Cohesity

Role: Fresher (Software Engineer)

College: Not Specified

Interview Date: Not Specified (experience reported 2025-07-11)

Interview Type: Full-Time

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Not Specified

Rounds: 4 rounds

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms (String manipulation, two-pointer, sliding window), C programming, Operating Systems, System Design (data structure for processes)

Experience:

The interview process for this fresher role comprised four rounds, conducted on Zoom with CodeSignal used for coding.

Round 1: This round featured three programming questions, increasing in difficulty. The questions included finding the first non-repeating character in a very large string with only one traversal (an O(n) sliding window solution was expected) and finding all valid word partitions of a given string from a dictionary.

Round 3: This interview was conducted by a director. The candidate was initially given a C code and asked to predict its output, making an initial mistake but correcting it after compiling and running the program. A programming question followed: "Given a string containing only 'B' (Black) and 'W' (White) balls, bring all white balls to the start of the string (e.g., 'BWWB' should become 'WWBB')." The only allowed operation was swapping elements, with an expected time complexity of O(n) and space complexity of O(1). The candidate presented and coded a two-pointer approach, also generating test cases.

Round 4: This round was entirely focused on Operating Systems. The interviewer asked the candidate to design a data structure to store information about processes, requiring an explanation of every detail, including data types. Related questions covered burst time, waiting time, and how burst time is calculated.

The candidate received an offer after a week.