IISc CEDT(DESE) written test

and interview Experience

Posted on July 3, 2014

Hi everyone, This post is a continuation of my Introduction post where I

mentioned some preparation techniques and dos and dont required before
and after GATE. Those of you who missed it,can read it here.In this post, I will
share my experiences at IISc,Bangalore. IISc was the first to make a written
test/interview offer to me which came as a pleasant surprise as I had no
hopes of being shortlisted for the written test. I had heard that they call only
top 100 students but luckily the cutoff for general category was 850,so I
made through.Around 600 people from four streams( EC,CS,IN,EE) were
called for the written test which was scheduled on 21st April, 2014.
CEDT(now DESE) was the only course (among the ones I applied) which
conducts written test/interview for selection of candidates. All other courses
offering ME take admission directly based on GATE score; which meant there
was no hope for me( As heard later, admissions were closed up to AIR 50 for
General Category :( ).Before reaching Bangalore, I had done some homework
in gathering some feedback about IISc ; most of which had a negative impact
on me.It was suited only for research, there was not much emphasis on
placements ( some IISc alumini on Quora even said that there was no T&P
Cell ), there was no culture for fests and the interaction among
students/faculty was very weak, professors tend to pressurize the students to
do PhD,etc.With all these preoccupations in mind, I reached the campus on
21st morning 7 am.The written exam was scheduled to start from 9 am. I had
my breakfast in the Institute canteen ( cheapest Idli I had so far in my life :) )
and took a seat in the hall which was the venue for the written test.
Written Test:
The test was of 90 mins duration consisting of 1 mark, 2 marks and 3
marksquestions.One mark questions were fill in the blank or one word type
questions and the rest were mostly numericals with some questions which
required us to draw plots and diagrams.I dont remember the questions
exactly ; but the few I do are presented below:
1.

Draw top view,front view & side view of a cup lying on a table.

2.

A question to calculate force acting on the center of a wheel with

spikes.

3.

A C Program to convert 8 bit data to 16 bit using a microcontroller.

4.

Some questions based on Nyquist Sampling and Shannon coding.

5.

Design a constant current circuit using BJT.

6.

Question on calculation of offset voltage of OPAMP given its variation

with temperature.

7.

Simple question on CE Amplifier gain calculation.

8.

Some very simple questions on digital circuit design and

microprocessors.

My paper was not as bad as I had expected it to be.The results came out in
the evening of the same day and guess what I was one of the 150 candidates
shortlisted for the interviews !!This was a huge shock for me and I was happy
that atleast I will tell my parents that I faced the interview :). Each candidate
was allotted a panel and given a slot of 20 mins. My interview was the on
22nd April at 4 pm.
Interview:
I hardly got 4-5 hours to prepare for the interview which I utilized in going
through my BE project reports. I had completely forgotten about them in my
two years of job.I hadnt touched a single page of my GATE material or any
book and so I was quite nervous to face the interviewers.I heard from my
seniors that the interviewers were asking three subjects which we would like
to be interviewed in.Clearly,they were all experts in Analog and I was not so
confident in it, so I decided to say Communication,Digital and Microprocessor
as my subjects. There were three professors in my panel. As soon as I entered
one of them shouted to one of the office boys to bring him a cup
of tea.They asked about my GATE score,my subjects and a little about my job.
The questions were:

An OPAMP integrator was given with square wave as input ranging from
0-5 V , asked to draw the output.

Input changed to -5V to +5V with the same circuit, output

was asked.Later he went deeper into saturation which confused me
further on output voltage level values.

A circuit with combinational and sequential elements with setup

time,hold time,propagation delay of each element given. A input wave
was given,asked to plot the output wave.

Design of a simple Mod-6 synchronous and asynchronous counter using

D and JK F/F.

Role of cache.

Quite unexpected,the first question was from OPAMP (analog).Within my mind

I thought,Why did you ask me my three subjects when you had to ask from

yours?. Anyhow I answered this question correctly but with little confidence
( result of not being in practice after GATE) .The professor saw this and took
advantage of my situation to prey a little more on me.He popped up the 2nd
question and went to the extreme depths which was sufficient to confuse
me. This professor then left; both annoyed by my answers and not receiving
his tea till now. This made me more nervous and I knew this was my end. The
other proff. then asked me 3-4 questions on digital which I thought was more
of an attempt to boost my confidence rather than judging me for
selection.Results were out in about 15 days and clearly I was not selected
( about 26 were selected).
About CEDT: CEDT ( now DESE ) stands for Center for Electronics Design &
Technology.Contrary to my notions, after my interaction with the students at
IISc who were in this program and others, I came to know how good an
opportunity I missed by not taking this interview seriously.For all those who
are interested in Electronics Systems Design,this is one of the best courses in
the country both from research and placement point of view.You will get an
opportunity to learn a lot by doing stuff practically and from one of the best
faculty in this field. Among all other ME branches of IISc; this one has the best
placement record and MTech passouts from this course have huge demand in
the industry.
Pros:
If you want to do research, IISc is heaven for you.The peaceful campus,

brilliant faculty, excellent labs provide just the right stimulants for your
work.
For those who are interested in doing PhD from abroad,you will get

excellent references as the professors are reputed internationally.

The companies coming for placements on-campus are coming only for

you ( i.e, there are no BTech students to compete with you).This gives
you ample opportunities. Even if you are not placed on-campus, being in
Bangalore you can get an off-campus job easily ( especially if you are in
CEDT).
Hostel rooms are good and food is also convenient.

Cons:

There is no internet facility in the rooms :( This was a major upset for
me as I cant stay in the lab all day and night and internet is the basic
necessity.

If you love interacting with people,taking part in fests,participating in

extra curricular activities then this is not the best place for you.

I found the communication skills of the students and professors a little

weak.( This is hardly a con ; more of my observation).

You will miss the fun of being an IIT student :)

P.S. The observations and views expressed above are solely mine ( OK some
of them are borrowed :P ).I will be mentioning questions and views related to
my field only ( EC) ; though students of other branches are also encouraged
to read in order to get a general idea about the interviews and institutes.
You can have a look at the below links for more interview experiences of IISc
CEDT:
http://shuva709.blogspot.in/
http://mobileelectron.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/iisc-interview-experience2012/
http://abhitak.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/iisc-cedt-written-test-interview/
I enjoyed my stay in Bangalore a lot. Thanks to my old friends and some new
friends made in the process :).In the next post, I will be discussing about my
IIT Kanpur interview.I will be happy to hear from you and clear your doubts as
much as possible :)