Akamai Interview Experience for SDE Summer Internship On-Campus (Rejected)

I managed to progress through the initial interview rounds, only to face rejection in the second round. So, why am I taking the time to write this blog post? My primary motive for sharing this experience is rooted in the fact that, during the interviews, I found myself somewhat inexperienced, struggling to grasp the expectations and unsure of the best approach to tackle certain questions. Following the feedback I received after the second round, I embarked on a period of introspection, contemplating my experiences, which ultimately led me to this point of reflection and prompted me to share my journey on my blog.

Akamai visited our campus for its summer internship program, and I had the opportunity to participate in the selection process. Although I didn’t make it through all the rounds, this experience was a significant learning curve for me.

Round 1 — Online Assessment

Hackerrank Test for 75 min which consisted of 9 MCQs:

1. Operating System, Computer Network, DBMS, Object Oriented Programming, Data Structures etc.
2. One SQL Query — Though I don’t recall the exact question, it was easy-medium level.
3. Coding Questions :
   https://leetcode.com/problems/minimum-moves-to-equal-array-elements/description/
   https://leetcode.com/discuss/interview-question/374846/Twitter-or-OA-2019-or-University-Career-Fair.

I managed to complete the SQL query and one-and-a-half coding questions and was selected for the next round.

Round 2 — Technical Interview

The second round was a technical interview that combined coding and Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) concepts:

1. String Manipulation
   The interview began with a coding question that revolved around string manipulation. I was given a string and tasked with reversing it and replacing specific characters within it
2. Finding Unique Characters
   https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/given-a-string-find-its-first-non-repeating-character/
3. Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) — Operator Overloading
   The interview then shifted its focus to object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts. I was asked to code operator overloading for the addition of two complex numbers. This challenge tested my understanding of OOP principles and operator overloading in C++.
   https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/operator-overloading-cpp/
4. Smart Pointers
   Understanding and coding smart pointers in C++ was the final part of this round, further delving into memory management in C++.
   https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/smart-pointers-cpp/

Reflections

In the end, I realized that I didn’t perform as well as I had hoped, largely due to my nervousness and panic during the interview. However, this experience was one of my first interview encounters, and it taught me valuable lessons.

Conclusion

I learned that staying calm under pressure is essential and that giving your best is more important than the outcome.