HARMAN Senior Software Engineer and Lead Interview Questions and Answers

Round: PRE PLACEMENT OFFER
Experience: Interns (both CS and IT) were selected in my third year. Pre-placement offers were rolled out to 16 of us which was roughly a conversion ratio of 1:3. A couple of ECE hires were added when SRI-B visited campus later.

General Tips: If you're in CS or IT, this is the only format your resume should be in: -----
Take your internship seriously. Have fun and all but also get your project done. It's not the end of the world if you don't get a PPO. Campus placements are tension-filled, no doubt, but a lot of people get equally good if not better jobs after missing out on PPOs.
Make sure you talk to your manager about the PPO process. She will be the one giving you your final review. So ensure that she knows you want the job. Prepare a fancy presentation for the HR. By fancy, I mean slick and professional. Think Apple, not flashy Microsofty graphics and stupid word art.
Skill Tips: Google GSAT (Global Samsung Aptitude Test) a week before the test and make sure you practice some similar CAT type questions. Questions are of medium difficulty and time management is a real issue (most of us were unable to finish properly). - I didn't have to use these but I've heard good things about codechef/topCoder and books such as Cracking the Coding Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell.
Skills:
College Name: NIT Surathkal

Round: Test
Experience: The first consisted of an online test which had an aptitude section which was pretty simply and then a programming section consisting of three different programs. The programs were logical required basic knowledge of array, sorting and a little bit of data structures.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Around 13 of us were shortlisted for the interview round, B.Tech and M.Tech included. The interview round was mostly interactive, where we had to mention about the various interns that we went through. A few programming questions were asked based on topics which we were comfortable with.
Tips: Just get used to coding, data structures and basic aptitude. GRE preparation as such helped me.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Finally there was a HR round in which I was asked as to why I would like to work in Samsung R&D and general things about interests and future plans. On the whole Samsung took 3 B.Tech students and 2 M.Tech students when they came for placements apart from PPOs.

General Tips: Personally I feel that one should apply in only those companies in which they are sure of having job satisfaction. So don't apply to companies which you are not interested in just for the sake of having a backup because once you are placed you do not have a second chance.
Do not get dejected if you do not get through in the first few tries. Keep your hopes up and be confident when ever you get to interview rounds. Try to be assertive when giving answers. It is some times exhausting to go through placements but the moment you get placed you will have the best feeling ever.
Skill Tips: Just chill and take the test. Once you clear the online test, irrespective of your pointer if you have a good profile you can convince the interviewers.
Skills:
College Name: NIT Surathkal

Round: Test
Experience: Written round: One programming question of 3 hours duration.All test cases were to passed.
Duration: 3 hours minutes
Total Questions: 1

Round: Technical Interview
Experience:
There were two rounds : tech PI and HR round.
A.Tech. PI: Firstly,interviewer went through my whole resume.He started asking questions from project done during summer internship.Questions were:
1.What is he project about?
2.Difference between 3G and 4G.
3.What is the aim of this research internship?
4.How much was i able to complete in two months?(I told that i am continuing as major project,since in two months time i could not get desired result).

Then, he went onto programming language i was comfortable. I answered C.
1.sizeof("shubham")
strlen("shubham")
I was asked to write output.Output would be 8 and 7. He asked why. Basic concepts should be clear.
2.Storage Classes in C-asked me concept and gave some questions to write output.
3.Constant pointers and pointers to constant. Asked to write output of snippets he gave.
4.malloc,caloc,realloc,free-syntax
5.Questions on pointers.

Basic concepts of let us C were asked mostly,that book is enough . Also see, GEEKSFORGEEKS, C section.

Operating System: Mutex and Semaphore,critical Section, Scheduling algorithms, Producer-Consumer Problem.
(Data Structures was not asked to me but others.)

Puzzles:
1. Maximum run a batsman can make in 50 overs.
2.There are 10 coins. 5 face head side and 5 as tail. You are blind folded.Make two piles of equal number of coins such that number of head in equal in both the piles.
Assumption:You can flip coin any number of times.

Question: Why do you want to join Samsung ,though placed in other company?

Questions: Any plans of future studies. I answered 'NO' only job.

Last question: Any question I would like to ask them. I asked what work would be doing in R&D. He explained me a lot of things.
Tips: 1.Be thorough with your project(done during internship or training) . You should be able to answer almost all the questions.
2.Study operating system very well if you plan to sit in samsung R&D.
3.Data structures and any one programming language.
4.Prepare puzzles as it can be asked by anyone. See programmerinterview.com etc.
5.Refer samsung archives of GEEKSFORGEEKS . Interview questions were mostly covering those.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: 1.Introduce yourself.
2.How would your friends describe you?
3.Tell the recent experiences of which makes you initiative.(i told that i am initiative,then he asked that question. So be ready with the examples,when u say any of your qualities.)
4.What is your weakness?
5.Puzzles.He asked me to fill the numbers from 1 to 8 in these 8 boxes, one number exactly once, such that no two consecutive elements are
adjacent(diagonally, horizontally or vertically) to each other.

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6.Which places in India have you been?


Skills: Solving Logic Puzzles, Basic C/C++, Data Structures, Operating Systems
College Name: NIT Raipur

Round: Test
Duration: 1 hour

Skills: General Coding And Problem Solving, Puzzle Solving Capability
College Name: NIT Jamshedpur

Round: Test
Experience: It was an online test. The company who hosted the test messed up with the interface, and a lot of people had trouble with a coding question that could not be solved because of the faulty interface. There was no retest.
The shortlisting was done after studying compile attempts, time devoted to various sections and other performance measures.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Told about myself, my interests, my internship projects and my work so far.
A few coding questions were asked too.
In the end, they asked if i have any questions.
Tips: Interviewers are friendly. Be calm, give your best.

General Tips: Start preparing early.
Develop priorities both sector wise and company wise.
Take sufficient water and food with you. Interviews can start at 4 am on the first day!
Have enough copies of resume and transcripts with you.
If you have been shortlisted for many companies, it is preferable to have a portfolio manager who manages your phone during the day and enables you to focus on the interviews.
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Test
Experience: There was one question which was little tricky , but not that difficult
Total Questions: 1

Round: Technical + HR Interview
Experience: There was one question which was little tricky , but not that difficult

College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Experience: Problem similar to knapsack
Tips: dynamic programming
Duration: 3 hours
Total Questions: 1

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Asked to explain about project. Some basic concepts in linear algebra and in deep learning like CNNs. Asked to implement Hungarian algorithm.
Tips: Brush up baisc ML and linear algebra concepts

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Asked where i did my btech. Asked why i switched by branch from electronics to computer science.
Tips: tell the truth to whatever is asked

Skills: Machine Learning
College Name: IIT Madras