How To Prepare For Campus Placements

5/16/2019 How to prepare for Campus Placements?
— A journey from being a student to an SDE
How to prepare for Campus

Placements? — A journey from being a
student to an SDE
Abhinav Bhardwaj Follow
May 9 · 23 min read
Who am I?
I am Abhinav Bhardwaj, a final year student pursuing B.Tech. in
Electrical Engineering from Delhi Technological University (formerly,
Delhi College of Engineering). I have been programming for the past 8
years since I was 15 years old. I have been doing Competitive
Programming for the past 4 years, I solved my first problem on
CodeChef even before I started college. Apart from that, I have studied
DS & Algo from GeeksforGeeks to the point that my friends often call
me “Chalta Firta GeeksforGeeks” — meaning “A Walking GeeksforGeeks”.
I secured an on-campus internship during my 3rd year (which was
quite tough, owing to the fact that I was from core branch) and I
secured 3 job offers during my 4th year (2 on-campus @ OYO and
Zomato, and 1 off-campus @ Aspiring Minds’ Research Lab). I am
nearing the end of my college life and had been planning this article for
quite some time now, so I thought this might be the perfect time for me
to pen down my thoughts. I believe I am now in a position to write this
article on “How to go about preparing for campus placements? if you
aim to become an SDE”.
https://medium.com/codealchemist/how-to-prepare-for-campus-placements-b9fa571d45e6 1/26
5/16/2019 How to prepare for Campus Placements? — A journey from being a student to an SDE
Why have I written this article?

Students enter college with the hope of getting a good placement, a 6
figure salary. But I realized there is often a gap in “Knowledge
Transfer” between seniors and juniors. As a result, many are often
misguided and tend to waste time doing unrequisite stuff. Having been
in the same situation, I went around looking for resources to this very
question. I plan on making this article a “one-stop-shop” for anything
and everything that you would want to know about campus
placements.
Before we begin, remember this line by Norman Schwarzkopf:
“The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed

in war”.
The meaning is for you to decipher.
Disclaimer: This is a list in progress and although I plan on making this list
exhaustive but as they say — “Each person has a di erent story”, you
may feel that some points have not been touched upon or have been left
out. So, suggestions regarding any other resources, which you think should
be a part of this list are welcome.
What all needs to be done? (From high to low priority) :
• Programming / Competitive programming.
• Algorithms and Data Structures.
• Academics (OS/DBMS/CN).
• Language-specific questions.
• System Design/Open-ended problems.
• Puzzles.
• MCQs based on programming.
• Aptitude/Logical Reasoning/Data Interpretation.
_____________________________________________________________
___
But first, a preview of the entire process:-
The process may not exactly be the same, you may have less technical rounds, the order in which topics are asked may be di erent. This
ow chart is only to give you a basic idea of the whole process.
_____________________________________________________________
___
I have heard this one line way too many times, and thought that I
should tell you this right off the bat — “There is no point in doing
anything, if you cannot clear even the 1st round”. Initial stage of any
company’s process would always be a programming test, where you
would be judged on the basis of your ability to write correct code in
limited period of time.
How to prepare?
The level of programming questions asked in this stage seldom cross

Codeforces Division-2, Level-C questions. So basically, you should be
able to solve an easy-medium(A, B, C level) problem at a quick pace.
There are many places for you to begin your journey into the world of
Competitive Programming:-
• CareerCup
• CodeChef
• CodeForces
• HackerRank
• HackerEarth
• InterviewBit
• LeetCode
• SPOJ
• Topcoder
A word of caution: Do not try to solve problems from each site. This leads to
you, only solving easy problems from each of them. Instead, follow at max
2–3 sites and stick to them.
— For newbies, you may face difficulty while solving problems and
may easily fell demotivated, so the best bet is to start with A20J Ladder.
Here, problems are categorized on the basis of difficulty and you can
start from the bottom of the ladder. Solve ladders for a while, the
jump to any of the sites mentioned above.
— For those of you who are brilliant at Competitive Programming or

