Newzera Interview Experience

Newzera, is a love child of unflinching belief and vision of a better tomorrow. Their cause is to break the irrational, deceptive and money mongering facade of journalism. Their belief is that consumers deserve better. They want to create a world-class platform based on robo-journalism. With their creative solutions and great team, they’re all set to reinvent the space of online journalism. In a nutshell, Newzera is a product that’s Indian at heart but possess a global approach and strength.

Their idea seemed very interesting, so I wanted to dig deeper and joining the team could be a way out. In February 2020, I found out that Newzera is hiring Software Engineering Interns. Without any further delay, I applied for the role. I passed the resume screening and the hiring process started in a week.

Round 1: Cognitive Assessments

The series included a total of 4 short assessments, all based on cognitive ability. The basic idea behind these was to provide a simulated environment where one’s ability to learn and adapt to speed with accuracy could be justifiably appraised.

1. Cognitive Assessment I - It was a Numerical reasoning, Logical reasoning and Verbal reasoning assessment, with a duration of 12 minutes, comprising of 50 questions.
2. Cognitive Assessment II - It was an Arithmetical assessment, with a duration of 05 minutes, comprising of 10 questions.
3. Cognitive Assessment III - It was a Logical reasoning and Decision making assessment, with a duration of 05 minutes, comprising 20 questions.
4. Cognitive Assessment IV - It was an Abstract reasoning evaluation to assess spatial intelligence and cognition, with a duration of 05 minutes, comprising 15 questions.

I was able to qualify this round and moved to Round 2.

Round 2: Coding Assessment

This round was to test my coding skills. There were 8 programming questions which were to be finished within 3 hrs. I was shared a Coderbyte link to take the assessment. Talking about the difficulty level of the questions - 2 easy, 4 medium and 2 hard. I had solved 7 questions completely.

I was able to qualify this round and moved to final round.

Round 3: Take-home Assignments

This was the final round of the hiring process. It could be a Coding Interview, but since I had mentioned ReactJs in my resume, I was given this assignment on React Native.

There were two assignments -

1. Assignment 1 - It was based on HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I was given a design which I had to implement within 90 minutes.
2. Assignment 2 - It was a React Native assignment. I had to develop an app in 48 hours. The design and features to be included was given to me.

I could finish the first assignment before time but since I had never worked on React Native, it took me a lot of time and effort to finish the second assignment. Being familiar with ReactJs was a great help, but creating a web app and creating a mobile app are two different things. So, unfortunately I couldn’t import all the features as asked in the second assignment. Soon the deadline approached and I had to submit it.

I knew that I messed up and lost the chance to this great opportunity. I received my rejection in a week. It was disheartening, but everything happens for something good. I learnt a lot during the whole process. The knowledge gained is never wasted.

Keep working, hard-work always pays off! ❤