HSBC interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview

Software Engineer Intern

HSBC
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4 rounds | 2 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Preparation
Duration: 6 months
Topics: Data Structure and Algos, OS, DBMS, CN, Aptitude
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Speed matters along with accuracy in coding test
Tip 2 : Core subjects matter in interviews
Tip 3 : Projects matter in interviews, even in HR round

Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: NA
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1 : Don't lie on resume as they will ask everything in depth
Tip 2 : Quality matters over quantity of projects

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration90 minutes
Interview date1 Dec 2019
Coding problem2

Online Technical Test (conducted early in morning in college campus)- consisted of MCQs from fundamentals of computer science like Operating Systems, DBMS, Networks, Programming and Data Structures

Online Coding Round (conducted early in morning in college campus)- Consisted of 2 questions to be coded in about 30-45 minutes of time(I don't remember te exact duration!)
The first question was based on basic logical thinking and some basic mathematics. The second one was based on Linked List in which we were expected to find the slope of the line whose coordinates were given in the node of the linked list.

1. Ninja and Mathematics

Moderate
30m average time
70% success
0/80
Asked in companies
FacebookAdobeShareChat

Ninja is a genius in mathematics. He got an interview call from MIT. During the interview, the professor asked Ninja a challenging question.

Given two integers 'N1' and 'N2', the professor asked Ninja to find the fraction when the first number i.e 'N1' is divided by the second number i.e 'N2'. If the fractional part is repeating, then the repeating part should be enclosed in parentheses.

For example, if 'N1' is 1 and 'N2' is 3 and when we divide 1 by 3 i.e 1/3, the answer is 0.333... Here 3 is repeated infinite times because the remainder never becomes zero in this problem. As we know the fractional part ( i.e 3 ) is repeating, so we have to enclose the repeating part in parentheses. Therefore, the answer is “0.(3)”.

Ninja is stuck in this problem. Can you help Ninja to crack this interview and get admission in MIT?

Try solving now

2. Find Slope

Easy
22m average time
88% success
0/40
Asked in companies
Morgan StanleyHSBCJungleworks

Given a linked list, whose nodes represent the coordinates of the cartesian plane. Find the minimum and the maximum slope of simultaneous points of coordinates.

Linked List : P1(X1, Y1) -> P2( X2, Y2) -> P3(X3, Y3).

Here P1(point1) corresponds to coordinates (X1, Y1), similarly P2(point2) corresponds to coordinates (X2, Y2).

Your task is to find the Maximum(Slope(P1, P2), Slope(P2, P3)) and Minimum(Slope(P1, P2), Slope(P2, P3)).

Note :
You only need to return the starting node for minimum and maximum slope. So if slope(P1, P2) is maximum, just return P1.

In case of more than one possible solution return the first occurring solution.
Try solving now
02
Round
Medium
Face to Face
Duration60 Minutes
Interview date15 Dec 2019
Coding problem0

The questions were from a variety of topics.
The first question was "Tell me about yourself". It was followed by a coding question in which there was an integer input and the binary output(I don't rememer the question exactly). I proposed the solution based on arrays but the interviewer pushed me to optimize it further. Later, I came with an approach using Bit Manipulation to reduce the space complexity. The interview was covered breadth rather than depth of computer science domain. The question were very logical yet simple. There were quite a number of questions from concurrency control and indexing from DBMS. The interviewer also asked a question from the Ssubject Microporcssor, which is something that is not really expected in a computer science- based interview. Yet, having a clear mindset and patience can help to solve the question. The interviewer was quite helpful and even asked for water when I entered his cabin for the interview!

The interviewer also focused on areas like Operating System and Data Structures. There were questions like the following:

"Can you use your computer without Windows?",
"What is a cloud? Can you name some popular clouds?",
"Which data structure id used to implement index in DBMS and why?"
"On which latest technolog(y/ies) have you got your hands dirty with?",
"Why only the above mentioned technologies, why not others?",
etc.

03
Round
Medium
Face to Face
Duration50 Minutes
Interview date15 Dec 2019
Coding problem0

This round was more focused towards projects and future plans/actions. th following questions were asked:

Tell me about yourself
Favourite college project and reason for rating it to the top
(I mentioned in my resume about my interest in Android Development)
a. Basics of Operating System
b. Why Android, why not Windows or iOS?
c. What do you think has made Android so popular?
d. Basics of Android OS
e. Why haven't you published the apps on Google Play Store, even after having developed so many?
Plan for the next 5 years
Why HSBC, even when it is not a tech company?
etc.
The questions were followed by a general discussion on my interests and competivtie coding(because I mentioned about Competitve Coding in my resume).

04
Round
Medium
Face to Face
Duration40 Minutes
Interview date15 Dec 2019
Coding problem0

The HR personnel scanned my entire resume and asked the following questions:

something about yourself
hobbies
why HSBC
Are you comfortable relocating to another city? (In my resume, it was mentioned that my school and college were in the same city that's why she asked me such a kind of question, presumably).
As an Android Developer, which is your favourite app and why?
Have you found any bugs in your favourite app(asked in question 5)? If yes, mention the possible solution to fix them.
How would you improve favourite app(asked in question 5) in terms of performance or user experience etc.?
About family, parents' profession
etc.

Here's your problem of the day

Solving this problem will increase your chance to get selected in this company

Skill covered: Programming

What is recursion?

Choose another skill to practice
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