those who plan on going for ACM-ICPC, here are 2 essential resources
for you:
1. Competitive Programming Handbook by Steven & Felix Halim
2. UVa Online Judge (Download Arena for Windows)
— For those of you who are comfortable with Division-2, Level-A &
B, but just cannot get a hang of Level-C, either you can apply a
filter on Codeforces for Level-C or you can go for the ladder of
problems on A2OJ for Div-2, Level-C. There is no shortcut to solving

these problems, you need to keep on trying. Perseverance is the key
here. Look at the solution by other candidates if you have to. After a
while (by solving yourself or by looking at correct solutions), you will
be able to figure out the right Data Structure to be used and the
algorithm to be employed to solve such problems. (Trust me, there is no
shortcut to this, I have been there). Although, You don’t have to be a
great competitive programmer to clear the online test but gaining that
extra edge to get selected for that dream company you aspire for, is
worth all the extra efforts.
A trend that I have noticed in the programming test of companies visiting

at the start of placement season, i.e., in July-August is that almost all of
them ask questions from Graphs and Dynamic Programming. Do not, I
repeat, do not under any circumstances take these 2 topics lightly. Solve as
many problems on these topics as possible. Again, as I said, once you have
solved ample number of problems, you will get the hang of things.
Start taking part in coding challenges on any site of your choice ASAP. I
would recommend CodeForces. Even if you miss a round, you can
always use Virtual Participation to practice.
Here are a few of the problems that had come up in the 1st round
of various companies that visited DTU in 2019:
CodeNation:-
Ixigo:-
T-Systems:-
Rivigo:-
Visa:-
Zomato:-
Adobe:-
OYO:-
2) Algorithm and Data Structures:-
Now, I have seen people studying DS & Algo from InterviewBit and
LeetCode. But for me, the most trusted place has always been
GeeksforGeeks.
Algorithms and Data Structures have separate sections, here are the
links:-
• Algorithms
• Data Structures
Now, these parts of GeeksforGeeks are LITERALLY HUGE. Pros: You

won’t have to go anywhere else. Cons: Content is vast and time shortage
may be an issue. Although I had covered almost everything on
GeeksforGeeks and always found myself at an advantage, but as I
stated before, I began my journey quite early on and you might not
have the same time remaining in your hand. Here, selective study is
more important than exhaustive study. You don’t have to cover each
and every topic extensively, although having a rudimentary knowledge
of everything will be helpful. For example, in one of my interviews for
Citibank, I was given a problem on Red-Black Trees which I was able to
answer. Although RB Trees are seldom asked, I was able to answer it
because I had an idea about what it is, it’s properties, etc.
From Algorithms section, you can leave Randomized algorithms, Max

Flow (but do bipartite matching), etc. You can do “Bitwise algorithms”
from other sources as this part is quite vast on GfG and Output : Input
ratio of your efforts will be quite low.

Similarly, from Data Structures you can leave all the Advanced Data
Structures except Segment Tree and Trie. and similarly, you can leave
any data structure which is seldom used, as questions from these are
highly unexpected. Study Heaps and Trie thoroughly as questions are
frequently asked from them in interviews. Apart from that, studying
Array, Linked List, Stack, Queue, BT, BST, Graph goes without saying.

3) Academics (OS/DBMS/CN):-

Academics usually include questions from Operating Systems and
Database Management Systems. Questions from these topics won’t
be solely theoretical but will cover practical applications as well. In fact,
they will focus more towards the practical aspect.
• You may be asked what is multi-threading but there are higher

chances of the question being reframed to know how deeply you
have studied it, as follows: Can two processes/ two threads share a
common address space?or, What all stuff do 2 processes or 2
threads share?
• I was also asked this question from OS, which I realized needed in-
depth knowledge of cache, RAM and CPU to answer: Will a system
having cache (along with RAM, obviously) always perform
better(faster) than a system having only RAM, or is it possible that
it may be slower?
Studying only the definitions won’t help you in answering such questions.
Deep-diving into the topic is necessary. These topics should never be taken
lightly since some interviews are solely based to check your OS and DBMS
skills.
Tips:
• Think before you speak..…Interviewers try to grab what you say to

further question you. An excerpt from a conversation that I had in
an interview was:
Interviewer: What are the functions of an OS?
Me: Memory Management, Storage Management, Process

