Interview Preparation for Product Based Companies

Hiring Process

The acceptance process in product-based companies typically involves several stages to assess the candidate's skills, qualifications, and cultural fit within the organisation. While the specific details can vary between companies, here is a general outline of the common stages in the acceptance process:
 

• Online Application and Resume Screening: The first step to getting into a product-based company is often applying on the career portal, which is followed by the shortlisting of candidates by HR. General good practices are,
  • Customise resume in accordance with the role being applied for.
     
  • Make your resume stand out with relevant professional experience, substantial projects and achievements.
     
• Initial Contact/Phone Screen: Shortlisted candidates are then reached out by HRs and briefed about further stages of the hiring process.
  • Be prepared for basic questions regarding a range of fundamentals as well as your projects and the technicalities associated with them.
     
  • Ask relevant questions about the process and lay down your expectations.
     
• Technical Assessment: Candidates must complete technical assessments or coding challenges to evaluate their problem-solving skills and coding proficiency. To ace this round,
  • Get enough practice for each round held in the process.
     
  • Work on speed and accuracy for coding rounds focused around DSA.
     
• Technical Interview: Candidates who perform well in the initial assessments may be invited for technical interviews. Depending on the role, these interviews often involve discussions about algorithms, data structures, coding problems, and system design. Focus on,
  • Preparing CS Fundamentals
     
  • Practising Problem-solving
     
  • Preparing for Project Discussions

• Behavioural/Cultural Fit Interview: Some companies include interviews to assess the candidate's soft skills, teamwork, and cultural fit within the organisation. For this round,
  • Research the company you are interviewing at.
     
  • Know the vision and mission of the company and how it aligns with your personal values.
     

Following all the rounds, given that the candidate performs satisfactorily, the company moves forward with reference checks and extends a job offer with room for negotiation where applicable.
 

Helpful Tips

Getting into product-based companies is highly competitive. Here are some more tips to increase your chances:

• Develop Technical Skills
   
• Create a Strong Online Presence for more opportunities
   
• Internships and Projects to stand out during screening
   
• Customise your resume and cover letter
   
• Prepare for the Interviews
   
• Seek Feedback following rejections
   

Commonly Asked Questions

Behavioural Questions
 

• Tell me about yourself
   
• Describe a challenging situation you faced at work and how you handled it
   
• Describe a time when you worked successfully in a team
   
• Tell me about a situation where you had to meet a tight deadline
   
• Can you discuss a mistake you made at work and how you handled it
   
• Describe a situation where you had to deal with a difficult coworker or team member
   
• What motivates you in your work?
   
• Describe a time when you had to adapt to a significant change at work
   
• Can you describe a situation where you demonstrated leadership skills?
   
• Discuss a project or accomplishment you are particularly proud of
   
• How do you handle stress and pressure?
   
• Describe a situation where you had to juggle multiple tasks or projects

Technical Round (DSA)

Here is a list of questions frequently asked by various product-based companies. Practice these to boost your chances of selection!

Array (9)

• Slot Game (Easy)
   
• Flip Bits (Easy)
   
• Next Permutation (Moderate)
   
• Count Subarrays with given XOR (Moderate)
   
• Rose Garden (Moderate)
   
• Find All Triplets with 0 Sum (Moderate)
   
• Median of 2 Sorted Arrays (Hard)
   
• Largest Rectangle in Histogram (Hard)
   
• Justify Text (Hard)
   

Greedy (7)

• Toeplitz Matrix (Easy)
   
• Anagram Mapping (Easy)
   
• Sum of Max and Min (Easy)
   
• Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock (Moderate)
   
• Special Numbers (Moderate)
   
• Complete String (Hard)
   
• Largest Submatrix with equal 0s and 1s (Hard)
   

Binary Search (7)

• Single Element in a Sorted Array (Easy)
   
• Guess the Number (Easy)
   
• Allocate Books (Moderate)
   
• Search in Rotated Sorted Array (Moderate)
   
• Shops and Houses (Moderate)
   
• Ninjas Challenge (Moderate)
   
• Russian Doll Envelope (Hard)
   

Tree/Graph (10)

• Sum Root to Leaf (Easy)
   
• Network Delay Time (Easy)
   
• Check if Path Exists (Easy)
   
• Count Inversions (Moderate)
   
• Course Schedule (Moderate)
   
• Partial BST (Moderate)
   
• Alien Dictionary (Hard)
   
• Jumping Numbers (Hard)
   
• Optimal BST (Hard)
   
• Inform Employees (Hard)
   

DP & Recursion (8)

• Min Steps to 1 (Easy)
   
• House Robber (Moderate)
   
• Unbounded Knapsack (Moderate)
   
• Number of LIS (Moderate)
   
• Weighted Job Scheduling (Moderate)
   
• Burst Balloons (Hard)
   
• Colourful Knapsack (Hard)
   
• Unique BSTs (Hard)

For access to more frequently asked questions sorted conveniently based on companies, difficulty, and frequencies, visit CodeStudio.