Salesforce SDE Internship Interview Experience
Greetings! I’m Bhumika Chopra, currently in my third year of studying Information Technology and Engineering at Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology. I had the opportunity to interview with Salesforce for a Software Development Engineer (SDE) internship role. I’m thrilled to announce that I secured an internship offer for the summer of 2023.
If you are interested in learning how to seize these opportunities, then you have come to the right place. In this blog, I will be sharing the complete selection process and my overall experience with you all.
This was an off-campus opportunity that was posted on LinkedIn. The selection process consisted of four rounds in total. One of which was an OA and the other three were interview rounds.
APPLICATION PROCESS(July 2022)
Timeline:
The applications for SDE internships open around July-August on their Workday Portal. Frequently checking for openings on various platforms and staying updated prevents you from missing such opportunities. I got to know about this opportunity when I came across a suggested post of a Salesforce Employee on LinkedIn, and I applied for the same by submitting my application to their Workday Job portal.
Preparations:
Practicing questions regularly on any platform of your choice makes you feel confident during the online test. I was doing competitive programming since my 2nd semester so I focused more on Leetcode questions.
INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE:
There were a total of 4 rounds after the resume shortlisting. First was an Online test followed by 3 interviews.
Round-1 (5th Sept 2022)-HackerRank
The online assessment was conducted on HackerRank. It consisted of 2 coding questions to be completed in 1 hour. Both questions were of Leetcode Medium-Hard difficulty level and covered topics like strings, Hashmaps, graphs, and trees. The results were declared after 10–15 days.
Round-2 (27th Sept 2022)-Google Meet
Based on the online test, I was shortlisted for the interviews. The first technical interview was a pure DSA round. I was asked to solve two questions one of which was based on Arrays and the other one based on stacks.
The questions were Leetcode Easy — Medium difficulty. I was asked to code out the solution and was also asked about its time complexity. The interviewer was very kind and helpful and guided me throughout the interview by giving hints and suggestions for optimizations. It was a 30 min long interview.
Round-3 (27th Sept 2022)-Google Meet
The second technical interview was also a DSA round. In this round initially, I was asked to introduce myself and what technical skills I have learned, then I was asked one DSA question on the Implementation of heaps. The problem statement was twisted in a way to make it more confusing just to check my problem-solving skills. Once the interviewer was satisfied with the solution we went on to discuss other technical skills mentioned by me earlier.
I was asked about basic implementations of Python and was cross-questioned on my answers. Then I was asked some OOPs and hashmaps concepts and some questions based on graphs. The interview was more like a discussion, if I was confused or stuck somewhere the interviewer helped me and guided me to the solution.
In the end, I was asked if I had any questions. I asked a few things related to the company’s product and we had a discussion about some of the technologies the company uses. I was given constructive feedback not to stick to just one development and explore as many technologies as I can.
Both round-2 and round-3 took place on the same day with a 10-minute gap between them.
Round-4 (28th Sept 2022)-Google Meet
I got the results of the interviews on the same day, and I was shortlisted for the third interview which was a Senior Manager Round. The interview was scheduled for the very next day.
In the last round, the interviewer was a Senior manager. This round was a non-technical round and hence general discussion was done on various topics. At first, I was asked to introduce myself, while the interviewer went through my resume. I was asked to tell what projects I have worked on and what challenges I faced. Then I was asked some questions about my work experience.
Later the interviewer asked to give a real-life example to explain the concept of OOPS. After this, the interviewer asked if I had some questions to which I asked what were the expectations from an intern and how I can contribute to the company’s work. The interviewer answered my question very politely and explained a bit about the company and how it operates. This marked the end of the Final round.
RESULTS!!
A week after the final interview, I got a mail from my recruiter that I am selected for the role. I was on cloud nine and thanked him for making my day!
Since you stayed with me until the end, I have a special bonus for you :)
Note: The below section is based on the writer's personal opinion and experience. It neither represents the views of Codess.Cafe nor Salesforce.
Resources:
Here are a few resources that I used to practice DSA for interview preparations.
YouTube channels:
Love Babbar & Anuj Bhaiya: for OOPs and DSA concepts in Java.
Aditya Verma: for Stacks, Heaps Recursion, and DP
Leetcode study guide:
[1] Graphs
[2] Trees
[3] Most asked trees questions
[4] HashMaps
Company-wise DSA questions and experience articles on GFG.
Some Tips and Tricks:
- Try to have a good grasp of DSA and solve questions in time. Practicing daily from any platform will help you think better during online tests and interview rounds.
- Get a good understanding of OOPs concepts and focus on how data structures are actually working and why they are better or worse compared to others.
- Have a proper balance between development and DSA. Try to have 1–2 decent projects about which you can talk and explain.
- Revising the core subjects from time to time helps a lot if you have less time to prepare for interviews.
- Always be vocal in your interviews. Share your approach and be confident in your answers. Try to interact with the interviewer and don’t shy away from asking questions if you are not sure of something
- Have a good peer group/community to discuss your ideas, approaches, and feedback on your work. I was lucky to be a part of the Codess.Cafe community helped me with proper guidance and resources to follow.