Management — CPU Scheduling etc.
Interviewer: So what are the various algorithms for CPU Scheduling?
Me: FCFS, SJF, Priority Scheduling, Round Robin……..
Interviewer: So, are SJF and Priority Scheduling related in any way?
Me: Yes, the idea behind the SJF algorithm is to pick the quickest
fastest little job that needs to be done, get it out of the way first, and
then pick the next smallest fastest job to do next. Priority scheduling is
a more general case of SJF, in which each job is assigned a priority and
the job with the highest priority gets scheduled first.
Interviewer: ……….further questions……….
— Catching my drift? Think before you speak.
• You can skip Computer Networking since it is quite vast and not
many companies focus on it (Totally your choice). Students
generally focus on OS & DBMS and if they are asked a question on
CN, they generally say that they have thoroughly studied OS &
DBMS and they will be able to answer questions from them and if
the job requires them to have a knowledge of CN then they can
study it. [I have seen this argument working just fine, as
companies rarely focus on it]. Remember, work smart not hard.
Resources:
1. For OS
• Course Notes, UIC
• Follow the book Operating System Concepts by Silberschatz, Galvin,

Gagne
1. For DBMS
• Course Slides
• Follow the book Database System Concepts by Silberschatz, Korth,

Sudarshan
Start covering these subjects during the last month, before your
placement season begins. Students rarely use books to study these
subjects as they are huge, instead you can use the links provided above
and they will work just fine.
4) Language-specific questions:-
These involve questions from the language you prominently code in.
For people who code in C++, you need to cover:
• C
• C++
• Download 3–4 of these apps from play store and study.
For people who code in Java, you need to cover:
• Java
• You guys need to have an in-depth knowledge of how JVM works,

so study this link thoroughly. Also, study why it is platform
independent, how source code is converted to byte code and then
to machine code, etc.
• Download 3–4 of these apps from play store and study.
I would advise everybody to prepare some sort of handouts for these

topics as they are highly volatile and needs to be revised every 2–3
weeks.

You can be asked to code a question in an object orientated manner. I
was asked to code the MarsRover problem in an interview.
• Problem statement and solution to the MarsRover problem in C++
• Problem statement and solution to the MarsRover problem in Java
One of my friends was asked to implement Malloc and free in c/c++ (If
you don’t know how malloc and free function internally you would
have a hard time answering this).
Start covering this topic a week or 2 before your placement season

begins. Doing it beforehand won’t be of much use.
5) System Design/Open-ended problems:-
Open-ended problems are those to which there is no specific answer.

Most of the time, such problems are solved by the interviewee and
interviewer together. What do I mean by that? The candidate puts
forward an approach, how he came to it and the interviewer points out
possible loop-holes and optimizations in the candidate’s approach and
then the candidate tries to incorporate these suggestions to reach a
better solution. The solution to such problems is an iterative process
and clarity in your thoughts is a must. The ability to articulate your
thoughts is indispensable for clearing this round. System Design
problems are somewhat similar and it’s hard to distinguish between the
two, except for the fact that design question needs you to start from a
low-level system and slowly upgrade to develop a scalable system.
Such problems need practice as they usually run for the entire duration
of an interview. Some of the design questions I was asked in
interviews:-
• Design a URL shortener.
• Design an Elevator System.
• Design Minesweeper game.
• Design a text editor like notepad.
• Design a management system for parking lots.
• Design a chatbot system which takes in queries from users and re-
directs them to the concerned department that can solve their
queries.
There are a bunch of resources for learning how to solve design

questions:-
• System Design repo on Github
• Practise System Design on InterviewBit
• Hired In Tech’s System Design Tutorial
• Grokking the System Design Interview Course on educative
Remember a few points:-
1. Gather requirements (what all features does the interviewer want

in his system).
2. Start with a high-level design or a class design. (Define all the

classes that your system will have).
3. Then, design the selected components in detail.
4. Identify the bottlenecks and try to resolve them.
5. Use as much Block Diagrams and Flow Charts as possible to depict

your approach, not only does it help you to think clearly but also
allows the interviewer to understand you better.
LRU cache Implemetation and Explain the internal working of a

