Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) interview experience Real time questions & tips from candidates to crack your interview

System Engineer Specialist

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
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3 rounds | 9 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Preparation
Duration: 2 months
Topics: Data Structures, Algorithms, C++, Java, Operating Systems, Computer Networks, DBMS.
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Should be strong in Data structures and Algorithms. 
Tip 2 : Should be proficient Computer Science fundamentals. 
Tip 3 : Try to have good soft skills.

Application process
Where: Campus
Eligibility: 7 CGPA
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1: Should be thorough on all things present in Resume.
Tip 2: Have a minimum of 1 good project in Resume.
Tip 3: Try to keep the resume to 1 page(for freshers) and maximum 2 pages(for experienced).

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration50 minutes
Interview date3 Oct 2020
Coding problem1

Consisted of two parts- Verbal and quantitative aptitude with 1 mark for each correct answer and -0.33 mark for each wrong answer.

1. Math Problem

A, B and C can do a piece of work in 20, 30 and 60 days respectively. In how many days can A do the work if he is assisted by B and C on every third day?

02
Round
Medium
Online Coding Test
Duration60 minutes
Interview date4 Oct 2020
Coding problem2

Took place at 10 a.m morning.
Consisted of 2 questions which has to solved in 1 hour. First problem had to be solved to view the next question. Both were easy implementation adhoc problems.

1. Most Cost Efficient Car

Easy
10m average time
90% success
0/40
Asked in companies
OlaTata Consultancy Services (TCS)

You are given the price of ‘Petrol’ cars, the maintenance cost of the car per month, number of kilometers a car runs in one liter, amount of Petrol per liter, and number of kilometers a car can run per month. Similar details are also given for ‘Diesel’ cars.

Your task is to find which car ( ‘Petrol’ or ‘Diesel’ ) is efficient to use for an exact 6 month period. If your answer is ‘Petrol’ car then print ‘0’, if your answer is ‘Diesel’ car then print ‘1’, if both the cars ( ‘Petrol’ and ‘Diesel’) are efficient then print ‘-1’.

For example, consider both the cars:

Price of ‘Petrol’ car = ‘780000’, the maintenance cost of ‘Petrol’ car per month = ‘500’, number of kilometers a ‘Petrol’ car can run in one liter  = ’35’, price of ‘Petrol’ per liter = ‘75’ and number of kilometers a ‘Petrol’ car can run in a month = ‘145’.

Similar details are given for ‘Diesel’ car, price of ‘Diesel’ car = ‘850000’, the maintenance cost of ‘Diesel’ car per month = ‘1000’, number of kilometers a ‘Diesel’ car can run in a one-liter = ’30’, price of ‘Diesel’ per liter = ‘80’ and number of kilometers a ‘Diesel’ car can run in a month = ‘200’.

Then the ‘Petrol’ car will be more efficient, so we will print the integer ‘0’.
Try solving now

2. Constellation

Easy
10m average time
90% success
0/40
Asked in companies
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)Samsung R&D Institute

Given a matrix ‘UNIVERSE’ with 3 rows and ‘N’ columns, with the characters { # , * , . } and these characters represent a cluster of stars and galaxies in space. Stars are represented by ‘*’ symbol. The ‘.’ symbol represents empty space.


We define a constellation as a 3x3 matrix which contains stars in the shape of vowels. A group of constellations is defined as a galaxy. Note that a galaxy may contain many stars but they will never be overlapping. Two galaxies are separated by a column of ‘#’.


Given the ‘UNIVERSE’ matrix, print a string which denotes all the vowels formed by stars and ‘#’ present in the matrix.


A looks like this :
. * .
* * *
* . *
E looks like this :
* * *
* * *
* * *
I looks like this :
* * *
. * .
* * *
O looks like this :
* * *
* . *
* * *
U looks like this :
* . *
* . *
* * *


Note :
It is guaranteed that no two constellations are overlapping.


Try solving now
03
Round
Medium
Video Call
Duration50 minutes
Interview date15 Nov 2020
Coding problem6

Took place at 1 pm at noon and I was very confident. Three interviewers were present- One technical , One managerial and One HR .
Initially, the interviewers introduced themselves and asked me to introduce myself.
Then, I was asked about my project.

1. OOP Questions

Explain Polymorphism in java and types of polymorphism
Explain abstract class and interface and the difference between those two.
difference between method Overloading and method overriding in java.
Explain method overriding with exception handling.
Explain method overriding with access specifiers.
Explain tagged or marker interface in Java.
Explain Serialization in Java.
Explain about the collection framework in java.

2. Database Questions

What is a Data Base?
Explain Left outer join and inner join.
What is normalization?
What are the different normal forms?
Explain ER model.

3. Word Break II

Hard
15m average time
85% success
0/120
Asked in companies
SalesforceTata Consultancy Services (TCS)Hike

You are given a non-empty string S containing no spaces’ and a dictionary of non-empty strings (say the list of words). You are supposed to construct and return all possible sentences after adding spaces in the originally given string ‘S’, such that each word in a sentence exists in the given dictionary.

Note :

The same word in the dictionary can be used multiple times to make sentences.
Assume that the dictionary does not contain duplicate words.
Try solving now

4. Data Structures Questions

What is a Data Structure?
What is a Doubly linked list?
What are the different tree traversals?

5. General Questions

The managerial Round started.
1)Since You travel 1 hour daily to college, how do you utilize the travel time usefully?
2)Give a time when you were the most stressful?
3)How do you handle that amount of stress?
4)Questions were asked About my course on google cloud (mentioned in resume).
5)Why do you want to join TCS? 
6) where do u see yourself 5 years down the line?
7)Imagine you are doing a project and during the review of the project, you couldn't run your project due to compatibility issues. How do you explain this issues to your supervisor or reviewer?

6. Cloud Questions

Explain Cloud vs Cloud computing in layman terms.
Tell me about your typical day.
Do you have any plans for higher studies?
Ask us if you have any questions.

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