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

SDE - 1

Nielsen
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1 rounds | 3 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Journey
My preparation journey started with analysing the company’s Previous Year Questions, which helped me understand the expected skill set and plan my preparation effectively. I focused on building strong problem-solving skills by practicing Data Structures and Algorithms, while also strengthening my fundamentals in DBMS. Additionally, I learned Java internals using free resources to gain deeper conceptual clarity. By staying consistent, revising weak areas, and focusing on core concepts, I was able to build confidence and feel well-prepared for the interview.
Application story
I received a call from HR through Naukri.com for tele-verification, during which they asked for basic details and my expected CTC. After the tele-verification, they scheduled the interview call.
Why selected/rejected for the role?
Interview went decent, but I lacked in-depth knowledge on some concepts of DBMS, which might be the reason for my rejection.
Preparation
Duration: 3 months
Topics: Data Structures, OOPS, Algorithms, DBMS, Java, Linux
Tip
Tip

Tip 1: Practice DSA.
Tip 2: Understand the internal workings of DBMS.
Tip 3: Have in-depth knowledge of Java.

Application process
Where: Naukri
Eligibility: 2+ years of experience, (Salary Package: 16 LPA)
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1: Make your resume ATS-compatible.
Tip 2: Quantify your impact with measurable results.

Interview rounds

01
Round
Hard
Video Call
Duration60 minutes
Interview date3 Sep 2024
Coding problem3

1. Median of two sorted arrays

Hard
25m average time
65% success
0/120
Asked in companies
IBMAmazonAdobe

Given two sorted arrays 'a' and 'b' of size 'n' and 'm' respectively.


Find the median of the two sorted arrays.


Median is defined as the middle value of a sorted list of numbers. In case the length of list is even, median is the average of the two middle elements.


The expected time complexity is O(min(logn, logm)), where 'n' and 'm' are the sizes of arrays 'a' and 'b', respectively, and the expected space complexity is O(1).


Example:
Input: 'a' = [2, 4, 6] and 'b' = [1, 3, 5]

Output: 3.5

Explanation: The array after merging 'a' and 'b' will be { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 }. Here two medians are 3 and 4. So the median will be the average of 3 and 4, which is 3.5.
Problem approach

I first observed that directly merging both arrays would be inefficient, so I aimed for an optimized approach. I applied binary search on the smaller array to find a correct partition between the two arrays such that the number of elements on the left side equals the number on the right (or differs by one if the total length is odd). For each partition, I compared the maximum elements on the left side with the minimum elements on the right side to check if the partition was valid. If the condition was not satisfied, I adjusted the binary search range accordingly. Once a valid partition was found, I calculated the median based on whether the total number of elements was even or odd.

Try solving now

2. DBMS

  • Which databases you use in your project?
  • Explain Inner join vs outer join? (Learn)
  • When to use joins and how are they beneficial? (Learn)
  • What is indexing? (Learn)
Problem approach

Tip 1: Practice DBMS joins.
Tip 2: Understand internals of DBMS.

3. Linux

  • What is the use of the chmod command in Linux? (Learn)
  • What is the command used to search for data in file? (Learn)
Problem approach

Practice Linux commands.

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