My interview experience with AlphaGrep

Introduction

Hi! I am Mayank Bhushan, a final-year undergraduate pursuing Dual Degree in Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kharagpur. I interviewed with AlphaGrep during my campus placements and received a job offer (yippie :p).

If you are looking for just a few important notes for the preparation, just jump right into the last section.

Preparation

I began my preparations soon after my internship ended at BlackBuck. During my internship preparation, I had neither done much of InterviewBit (had just reached level 3) nor GeeksForGeeks. So I decided to start a new session on InterviewBit for the placements. Coding practice should be started before learning the core CS concepts since you first need to clear the coding rounds (held in October and November) to be eligible for the interviews (held in December).

Credits: https://allhtaccess.info/25-gif-images-related-to-programming/

Before the mid sems began, I had completed almost 40k points. After that, I started practising on LeetCode as well besides InterviewBit. I chose InterviewBit before LeetCode since the questions were already divided into sections in InterviewBit and the timer in the questions provided extra motivation. From LeetCode I had mostly solved only the top 100 liked questions. I had also prepared System Design from this playlist. But none of the design questions was asked.

For the core CS concepts, I had mostly revised from the class notes and slides. Thanks to Anubhav Jain, his notes really came handy. We also used to have discussions and mock interviews in our room. They were really helpful. Thanks to Prajwal, Shwetank and Tanay, I actually had an interviewee’s mindset before going for the interviews.

Selection Process

For the coding round, we had a one and a half-hour test with 5 coding questions. My test had gone pretty well. I had solved 4 questions completely and a few test cases of the last one. The questions weren’t very simple. But they were mostly variations of the standard ones. The average number of questions solved was around 2–3.

After the test, I had pinged one of my seniors, Priyank in the company and got an insight into things I should focus more on. His advice (and reviews :p) really came handy. Seniors are really helpful. Do not feel shy to ask them your doubts.

On the day of the interview, I suited up and barged straight into the room for the interview at 4 am. Not at all accurate. I too was nervous and without any sleep like most of you reading this will be. It is okay to be nervous and anxious. But remember, the interviewers have come to select you and all the interviewers have been at the same place where you are.

I had three rounds of interview. All three of them were almost back to back and had continued from 4:15 am to 6:45 am. My first interview was based on designing an efficient data structure for storing and doing transactions related to ask and bid prices of a stock. There were subsequent additions to the information that needed to be stored and I had to modify the data structure accordingly. In the subsequent interviews, the interviewers had asked me questions on computer networks and operating systems. All three interviewers had asked me to solve coding questions on paper. They were really very friendly and helpful. They had also asked a lot of questions related to C++ like virtual classes, implementing shared pointers, sizeof method etc. I was lucky enough to have used C++ a lot in my projects.

Credits: https://allhtaccess.info/25-gif-images-related-to-programming/

Myth Busters

• High-Frequency Trading Firms (HFTs) ask mostly questions related to High-Performance Computer Architecture and Computer Organisation and Architecture. I wasn’t asked any. (that is why I got through :p)
• HFTs select only the candidates with cumulative grade point above 9. Mine was 8.65.

Few important notes

Dos

• Practice coding a lot, solve questions from each of the subtopics.
• Do not solve questions tagged as easy on LeetCode. Start with InterviewBit and move to the medium and hard ones on LeetCode.
• If you are running short on time, solve top 100 liked questions on LeetCode and questions from InterviewBit from each section sparsely.
• Read articles on GFG as much as possible. You will find company-specific questions as well.
• Keep a track of your time while solving questions even at the room. The faster the better.
• Practice weekly contests and virtual contests on LeetCode rather than contests on Codechef and Codeforces
• For interviews, practice writing code on paper as well. Discuss your approach with the interviewer as you write.
• Keep a healthy growth mindset. Keep motivating yourself and others around you.

Donts

• Do not go for specific algorithms like Manacher’s algorithm.
• Do not solve repetitive questions.
• Do not let a bad test demotivate or infuriate you.
• Do not doubt yourself. Remember how far you have come.

Also, do not let your thoughts limit your potential. You will never know whether you were capable or not unless you try and give it your best. It always seems impossible until it is done.

While I have tried my best to pin down everything, doubts and queries might still remain. For further queries, you can ping me either on LinkedIn or Messenger. You can also come to my room for any queries till the time I am at KGP. I will be more than happy to help :)

Also, thanks to everyone who stood by and motivated me during all these times. I was lucky enough to have you all around. (I had received more all the best wishes than birthday wishes in my inbox on messenger :p) I might not be able to take everyone’s name. But each one of you had a part in keeping me motivated and I am really grateful to all of you.

Peace ✌️