Sarthak Singhal(CSE) - Commvault Pvt. Ltd.
Placement Interview
Sarthak Singhal (Final B.Tech. CSE)
Q1) Starting on with the interview, could you please
describe yourself or give an introduction to yourself?
-> I am Sarthak Singhal, in my final year of computer
science and engineering. That's all about me.
Q2) We all know that many of the big multinational
giants, like Microsoft and Amazon, are not visiting or have not visited HBTU.
So, if we neglect the fact of referral for once, and seeing the present
scenario, what are the frameworks that we should employ so as to get into these
companies?
-> What role are you applying for exactly?
(Sir, let us consider that I am applying for a software
developer role.)
The main thing is data structures and algorithms. Big
companies check your competitive coding profile and how much you have done on
DSA platforms like Leetcode, GFG, and similar platforms. Apart from this, you
should have a project that is strong qualitatively. So much so that you have a
main project and a side project. There are two types of projects, and you have
to make a portfolio. Your main project should be such that the person reviewing
it may sense that yes, I will benefit from this project or that it can offer
some value addition in the future. This should be a full-stack project. If you
have a back-end or front-end project, you will be neglected, and your coding
profile won’t help; it is the project that is of importance.
Q3) What is the role of internships in our college to get
placed in the final year?
-> Role of internship: if I am speaking about myself,
I didn't have any internships. This will be my first internship or job because,
for a software role, finding an internship is very difficult. Either your
contacts will be such that you get it through referral; otherwise, you will
keep applying on LinkedIn, and no matter how good you are, you won't get it.
All the interns are either from better colleges or have received referrals. For
example, if they have a person who is from IIT, who has worked as a prior
intern, or whatever his work experience is, they will give preference to him.
If they don't even know you, then why will they choose you over the other guy?
Q4) Sir, the talk of the town is that WebD is getting
very saturated and that AI and ML are in a booming phase. So, do you think that
it is a myth that WebD is getting saturated? Moreover, what fields do you think
are going to grow in the future?
-> In the future, the scope of data science and data
analytics will be immense. There is a lot of scope in the present market for
SDE. I have heard a lot of talk that SDE scope is going to be reduced; don't
worry, it is not going to happen anytime soon. SDE scope will remain as it is,
and the rest will only expand; it cannot degrade. But if we see the technology
in the present whose scope is comparable to SDE or it can be more, then it is
data science.
Q5) What are the major mistakes in your coding journey
that you think you could have avoided?
-> Major mistakes are: you must have committed them
too; you gave a contest; one question was asked, another wasn’t. You left it.
You neither saw its solution nor saw why it was unsolvable for you. Another is,
let us say, that you have just learned about arrays, strings, or any major
topic, and you sit down to give a contest. So avoid this; first complete the
entire DSA until you reach the graph or DP; avoid contests. Keep practicing
regularly; there is no problem as such.
Suppose you give a virtual contest, but in giving such a contest, you yourself
will get demotivated until you cover the entire DSA. It won’t be a fun
experience to give a contest. It is very important to see the solutions to a
contest.
Q6) At the time of the recession, what were your tactics
to overcome such situations? (And in the future, if we have such situations.)
-> Patience; be patient and work hard. Keep doing your
work, because there is nothing in your hands. Recession is for everyone; you
can't do anything. Just don't let the opportunity go by if it presents itself,
even in periods of recession. So just do your work and be patient.
Q7) How has being involved in football or any other
extracurricular activities contributed to your overall personal and
professional development?
-> Football opens up the mind. The tactics that are
used in it, the mind games ‐ In sports, the development of the brain happens
faster. If you are playing, you have to use your brain in any sport; you have
to think about things; it is not like you are just sitting, and it happens on a
regular basis. Because if a particular situation is in front of you today, it
is possible that you will get some variation of it tomorrow. Even if not, the
mind still develops.
Q8) Can you highlight a specific coding project or
problem-solving scenario from your interview rounds that you believe set you
apart during the interview process?
-> Yes, I remember one. Commvault has four rounds. In
the second round, it is a system design round, and the scene of system design
was such that only 10 out of 100 people could clear it. What actually happens
in the system design round is that you have six hours and you have to design a
system. System in the sense that it is the operating system of a computer. In
it, memory is managed on a disk. So I had to make a disk. There was a disc
manager, and remember that there can be a lot of discs, like CDs and e-drives.
There can also be blocks on the disc in which memory can be stored, and you can
fetch them whenever you want. There are a lot of blocks on the disc, so what I
had to do was, without using extra space, access those blocks. One of the best
methods that clicked with me at the time was that I kept the blocks in the form
of a link list and connected them. So, if I have the first block, I can reach
the end. It takes time, but it works. They didn't care about time. As there
were not many blocks, I think after that situation I felt that I had made it.
For the simple reason that it wasn’t implemented by anyone else among all the
selected candidates.
Q9) Apart from the commercial pursuits What was coding
for you?
-> Coding is life. It was totally another level of
satisfaction to code, and it helped me sleep better. There are no single passes
when I don't code. Even if it is a single question, for budding coders, this
should be the mindset.
Q10) The beginners generally have such inertia that they
don't feel like coding or are reluctant to do so. What do you suggest to tackle
such problems?
-> To tackle those problems, if you don't feel like
doing it, try it for a week. It may be possible that you don’t like it; try it
for a day, for two days, or for three days, and if even after that you're not
enjoying it, leave it. It is of no use because you may not like it in the
future either. There is no point in wasting time after that. And yes, if you
are understanding things, giving contests, and you feel that you should give
more contests, that's it; continue! Keep it going. If you have studied arrays,
move onto graphs, search for higher algorithms, so on and so forth.
Q11) People have a parallel etched in their minds that
“coding is equal to placement." There are videos available on the
internet: “How much coding do you have to do to earn 1 lakh per month?” Your
views.
-> No, no, no, that's not it. It is very much possible that a person who is a good coder is presently on 6LPA, and it is also possible that a person relatively better at it is on a higher package.
Q12) Dev vs. DSA?
-> DSA, because DSA is an absolute necessity, whereas
Dev is not.
The first round is the coding round. For that, DSA is needed. In an interview,
your development experience and knowledge can help if you are applying as a web
developer.
Q13) Generally, before reaching a destination, one faces
numerous failures. What was your experience?
-> I was eligible for almost all the companies except
for Samsung. My coding skills were strong, and I performed well in the NUGEN
aptitude test, but I couldn't make it past the first round. I couldn't sit for
Samsung due to my CGPA. You must have heard about “Insurance Dekho” offering 12
LPA. I was confident of clearing the first round, and after that, there isn't
much left to do in the interview. But I didn't clear it. The experience was
unexpected, and I was shocked, but I eventually succeeded in getting an offer
from Commvault. A lesson from this is to keep your CGPA at a minimum of 8. It
may be possible that it rises, but maybe not. You stay in the safe zone.