HashMap are asked frequently. Do these two questions thoroughly.
6) Puzzles:-
A puzzle or two are frequently asked in interviews to gauge your logical

reasoning capabilities. Now, there is a high probability that one might
not be able to answer a new puzzle in an interview due to pressure. But
the purpose of asking puzzles is to check how the candidate
thinks/initiates/tries to solve the problem. Always giving the
exact/right answer is not important, but having a coherent thought
process is must.
One thing that I have noticed is, most of the companies ask puzzles
from a common pool. So, covering those puzzles will allow you to crack
most of the puzzles thrown at you.
• GeeksforGeeks — Puzzles Section (Don’t cover C/C++ Puzzles) [Do

each and every puzzle from GeeksforGeeks]
• Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles

begins. Doing it beforehand won’t be of much use.
7) MCQ based on programming:-
In addition to programming section during the 1st round, sometimes a

section based on programming MCQs also comes. Find the output, find
the error in the code snippet, find the order of execution, etc. come
under this section. Most of the times, the code snippet is in C language.
So, irrespective of which language you code in, you need to know a bit
of C to get this section right.
Follow this book Test your C skills by Yashwant Kanetkar
Start doing this book during the last month, before your placement
season begins. Around 200–300 questions done evenly from all
chapters should be sufficient.
8) Aptitude/Logical Reasoning/Data Interpretation:-
In addition to the programming section during the 1st round, there

may be an aptitude section in some cases as well. To practice aptitude
questions go to indiabix. Do some questions of all types. Also, give a few
timed tests to figure out how much time you are taking to solve, say 10
or 20 questions. Try to reduce that, the less time you take to solve
aptitude questions, the more you will be able to dedicate to
programming section.

begins.
_____________________________________________________________
___
Tips & Things to remember:-
1. Maintain a decent CGPA that allows you to sit for any company
that visits your campus. Ideally, try to keep it above 7.5/10 or 75%
(whatever criteria your college follows). Although, if you plan on
going for Masters, try to keep it above 8.0/10 or 80%.
2. Clarify the entire question before jumping onto solving it, in

case you have any doubts. Spending 10–15 minutes to solve a
problem, only to realize that you had got it all wrong can leave a
bad taste in interviewer’s mouth. Sometimes the interviewer
knowingly gives a vague description of the problem to see how you
get things clarified, what all do you think is important to solve that
problem.
3. The Interviewer is not a fool, so don’t try to be a smartass. —

Don’t try to give a wrong answer and escape. If you don’t know an
answer either tell them that you don’t know it or try to guess it
logically and mention it explicitly that it’s a guess. Interviewers
only ask what they know and are far more experienced than you
are.
4. Interviewers are not your enemies, they are not here to reject
you. — The sole fact that you are sitting in that room implies that
they want to hire students, you only need to prove you have the
knowledge and mettle to be selected.
5. Never directly jump on the best/most efficient solution to a

problem. — First, give a less efficient solution and gradually work
your way up to present a more efficient one. It gives you
something to fall back to in case you cannot figure out a better
solution.
6. Never hesitate from thinking out loud and giving a partial

solution. — It is essential to let the interviewers get a look into
your thought process, so thinking out loud can be sometimes
really helpful, especially when you are unable to get to a concrete
solution. It allows them to drop guesses and also, giving at least a
partial solution is better than not being able to solve a problem at
all.
7. If you have proposed a solution to interviewer’s problem and you

