HP

Role: Intern + FTE position (Software Developer)

College: Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore

Interview Date: Late 2023 / Early 2024

Interview Type: On-Campus Placements

Result: Selected

Difficulty: Medium

Rounds: 3 rounds (Technical, Managerial + Technical, HR)

Topics Asked: Data Structures, Algorithms, Time and Space Complexity, Operating Systems, Computer Architecture, Networking, Security, Projects (Web Development, ML), Behavioral.

Experience:

The candidate, a final-semester ECE student, was offered an "INTERN + FTE" position after an on-campus placement process consisting of three rounds.

Round 1 — Technical Round (1 hr long): The interview began with introductions, followed by the candidate's self-introduction. Then, several coding questions were asked, and the candidate had to provide the pseudo-code for Merge Sort, explain how to find, detect, and remove a loop in a Linked List, reverse a Linked List, and flatten a binary tree into a Linked List. The theoretical condition for a tree to be a BST was also asked. For each problem, time and space complexity were required. Since the questions were standard and the candidate had revised them, they were able to respond promptly. Following the coding questions, fundamental and logic-building questions were asked, including: "What is the OSI Layer?", which data structure can be used to implement left/right arrow buttons on a web browser, what cache memory is and where it's used, the difference between CPU and GPU, and encryption/decryption (public and private key concepts). One question related to the ECE course was also asked: "Difference between AC and DC current?".

Round 2 — Managerial + Technical Round (30 min): This round involved project discussion and some fundamental concepts. The candidate had three projects (one web development, one ML-based) and explained them one by one, which took most of the time. The interviewer then asked about the OSI layer and the protocols involved in each layer. Lastly, the interviewer asked why the candidate chose software over the ECE core domain despite being from ECE.

Round 3 — HR Round (10 min): The HR round started with a self-introduction, followed by "What do you know about the company?". The candidate was also asked for an overview of their projects and "Why HPE?". The candidate notes that reaching the HR round doesn't guarantee selection, as about 25 candidates made it to HR, but only 12 were selected.