“Aviral Goyal” who was interned at “LinkedIn” talks about his interview experience and some other tips to prepare for placement season. Check out what he says about the placement season.
His Interview was taken by Unsaid Talks Interviewer: “Khushi Bansal”
Profile offered: SRE Intern (Site Reliability Engineer)
Job Location: Bangalore
Branch and Graduation Year: COE- 2024
Interview Difficulty Level: I would like to rate the difficulty as 8 as all the questions asked were of pretty good level.
Here are the questions we asked Aviral Goyal to know about his interview experience.
Question 1: Introduce yourself to our readers.
Answer: Hello, I am Aviral Goyal. I am a pre-final year student at Thapar University. My major is Computer Engineering. I have recently interned at LinkedIn. I am a bibliophile and enjoy reading both fictional and non-fictional books. I also love to travel and explore different places.
Question 2: Was there any internal CGPA cutoff? If yes, then how much ?
Answer: No CGPA cut-off
Question 3: What was the procedure of the placement that took place? (Shortlisting criteria/ coding or aptitude test/ number of interviews)
Answer: The whole process was conducted in an online manner, including the interviews. To apply for the company, we had to fill out a form which had about 6-7 fields that needed to be answered; basically, it included name, LinkedIn profile, resume etc., and the details for the opening were provided on Thapar email ID’s.
There was a coding round and three interviews. I received a mail regarding the online test that was scheduled on 13th September on 7th September. The information for the interviews was provided on 16th September and they were held on 19th of the same month, followed by an HR round on 26th September. The final acceptance mail was received on 10th October. Overall it was a lengthy process.
Question 4: Tell us about the written/online test. (Aptitude, Coding, Test Platform, etc)
Answer: The online test was conducted on Hackerrank and had a duration of 3 hrs. There were three major segments: first one was divided into two sections and had MCQ’s – first part had questions related to CS fundamentals (CN,OS,OOPS and more) and second part had aptitude based questions. The second segment was majorly based on SQL queries and questions were based on all major commands and was quite intense. The last segment was a coding round with 3 questions, it was mandatory to solve the first one using python and the rest could be solved in any language. This round tested one’s knowledge in all technical fundamentals.
Question 5: Tell us about Interview Round 1 including the questions that were asked.
Answer: The interview confirmation arrived after a month from the company, so it is important to remain patient for the time being. The First interview was a technical interview and was very formal. The interviewer asked me to choose 4 subjects from a five, then the questions were put forward from those four subjects. Every subject was tested for about 15 mins. The questions were of moderate to difficult level.
Question 6: Tell us about Interview Round 2.(if any)
Answer: The second interview was conducted on the same day after a break of an hour and primarily focussed on system design. I was questioned about my projects, their scalability and real-life application.
Question 7: Tell us about the HR interviews(if any)
Answer: The third interview was an HR interview. The interviewer was interested to know about my role in the projects I had mentioned and how I stand in a team. I was also asked if I was a part of any society and how the society actually functions. It was more of a discussion-based interview.
Question 8: What are the things students should focus on in order of priority?
Answer: For cracking any technical company DSA is a must; it should be practiced consistently. Next, CS fundamentals also play an important role, they could be revised at least a month before the process, and one is good to go.
Resources to study from– For brushing up your concepts, one can always refer to last-minute interview questions from GeeksForGeeks. Some other resources to practice and revise include Tutorialpoint, W3schools, etc. For DSA, practicing on Leetcode could be helpful as well. As for system design, I used different YouTube Channels.
Question 9: According to you, what role do extracurricular activities as well as participation in societies play?
Answer: Extracurricular activities do give you an edge but are not super important; they do help in personal development and provide more exposure.
Question 10: Any other advice you would like to give to your juniors?
Answer: College requires a good balance to enjoy as well as excel in the curriculum. It is important to keep polishing your programming skills and not to panic as the process could be pretty intense. Always stay motivated and wait for the right opportunity.
Question 11: How can we contact you? (LinkedIn Profile Link/Contact No./etc.)
Answer: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aviral-goyal-0a2887194