Cloudera

Role: Software Engineer

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: 2021

Interview Type: On-Campus, Full-Time

Result: Not Specified

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 4 rounds

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms, DBMS, OOPS, OS, Computer Networks, Projects, Puzzles, Behavioral.

Experience:

Cloudera visited the campus in 2021. The eligibility had a CGPA and branch criterion, with no year gap acceptable. There were 4 rounds in total: an online test followed by 3 one-on-one interviews (technical, managerial, and HR), all conducted on a single day.

Round 1: Online Coding Test (100 mins)
Difficulty: Medium. It consisted of 4 questions.

• The first question was a standard LeetCode problem: Largest Number.
• The second question was a variation of Longest Common Subsequence, specifically Minimum cost to make two strings identical.
• The third question involved string manipulation to format a paragraph into two columns on a page, similar to a research paper, with fixed lines, line length, and spacing.
• The fourth question was a medium-level SQL query involving correlated query concepts.

Round 2: Technical Interview (1 hour)
The round began with introductions. The interviewer then asked standard questions related to DBMS, OOPS, and OS, including Virtual memory, deadlocks, OOPs pillars and their real-life examples, and the necessity of OOPs. The candidate was also asked about the time complexities of the problems solved in Round 1. A coding question was given for live coding on the Codebunk platform. Python-related questions were also asked, such as whether Python is a scripting language, and about tuples and sets.

Round 3: Technical Interview (1 hour)
This round also started with introductions. The candidate was asked to explain a project mentioned in their resume. Core subjects like OS (threading) and Computer Networks (explaining each layer) were covered, along with further questions on DBMS and OOPS. One medium-level coding question was asked: finding the maximum product of three numbers in O(n) time complexity. The candidate discussed three strategies and their time complexities. A puzzle requiring a binary search strategy was also given, along with some situation-based questions.

Round 4: HM Interview (45 mins)
The interviewer reviewed the candidate's resume, LinkedIn, and GitHub profiles, asking questions based on them. The candidate was asked what they knew about Cloudera. A concept called "singleton class" was discussed to assess the candidate's approach to new concepts using existing knowledge. This round was primarily behavioral, analyzing the candidate's reactions and statements in various situations.