, higher up the order. I had 2 shortlists Appdynamics and Sprinklr. I put Appdynamics higher. I was the first candidate who was interviewed which was based on ranking order of the Shortlist test. There were 2 rounds. In the first round he asked me 2 easy questions. One on binary search ,other on linked lists. Both of them were easy and I answered them straightaway. Then he modified the Linked list question which I also answered. Then he looked at my CV and was quite impressed with my competitive coding profile(He even opened my CF id).

I had very positive feeling about my first round interview and the feeling increased when I along with one of the other candidate(who also was selected) was called for the 2nd round interview(before most of the people had their 1st round). In the 2nd round only 1 question was asked on Binary Search which had the same concept as AGGRCOW on SPOJ and I had to code it and then run on his laptop on some test cases. If the interviewer asked to write the code on paper than it wouldn’t have been tough because on paper it’s sometimes tough to detect small mistakes in syntax and logical implementation(like a missing semicolon). But due to my CP practise where you have to write fast and correct code in one go during contest time I was able to do it after just one compilation error. After that he asked few things about my ML project and then asked if I had any questions to which I asked “what is expected from an intern who is working in Appdynamics?”. I came out and I was offered an Internship after 30 minutes of wait outside!

REMARKS

• CDC as a process is very haphazard so try to stay calm and don’t think about too many things, although I agree it’s tough. In the Intuit test which I mentioned earlier, I was so sad after Day 1 results (The test was scheduled at Day 1 night) that I wasn’t able to write the code and think. You surely don’t want this to happen after so much hard work.
• Keep everything prepared but be ready for mishaps. My new shoes got torn on Day 1(It was surely an unlucky day for me) and I had to go to Gole Bazaar to buy a new shoes. One of my friend forgot to print the hard copy of CVs (they had to be carried) and he realized it 3 hrs before the interview at 2:45 am.
• Your speed,efficiency, thinking capability, problem solving skills reduce due to pressure and stress in shortlist tests and interviews so make sure that you are able to write fast,clean and correct codes during CP contests.
• Many companies call for interviews in order of shortlist test ranks and earlier you are called for interview, higher chances are there for selection. Some interviewers evaluate your shortlist test performance during the interviews.
• The whole process can be very exhausting and tiring, giving tests the whole night followed by morning classes, constant fear, rejection, tight formal dresses leading to constant sweating etc. so it’s important to eat well and sleep well.

If you have any doubts feel free to disturb me(ping me) .All the best!