Bloomberg SDE (Software Development Engineer) Interview Questions and Answers

Topics to prepare for Amazon SDE (Software Development Engineer) interview:

• Algorithms
• Data Structures

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Practice Question from Leetcode and Codeforces.

Round: Test
Experience: The selection procedure consisted of one online round followed by 4 face to face interviews.
1st round consisted of 20 MCQs of C/C++ and general aptitude. They shortlisted only 11 B.Techs after first round. Then we had 4 separate interviews out of which one was Bar Raiser round (which is most important).

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Each interview was of around an hour. They mainly emphasized on data structure part. I got a lot of questions from tree and linked list and few were based on Operating System's concepts. For most of the questions, they asked me to come up with more than one approach and also they introduced many variations in between. After the discussion of approach, I was supposed to write the complete code on paper.Each round was kind of elimination round and the Bar Raiser round was most important of all.

General Tips: For improving coding skills, first code basic searching, sorting and graph algorithms.Then try to program few random questions of trees and linked list while studying there concepts. Then practice some questions from sites like codechef or codeforces and also try to participate in the competitions that take place on these sites.For Operating Systems, just go through the book written by "S Galvin" and try to clear concepts of memory management part.
Apart from these main topics, just have a glance at these few topics:
Database : Basic Queries, Indexing, Transaction
OOP : Definition with understanding of four features of OOPs.Among non-technical stuffs, practice some famous puzzles (just Google it).
After all these done, just keep on solving interviews questions being updated regularly at geeksforgeeks
Overall Experience was very good and challenging as it was the very first day of placement and our interviews went till 4 in the morning. So when the result came, we were very excited.
Skills:
College Name: NIT Surathkal

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Applied through referral and after the review my resume gets shortlisted.

Round: Test
Experience: 6 program and their outputs are given. We have debug the program to get the desired output.
Duration: 11 hours 20 minutes
Total Questions: 6

Round: Test
Experience: Have to write a code for 2 problems.
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 2

Skills: Behavioural Skills, LOGICAL THINKING ABILITIES, Technical Skill

Round: Test
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Questions: 22

College Name: Manipal University Jaipur

Round: Test
Experience: Out of 20 MCQ's ,I think I solved 13-15 MCQ's Correctly. I solved easy MCQ's first and spent sometime on tough one's.
MCQ's were simple to tough I/O questions ,OS Questions etc.
In coding round they asked one D.P problem and one problem related to stack . I solved the stack question. So I can say
I did OK on this round and got selected to Interview.
Tips: Get comfortable with Data structures and Algorithms, and also have some basic idea of OS,DBMS.
Duration: 1:30 minute
Total Questions: 22

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The Interviewer was friendly and first he asked questions about my projects, previous internship etc .
He then gave me a question related to B-Tree and asked me to tell the algorithm. First I gave naive solution, then he told me to improve efficiency. Though I took some time, I eventually arrived at a efficient solution. He asked to code that algo in any programming language. so I coded the algo in Java within 10 minutes. He went through my code thoroughly and corrected some minor mistakes. After this he asked if I have any questions for him, I then asked some questions related to work profile. After this round I was called for another techincal round. This round lasted for 50 minutes.
Tips: I prepared from geeks for geeks for interviews and I think it helps a lot. Think out loud as Interviewer also observes your thought process.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: This round was a breeze as the Interviewer was very warm and he asked me various questions related to the courses
I took. I think he asked questions related to prob theory,OS,discrete Maths etc. I answered most of them correctly.
This round lasted for 45 minutes.
Tips: As said above think out loud and have a good presence of mind. It helps if you revise the courses mentioned in your resume.

General Tips: Practice programming a lot, preferably from Hacker rank etc. Come prepared for the Interview.
Don't panic and have a fresh mind for interview
Skills: Programming, problem solving
Duration: 2 Months
College Name: IIT Madras
Motivation: It's a good company,offering a decent stipend and one more thing it's in Hyderabad which is my hometown.
Funny Moments: Nothing that I remember of.

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I interned at Amazon, which allowed me to skip round 1.
Tips: Just go through questions on geeksforgeeks and practice on hackerrank, almost all of the questions will come from them.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The discussion was mainly focused on my interests and what all I had learned from my previous experiences.
Tips: You should show your passion for the technology here. What fascinates you the most in tech. Are you a curious one. Don't try to fake here as it might backfire.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: 2 programming questions.
Tips: If you have give a sincere effort in practicing to solve algorithmic problems you should be good.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: I had gone through this code on geeksforgeeks, so I had a basic idea of the approach and hence I was able to solve it. This round was taken by the manager and we mostly discussed my interests.
Tips: A genuine interest in any particular field will be of great help.

College Name: IIT

Round: Test
Experience: Some MCQs on Networking,OS,etc. were asked and 3 coding questions on linked list,etc. were asked.
Tips: Be fast and confident.
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Questions: 32

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Interviewer asked my name and interests and then went about with the questions.
Tips: Must be strong in algorithms and data structures.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: I was initially unable to solve it but I asked for some hints which were enough.
Tips: Take your time and ask for hints if required.

