Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview

Data Scientist

Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India
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2 rounds | 7 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Journey
I have completed my engineering in 2016 in Information Technology and pursued a Master's degree called MSIT(Google it if you are not aware of it. It is a different degree from a usual M.tech degree) from IIIT-H. Later in 2018, I cracked an internship at NVIDIA in Pune as a part of my campus placements. After working for 6 months as an intern at NVIDIA, I could not get a PPO for internal reasons. Later in 2018, I was jobless. I did not know what to do. So I searched for jobs online. But unfortunately, all the companies were seeking at least 3 to 5 years of experience which I clearly did not have. So, in search of jobs, I wasted an year without up-skilling myself. Then my father advised me to prepare for banks. So I took his advice and started to go for bank coaching in July 2019. I cleared IBPS Prelims in Sept 2019 but I failed in the Mains exam in Jan 2020. I was shattered and did not have any idea what to do. It was already Jan 2020. 2 years just flew by and I still did not have any job. In Feb 2020, I visited IISc Bangalore on International Science Day on Feb 29th. I clearly remember this day not just because it was a leap day but the experience was memorable and that is when I decided to prepare for GATE 2021 seriously and wanted to do another Master's degree from a reputed institute. I took GATE coaching video lectures from Ravindrababu Ravula who has helped me a lot in my journey of GATE. I cracked GATE-2021 with an All India Rank of 965 and joined IIIT-Bangalore (after a 3 year gap in my career) as an M.Tech student. Journey at IIIT-B is for some other day but in short, it was inspiring and memorable. IIIT-B helped me in cracking a job (internship) at IBM and I am lucky to get this job during our campus placements.
Application story
It was a campus placement. So there was nothing much to do for the application. We had to apply for the companies that we were interested in.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
I was rejected for this role because I am not a Machine Learning enthusiast and hence I could not clear the 1st round of interview.
Preparation
Duration: 2
Topics: Data science,Machine LearningData structures,SQLOOPS
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Go through the JD thoroughly and practice the skills which the company is looking for
Tip 2 : Know well about what the company does and its product
Tip 3 : If you know your interviewer, then search for them on LinkedIn and explore their areas of expertise

Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: Above 7 CPGA and no current backlogs.
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1: Have at least 2 ML projects in resume.
Tip 2: Having participated in Kaggle competitions will immensely boost your resume.

Interview rounds

01
Round
Hard
Online Coding Test
Duration180 minutes
Interview date20 Jul 2022
Coding problem3

The written test took place at around 7AM in the campus. We had to write the exam in our labs.

1. Angle Between Hour Hand And Minute Hand

Easy
15m average time
85% success
0/40
Asked in companies
AmazonSalesforceMicrosoft

Given the time in hours and minutes, you need to calculate the angle between the hour hand and the minute hand.

Note :
There can be two angles between the hour hand and minute hand, you need to print a minimum of two. Also, print the floor value of angle i.e. if the angle is 15.2, you need to print 15.
Problem approach

I used the standard formula of finding the angle between hours and minutes which were taught in our 5th grade. I could do it because we had to focus on the seconds hands also

Try solving now

2. Minimum Difference in an Array

Easy
0/40
Asked in companies
OlaGrowwMercedes-Benz Research and Development India

Given an array of integers, print the minimum of the absolute difference of all possible pairs of elements.

Example :
N = 5
ARR = [ 3, -6, 7, -7, 0 ]
Out of all pairs, (-7,-6) have a difference of ‘1’, and no other pair has less difference. So ‘ANS’ is ‘1’.    
Problem approach

I sorted the array and found the minimum difference at every step thereby removing the number.

Try solving now

3. ML Question

An ML based question where we had to do Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) and there remove null values and skewed values in the given excel sheet. Finally explain which ML algo would be the best fit for obtaining the score.

Problem approach

We had to solve this question in Python using Python libraries. So I used numpy and pandas to do EDA. I did not have time to apply the ML algorithm and hence did not attempt that part of the answer.

02
Round
Hard
Face to Face
Duration60 minutes
Interview date20 Jul 2022
Coding problem4

It was on the same day of the written test. The interviewer was chill and did not pressurize me at any point in the interview.

1. ML Question

What is Supervised and Unsupervised Learning? Explain the differences.

Problem approach

If you are an ML guy, you can answer this question easily. Also explain, which algorithms comes under which category.

2. ML Question

Explain how a deep neural network works. Backpropagation, Gradient Descent, Optimization Algorithms, Loss functions.

Problem approach

I could not answer this as I was not an ML guy and was expecting coding questions.

3. ML Question

What are the applications of ML and AI in Automotive Development.

Problem approach

I tried to explain how Mercedes and other companies use ML and AI to provide user satisfaction by taking examples of Navigation and Cruise control features. I guess the interviewer was expecting something else.

4. HR Question

As my interview ended, he asked me for any further questions. I asked what exactly is that his team is working on and what tech stack are they interested in?

Problem approach

He answered it in detail. Also, make sure to ask questions and do not leave without asking questions to the interviewer if given the chance.

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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