are in a quandary if it is satisfactory or not — ask him “Does this
seem good enough” in a subtle manner. It won’t be awkward for
you and at the same time, you will be able to get any guess or input
from interviewer’s side.
8. While preparing Algorithms & Data Structures, code your

solution on paper from time to time. During interviews, you
need to code using pen and paper and it’s a good idea to get
accustomed to it. I have seen people write gibberish on paper
because of the lack of practice. A neatly-coded solution is always
a plus point.
9. While preparing Algorithms & Data Structures, try to figure

out similar patterns/approaches in problems and remember
them to reduce efforts. This point is slightly hard to understand so
let me explain it to you with an example. While solving questions
based on arrays, you will frequently come across problems which can
be solved using meet in middle algorithm. Nobody taught me this, but
it was for me to gure out by coming across several problems.
10. When placement season starts approaching (roughly 2 months

before start), begin to study Interview Experiences on
GeeksforGeeks. Try to imagine yourself in the interview and how
you would approach those problems. Don’t get disheartened if you
are not able to solve a problem — remember, in a real interview

you will be provided with hints for difficult questions by the
interviewer.
11. During my preparation of JEE, one of my teachers said something

that I could never forget and I always tend to follow it— “Not
being able to solve a question is not a problem. But looking at
its solution and not being able to solve it in the future is”. Be it
Competitive Programming or DS & Algo, if you are not able to
solve a problem, spend time with it, try to solve it and then look at
its solution and understand what, how and why has it been done
that way. Your goal should be able to solve a similar problem,
the next time you face it.
12. Be thorough with your resume. — Study the projects that you
have done. Think of any possible question that may be framed
from them. For example: In one of my projects I had used
serialization and I was asked how is it implemented using Java? —
Is it a class or an interface. He further went on to ask what type of
interface…..A marker interface. I was then asked questions on
marker interface. In short, if you have made a project, they expect
you to be thorough with it. Also, revise any courses that you have
mentioned on your resume.
13. Never fake your resume. — I have seen way too many students
writing made-up stuff that they never actually did and being
caught by the interviewer due to their inability to answer
questions. So, only write projects that you have genuinely done
and skills that you have acquired in the process. (If you have not
done projects, now might be a good time to do some).
14. Use LaTeX to create your resume instead of the plain old MS
Word. — Your resume is your first impression upon the company,
want to be taken seriously, spend time and efforts in creating that
perfect resume.
15. Always ask meaningful questions whenever you hear these

words-“Do you have any questions for us?” — Nothing can be
worse than showing that you have no interest in knowing anything
about the company you are interviewing for. Some meaningful
questions you can ask are: “What all teams do you have in your
tech department?, To which teams will the freshers be allocated?,
Why should I join you instead of any other company out there?”
The list is endless.
16. It may sound trivial but get your basics right. — You should be
able to calculate time complexity etc, quickly and accurately. The
solution that you code in interviews must always be followed by its
time complexity. In one of my interviews I was asked: You have an
algorithm that has T.C. of O(n) and another algorithm that has
T.C. of O(n²). Will the first algorithm always exhibit better
performance. Hint: Big-Ο is used as a tight upper-bound on the
growth of an algorithm’s e ort (Big-O indicates worst case senario).
The answer to this question proves my point.
17. Remember, its a marathon, not a sprint. — Learn to handle a bit

of stress. Everyone in this world works based on their own time
zone. People around you might seem to be ahead of you. That’s
total fine. Focus on your efforts — be competitive — but don’t lose
your peace of mind while competing.
Best practises in a Coding Interview!!
_____________________________________________________________
___
There are some miscellaneous topics like — How to prepare for the HR
round? and How to apply off-campus? which I will cover below.
How to prepare for HR round?
Although most of the folks take HR round lightly [it is meant to be a

light discussion round :) ] but I have seen some people being rejected
repetitively solely due to their poor performance in this round. So, I will
be covering a few tips on how to pass the HR round like a breeze.
1. Why us? — Research about the company you are interviewing

