Houston Swim Club Senior Engineer Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Round: Test
Experience: First round is test with all Multiple Choice Questions. The questions are from the Amcat exam conducted by Aspiring Minds. Each candidate gets different set of questions and thus no two candidates get same questions.
There are different sections like
Quantitative Aptitude
Logical Reasoning
English
Computer Programming (C++, Java and Datastructures)
etc
Each section is assigned with fixed amount of time and number of questions.
For eg. Quantitative Aptitude may have 25 questions while Logical Reasoning may have only 10.
Time is alloted sectionwise, however the entire exam duration is of 3 hours. Time for a section depends upon the number of questions in that particular section. You cannot navigate backwards in the question set while answering.
In Computer Programming round most of the questions will be from Datastructures, then comes C++ and then Java.
Few will be finding the output based.
Tips: Time management is the key.
You will surely fall short in time cause the time provided is very less (around 30-40s for each question). Do not spend too much time on a question, if you are stuck just skip it. Give each question one try if you could solve it, then good enough otherwise skip it. There is no point reattempting it. Amcat exam is an adaptive test, as you go on solving questions rightly difficulty would increase and if you make a mistake difficulty would decrease. Practice Amcat questions in order to crack this test. I personally felt the questions were not that tought.
Duration: 3 hours

Round: Problem Statement
Experience: You are required to code and pass the test cases. Output of your code snippet should match the output provided in the problem statement.
You can use any language to code. (Java/ C/C++/Python etc)
Time alloted to solve two different set of questions is 45 Minutes. It is upto you how much time you want to spend on each question.
Tips: Basics must be very clear in order to crack this round. You have to be verse with the programming language that you are using. Your would be able to submit your code and check if it works. It will give result as "Success" or "Failed".
I had read that this round is not an elimination round but This is a strict Elimination Round and maximum number of candidates were rejected in this round, in my case.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Technical Interview was very gruelling. I am from Electronics and Communcation Engineering. My interviewer was also from the same stream. He started off with Telecommunication Systems which was not mentioned as a subject of interest in my CV (questions asked- subscriber lines, t1, e1, Mechanism of Rotary Dial telephones, strowger and crossbar switching) He asked me The entire procedure to set up a Telephone exchange starting from basics. I answered all of this.
Digital Electronics was mentioned as a subject of interest in my CV. He asked me to tell whatever I knew and whatever I had studied in digital electronics. Then I was asked about multiplexer and multiplexing and few questions on flip flops. I answered rightly.
Then he asked me to write down all the seven layers of the OSI model and explain them. I could not explain one of the seven layers properly as we were yet to study Computer Networking in our curriculum and I told my interviewer about the same.
Tips: From Analog Com I was asked about DSB SC and SSB SC signals.
At the end I was asked to write a program. Which I did in Java. He checked it and then attached the A4 in which I had written things with my CV and forwarded it. That bundle had every details right from my apti score with my code snippets that I had written in Coding round.

Tip: Confidence is the key. Even If you don't know the answer, be polite and confident. You can say that you do not know the answer and you would learn about it. But yes, Knowledge is also of much importance. Study as much as you can. I was asked from subjects that were not mentioned in my CV. So be prepared. In my case it was

Round: HR Interview
Experience: This was the easiest round of all. Just casual conversation with the HR. I was asked about my family, my experience in that college (it was pool campus and I was appearing at a different college), Previous companies that I had appeared for and the reasons why I wasn't selected. One of the question was asked from the things they told us in the pre placement talk.
Tips: No preparation required for this round. Be yourself. Keep calm and enjoy talking. They mostly check your conversation skills and how you communicate with people.

College Name: Netaji Subhash Engineering College