College Name: IIT Varanasi

Round: Test
Experience: The techinical aptitude test was above average level and had conceptual problem . Some good questions were there from C,C++.
persistent basically concentrates on every subject and now a days also concentrate more on software engineering.
C.C++,OS,DBMS,Computer Architecture,Networking and some microprocessor part was covered in those 60 quesn of technical.
Then 20 min for programming .Immediately after that 10 min for essay writing.
Tips: Most of the times we are prepared for interview but not for technica aptitude .
The test requires sound basic knowledge of each field ,do prepare software engg questions well .At least 45+ correct questions would give chance of next round if code done is correct .
The code is evaluated only if you qualify in tech apti.
File handling program may be tough and tricky one,rest all are easy.
Duration: 90 minutes
Total Questions: 60

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: tech 1 :
my project was in AI so related questions first ,he wanted a basic intro of all.
after seeing resume and mentioning of hackerrank and seeing all achievements started of the
Interviwer : So you are hacker ?
S : No not at all hacker i practise prog on hackerank.
I : so what are types of hackers
S : Black hat,white hat.
I : so can they be potential terrorsit
S :yes at times with wrong intention they are potential terrorist
asked me to explain eg and did it ,satisfied .
I : so introduce yourself
I : so tell me fuzzy logic
told him
I : tell me algorithms you know some brief intro
S : told him about A* algo,fleming bird algo,salesperson problem .(took lot of time)
I : explain me this project
S : told him some of conditions as all were not possible ,some talk on optimization of length of code etc.
I : So tell me about programming sites
S : told them all about codechef,hackerrank,spoj.
I : Now say i have char ch='n' my name starts with n say how will it get stored
I : so what all microprocessor has
I : how many type of interrupts , and in detail eg (I wasnt sure ,gave eg but told that i was not sure)
I : implement circular link list
I : insert element in circular link list.
I : constant variables,volatile variables.
I : What are stack and queue and thier application.
I : where are variables stored (dyanmic allocation and static with the global and static varoable he wanted)
I : now here comes puzzle from nowhere : 3 cans each full with capacity 3,5,7 liter make it 5,5,5
(I thought there might be some way and kept talking every moment ,is there large supply of water ,can we spill it all he denied)
so i couldnt do it then he asked whether i need another vessel and asked how much quantity ,i told 5.
he said consider it ,did it in seconds and so he again said that was way easy now do original problem .
I tried a lot he kept talking on mobile for 5 min (worst part).
I : so he asked me again some question on queue ,its implementation
I : then went to OS ,priority queue scheduling basic idea and code.
So i am finished with you .said thank you sir .

Tips: Yes everyone is tense for firts round ,but the interviewer are very friendly ,almost all of them .
They ask technical questions and check if you can go out of box in tech as well as thinking aspect.
Continous interaction with interviewer is must .

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: TECH 2:
I : so shivshankar introduce yourself.
I : What are all these sites and ranks ,explained him in detail .
I : area of intrest asked i told DS.
I : so find out middle of link list when no of nodes are not known.(did it) was happy for explanaiton.
I : reverse a link list i did interative and was expecting him to say for recurrsive ,again did it .
I : gave a array problem easy one
I : another probelm where he incremented array name ,so it was lvalue error (he gave no expression).
I : gave structure question .
I : asked for another resume and threw a paper with apti quesn on it ,did that just a hour before only .
I : asked about higher studies and why mathematics specialization only?
I : asked virtual function description and abstract class too .
I : graph implementation , dijkastras algo basic explanation ,if code is known then code too.
I : asked family background


Tips: This will be purely on data strcutures and algorithm if area of intrest is DS and algo ,if not it will be a mix of algo plus any other your favourite subject .
Many may get This round directly ,so if you perform in this round you go directly to HR.
so you face only one interview then 2.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: HR round :
In my case HR was bit diffrent ,all candidate had pure HR questions ,mine this round also went technical + HR with two diffrent interviewers.
HR1 : so shivshankar right ! introduce yourself .
HR1 : how was your day ,and here comes technical part i was again told to tell link list problem solutions all of them .
HR1 : what was your apti program how you implemented it ,told him all tricks and full method (very happy by explantion around 10 min explantion).
HR1 : some structure and union related questions ,like size of structure ,diffrence,classes struct diff etc.
HR1 : what you know about persi ,tell him somethings apart from ppt will be good ,and have contact in very company which you are giving.
HR1 : further education intrest ,why in that field.
HR1 : any time in engg disaggrement of decesion regarding project?
HR1 : any questions for me !! i asked about project for BE which persi sponsors.

now switched my interview to his friend
HR2 : again link list reverse question and some discussion on it .
HR2 : hashing discussion and collision resolving technique on hashing.
HR2 : that collision point again repeat and how you resolved it and some i2i discussion .
Hr2 : what all was in your project of i2i .
HR2 : queue application asked again .
HR2 : BE project basic idea ,platform and implementation idea .
HR2 : Why not further education
HR2 : family background .
he said it was nice talking to you ,dont look back start preparing for MPC we will meet soon in persistent.
Came forward to shake hands.

Tips: HR guys are very cool . Mostly candidates dont get rejected from HR. If selected for HR can assume that you are selected.
They co operate a lot and expect truth only and some info must be known about company.

General Tips: Be technically strong and have confidence ,all good will follow.
Skill Tips: Atleast one of C++ or java must be good with basics. Rest all try to make code for every problem of operating system and do geeksforgeeks.
Skills: Algorithm, Data Structures, Java, C++, Operating System, DBMS
College Name: Government College Of Engineering, Aurangabad
Motivation: This is core software company with lot of innovation ,thats all a programmer wants