for, beforehand. Although it may be raised in a technical round
too, it is generally kept for HR round. Get acquainted with their
future business plans in your country, their expansion plans,
recent awards, etc. I remember when I got placed in OYO, the
interviewer asked me the same question and I told him all the
awards that they got last year (Linkedin’s Top startup award
2018……..etc) and the interviewer had a smile. Such things may
not be game-changing but can make an overall difference.
2. If the interview knows that you already have a job offer and you
are asked why you won’t be joining that company, never talk
smack about previous employers and don’t bad-mouth the
past companies. This will lead to an immediate rejection, no
matter how well you performed in your technical rounds. Instead,
tell them how their company will provide better growth
opportunities, how much you have heard about their work
environment…..etc. I remember, Zomato was the first company in
DTU that was open for placed students as well. And everyone who
made it to the HR round was asked — “Why are you interested in
Zomato and not the company in which you are currently placed?”.
A few of the students made exactly the same mistake of bad-
mouthing the previous company and they never made their way
into the final selections.
3. Prepare an answer to a few common questions beforehand:
• Tell me about yourself — This answer should always be in the

form of a story about yourself. Your past, how you got
introduced to programming and how you decided that Software

Development is what you wanted to pursue. This answer should
also include your achievements in that direction and finally what
you want to do/achieve in the future. This question is not
constricted to HR round, it serves as an icebreaker and can be
asked in any round.
• What are your strengths? — This answer should not be cliché. I̶ a̶ m

̶ ̶
̶ o̶ r̶ k̶ i̶ n̶ g̶ ,̶ ̶ i̶ n̶ t̶ e̶ l̶ l̶ i̶ g̶ e̶ n̶ t̶ ,̶ ̶ s̶ t̶ u̶ d̶ i̶ o̶ u̶ s̶ ̶ e̶ t̶ c̶ .̶ ̶ Instead, tell them something
h̶ a̶ r̶ d̶ w
unique, something that sets you apart from others. And these
strengths should resonate with the needs of the company. For
example: “You are very punctual (you will meet deadlines), very
personable and funny (you are a team-player), you have a never-
ending hunger for knowledge and learning (acquiring new skills
won’t be an issue for you)”. Introspect and figure out your
strengths.
• What are your weaknesses? — First of all, explicitly mention that

you don’t have any such weakness which may be a hindrance to
work. This answer, again, should not be cliché. I̶ s̶ t̶ r̶ i̶ v̶ e̶ ̶ f̶ o̶ r̶ ̶
p̶ e̶ r̶ f̶ e̶ c̶ t̶ i̶ o̶ n̶ ,̶ ̶ I̶ ̶ a̶ m ̶ o̶ r̶ k̶ a̶ h̶ o̶ l̶ i̶ c̶ .̶ Be a bit smart, tell them something that
̶ ̶w
sets you apart from others and at the same time satisfies them. For
example: “I am not manipulative in nature. Although some may
consider this a positive quality, I see it as my weakness”. Or, “I used to
have this habit of helping people without them asking for it. This led
me to sometimes not giving value to my time. But I am learning to
draw that boundary…..yadda…..yadda…..yadda”.
• Where do you see yourself 5–10 years down the line? — This is for
each one of you to decide on your own. Still, an example would
be: “I would like to be a source of inspiration, people should look up
to me and say I am the best at what I do. I would like to see myself
learning something new every day. I would like to a ect people’s lives
directly”.
• Tell me about your family. — Start by telling about their respective

occupations. How proud you are, how you try to emulate good
qualities from them etc.
— Whenever you shake hands with an interviewer, the handshake

should be firm.
How to apply for off-campus placements?

