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

System Engineer

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
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3 rounds | 5 Coding problems

Interview preparation journey

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Journey
My journey from the basics to cracking this job interview has been an inspiring one. Starting from my third year of engineering, I focused on honing my skills in data structures and algorithms. I dedicated time to learn and practice these concepts, working on various projects to solidify my understanding. Through perseverance and hands-on experience, I developed a strong foundation in these key areas.
Application story
I have applied for the TCS NQT Examination, which offers two roles: TCS Ninja and TCS Digital. The top performer in TCS Ninja has the opportunity to take the exam for the TCS Digital profile. After clearing the TCS Ninja topper test, I received interview invites based on my exam score. The specific profile is disclosed only when we receive our selection mail and offer letter. And then i got to know i have been selected for Digital profile as System Engineer
Why selected/rejected for the role?
I feel due to my confident way of answering the questions and knowledge about Computer science core Subjects made me selected.
Preparation
Duration: 3 months
Topics: Data Structures, Algorithm, Oops , Operating System, Database
Tip
Tip

Tip 1 : Don't be nervous while answering. 
Tip 2 : listen what is being asked.
Tip 3 : if you dont know anything say you dont know and move forward to next question instead of wasting interviewers time.

Application process
Where: Other
Eligibility: 7 cgpa No Backlogs
Resume Tip
Resume tip

Tip 1: Mention things you know about
Tip 2: Check grammatical error

Interview rounds

01
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration180 mins
Interview date15 Sep 2021
Coding problem2

The test consists of sections such as Verbal Ability, Reasoning Ability, Numerical Ability, and Programming Concepts with 2 eash level programming questions . For me timing was 2 pm to 5pm and it starts with verbal ability , we can cannot visit other sections before submitting the current one.

1. Two and Four Wheeler Roads

Hard
48m average time
0/120
Asked in companies
CognizantGoldman SachsGartner

There is a country with 'N' cities and 'M' bidirectional roads of 3 types.

Type 1: Two Wheeler Road, It means only vehicles having two wheels can use this road.
Type 2: Four Wheeler Road, It means only vehicles having four wheels can use this road.
Type 3: Both two and four Wheeler Road, It means this road can be used by both type of vehicles.

The problem is to find the maximum number of roads that can be removed such that a path exists for every pair of cities for each two-wheeler and four-wheeler vehicle.

Note:
1. Roads may form a cycle.

2. The cities do not have multiple same roads i.e all the roads are unique.

3. If every city cannot be reached, then return -1.
Problem approach

It is a simple question in which we can form 2 equations and solve it logically so based on this X will be equals to (4 * V) - W /2 . Then 2 wheeler are x and 4 wheeler are V- x .

Try solving now

2. Puzzle

Given a series we have to find the nth element of the series like 1 ,1,2,3,4,,9,8,2716,81,32,243,64....

Problem approach

Tip 1: The series was having Geometric progression for its even and odd indexs. 
Tip 2: if number is even then calculate n+1/2 th power of 2. 
Tip 3: if number is odd then calculate n/2 th power of 3

02
Round
Medium
Online Coding Interview
Duration165 mins
Interview date6 Oct 2021
Coding problem2

It has Advanced Quantitative Ability and Advanced Reasoning Ability with 2 Advance Coding .

1. Find all occurrences

Moderate
35m average time
60% success
0/80
Asked in companies
OracleTata Consultancy Services (TCS)HackerEarth

You are given a 'M' x 'N' matrix of characters, 'CHARACTER_MATRIX' and a string 'WORD'. Your task is to find and print all occurrences of the string in the given character matrix. You are allowed to search the string in all eight possible directions, i.e. North, South, East, West, North-East, North-West, South-East, South-West.

Note: There should not be any cycle in the output path. The entire string must lie inside the matrix boundary. You should not jump across boundaries, i.e. from row 'N' - 1 to 0 or column 'N' - 1 to 0 or vice versa.

Example:

Consider below matrix of characters,
[ 'D', 'E', 'X', 'X', 'X' ]
[ 'X', 'O', 'E', 'X', 'E' ] 
[ 'D', 'D', 'C', 'O', 'D' ]
[ 'E', 'X', 'E', 'D', 'X' ]
[ 'C', 'X', 'X', 'E', 'X' ]

If the given string is "CODE", below are all its occurrences in the matrix:

'C'(2, 2) 'O'(1, 1) 'D'(0, 0) 'E'(0, 1)
'C'(2, 2) 'O'(1, 1) 'D'(2, 0) 'E'(3, 0)
'C'(2, 2) 'O'(1, 1) 'D'(2, 1) 'E'(1, 2)
'C'(2, 2) 'O'(1, 1) 'D'(2, 1) 'E'(3, 0)
'C'(2, 2) 'O'(1, 1) 'D'(2, 1) 'E'(3, 2)
'C'(2, 2) 'O'(2, 3) 'D'(2, 4) 'E'(1, 4)
'C'(2, 2) 'O'(2, 3) 'D'(3, 3) 'E'(3, 2)
'C'(2, 2) 'O'(2, 3) 'D'(3, 3) 'E'(4, 3)
Problem approach

I just calculated the length of the string . Then i traverse the string and wherever str at ith index matches to the character, i increased the count by 1. And once the Traversal of the string is completed i returned the value of count. We have write the completed program.

Try solving now

2. Boxes and chocolates

Ninja
55m average time
45% success
0/200
Asked in companies
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)AppleDeloitte

Kevin has three children and he wants to buy chocolates for them. The shopkeeper has ‘N’ boxes of chocolates (numbered from 1 to ‘N’). Each box has some amount of chocolates. If Kevin selects the “i-th” box for buying the chocolates then he must have to buy all the chocolates present in that box. Kevin wants to distribute an equal amount of chocolates among his children.

This problem is divided into 3 subproblems. You must have to solve all three subproblems.

FIRST:

You have to find the maximum number of ways in which Kevin can buy the chocolates if he is allowed to choose boxes in random order.

SECOND:

You have to find the maximum number of ways in which Kevin can buy the chocolates if he is only allowed to choose the consecutive boxes.

THIRD:

There are ‘Q’ queries given to you and each query can be of two types:

0 I V
1 L R

The first type has 0 as a first character that represents this is an update query in which you have to update the number of chocolates in the “Ith” box to ‘V’.

The second type has 1 as a first character that represents this is a range query in which you have to find the maximum number of ways in which Kevin can buy the chocolates in the range [L, R] if he is allowed to choose boxes in any order.

Note:

1. There is no need to maximize the number of chocolates bought by Kevin. 
2. Consider 1 based indexing for queries. There must be a single query of type 1. 
3. You have to take the modulo with 10^9 + 7 as the result can be very large.
Problem approach

Tip 1: We can count the number of zero that array has.
Tip 2: Then print all the non zeros values from the array .
Tip 3: And at last we can print the zeros equal to the count we calculated earlier.

Try solving now
03
Round
Medium
Face to Face
Duration30 mins
Interview date1 Nov 2021
Coding problem1

In this round i was asked questions regarding my resume and core subject with 1 logical reasoing or puzzle based question.

1. Core Subjects Questions

What is database warehousing ?

what do you know about compiler?

 What are different type of api request?

Tell me more about the projects that you made. My project was a react application that take user credential and tell about current weather of the place based on the location selected .

Problem approach

Tip 1: Try to engage with interviewer and communicate what you are thinking.
Tip 2: If you don’t know anything you can directly call that out.
Tip 3: Try to ask clarifying question.

Here's your problem of the day

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

Skill covered: Programming

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