NatWest Group

Role: Software Engineer (SDE)

College: Not Specified (On-Campus)

Interview Date: September 2022

Interview Type: On-Campus, Full-Time

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Easy to Moderate

Rounds: 3 rounds

Topics Asked: DBMS, OS, Java, C concepts, Quantitative Aptitude, Data Structures, Algorithms (Euclidean distance, Maximum number with K swaps, Shortest substring with all characters - Sliding Window), Cryptography (types, need for encryption), OOPs concepts, SQL (3rd highest salary, primary key vs. unique key), Puzzles, Behavioral (team help, why NatWest, preferred job location).

Experience:

NatWest Group (formerly RBS) conducted an on-campus drive for the Software Engineer role in September 2022. The selection process consisted of three rounds.

Round 1: Resume Shortlisting
This was a screening round where candidates were shortlisted based on their CGPA and resume. Approximately 280 candidates were shortlisted for the next round.

Round 2: Online Test
This round was conducted on the Mettl platform and comprised 6 sections with a total of 50 MCQs and 3 coding questions. The MCQs included 20 technical questions (covering basic DBMS, OS, Java, and C concepts) and 30 quantitative aptitude questions.

The coding questions were of easy to moderate difficulty:

• Coding Question 1: Find the maximum total traveling time for a delivery guy, using the Euclidean method to calculate distance.
• Coding Question 2: Find the maximum number that can be formed using a given string of digits with at most K adjacent swaps.
• Coding Question 3: Find the shortest substring in a given string that contains all characters of a given word (a sliding window variation).

42 candidates, including the interviewee, were shortlisted for the personal interview.

Round 3: Personal Interview
This round was conducted via Zoom, with 7 panels and two interviewers per panel. The interviewers were described as friendly and helpful. The interview began with introductions from both interviewers, followed by the candidate's self-introduction.

Questions asked included:

• Explain any one project worked on.
• What are different types of cryptography techniques?
• Why do we need encryption?
• Basic OOPs concepts.
• Write a query to find the 3rd highest salary of an employee whose last name contains 'a' and 'c'.
• What is the difference between a primary key and a unique key?
• Puzzles were given to solve.
• Behavioral question: Give a scenario where you helped your team complete a project within a deadline.
• Why do you want to join NatWest?
• Preferred job location.
• Opportunity to ask questions for the interviewers.

The interview lasted about 20-25 minutes. Tips provided were to brush up on basic concepts and be thorough with the resume, and to be honest.