• Maintain an impeccable LinkedIn pro le. A few Google Searches
will guide you to make that perfect profile. Your LinkedIn profile is
a mirror of all your achievements, your education, your interests,
aspirations, etc.
• You should have an exemplary resume. Remember, 100s even 1000s

may be applying for that same position. So, having a perfect
resume is a must. This is the reason why I pointed out to use LaTeX
to create your resume, it gives you that extra edge over others.
1. Make a list of all the companies you want to reach out to. Do not
hesitate in applying in even the so-called “big guns”. Chances of
hearing a reply are slim due to several factors (companies receive
100s or 1000s or such applications) so make sure you apply in
many companies to at least get some replies.
2. Find the pro le of their respective recruiters via LinkedIn. This is

easy. LinkedIn allows you to do a search by profession and
company. Use that. You can alternatively do a Google search.
3. Find the careers email address of these companies. This is available

on their website.
4. Drop your resume to both, the recruiter as well as the careers email.
Write a polite and a simple message, expressing your intent.
5. You can alternatively apply using LinkedIn Job Search.
6. Create your AngelList pro le and apply to suitable startups.
7. Get in touch with your college seniors on LinkedIn and ask if they are
willing to refer you to their company.
8. Some companies frequently organize coding competitions on

HackerRank, HackerEarth, InterviewBit etc. and if you perform
very well, you may get a chance to give interviews.
_____________________________________________________________
___
Happy Interviewing!!

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5/16/2019 How to prepare for Campus Placements?

— A journey from being a student to an SDE

How to prepare for Campus

Why have I written this article?

Before we begin, remember this line by Norman Schwarzkopf:

“The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed

The meaning is for you to decipher.

What all needs to be done? (From high to low priority) :

• Programming / Competitive programming.

• Algorithms and Data Structures.

• System Design/Open-ended problems.

• MCQs based on programming.

• Aptitude/Logical Reasoning/Data Interpretation.

But first, a preview of the entire process:-

The level of programming questions asked in this stage seldom cross

able to solve an easy-medium(A, B, C level) problem at a quick pace.

— For those of you who are brilliant at Competitive Programming or

1. Competitive Programming Handbook by Steven & Felix Halim

2. UVa Online Judge (Download Arena for Windows)

problems on A2OJ for Div-2, Level-C. There is no shortcut to solving

A trend that I have noticed in the programming test of companies visiting

2) Algorithm and Data Structures:-

Now, these parts of GeeksforGeeks are LITERALLY HUGE. Pros: You

From Algorithms section, you can leave Randomized algorithms, Max

• You may be asked what is multi-threading but there are higher

• Think before you speak..…Interviewers try to grab what you say to

Interviewer: What are the functions of an OS?

Me: Memory Management, Storage Management, Process

Interviewer: So what are the various algorithms for CPU Scheduling?

Me: FCFS, SJF, Priority Scheduling, Round Robin……..

— Catching my drift? Think before you speak.

• Course Notes, UIC

• Follow the book Operating System Concepts by Silberschatz, Galvin,

• Follow the book Database System Concepts by Silberschatz, Korth,

For people who code in C++, you need to cover:

• Download 3–4 of these apps from play store and study.

For people who code in Java, you need to cover:

• You guys need to have an in-depth knowledge of how JVM works,

• Download 3–4 of these apps from play store and study.

I would advise everybody to prepare some sort of handouts for these

• Problem statement and solution to the MarsRover problem in C++

• Problem statement and solution to the MarsRover problem in Java

Start covering this topic a week or 2 before your placement season

5) System Design/Open-ended problems:-

Open-ended problems are those to which there is no specific answer.

• Design a URL shortener.

• Design an Elevator System.

• Design Minesweeper game.

• Design a text editor like notepad.

• Design a management system for parking lots.

There are a bunch of resources for learning how to solve design

• System Design repo on Github

• Practise System Design on InterviewBit

• Hired In Tech’s System Design Tutorial

• Grokking the System Design Interview Course on educative

Remember a few points:-

1. Gather requirements (what all features does the interviewer want

2. Start with a high-level design or a class design. (Define all the

3. Then, design the selected components in detail.

4. Identify the bottlenecks and try to resolve them.

5. Use as much Block Diagrams and Flow Charts as possible to depict

LRU cache Implemetation and Explain the internal working of a

A puzzle or two are frequently asked in interviews to gauge your logical