Nokia Senior Associate Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Interview
Experience: A systematic approach is all what he expects from us. Our approach and our way of thinking is what he observes. An algorithm to solve a single face worked in my case. So called HR interview was more technical and a discussion about the projects mentioned in my resume.
Tips: An overview on problems like sudoku, rubik's cube, chess etc. A proper approach and a structure for solving the problem should be mentioned.

Round: Interview
Experience: Some questions on basic data structures, dynamic programming and recursion.
Tips: Recognize the problem(dp, recursion, etc.). Throw some algorithm.

General Tips: Be clear with basics.
Skill Tips: ""
Skills: Data structures, Data Processing, Recursion
College Name: IIT Madras
Motivation: SAMSUNG!
Funny Moments: A saviour for the leftover cse students especially b.tech and dual. It does not depend on whether your interview went well or not. Just basic cse stuff is enough.

Round: Test
Experience: Objective test in C(30 min),followed by a paper-based coding test.(1 hour, Written ).
Tips: There are old Samsung tests available online. The questions are based on the same fundamentals.Coding test focuses more on getting the pseudo code and logic right
Duration: 90 minutes

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Interview questions were mostly based on projects and skills mentioned in the resume.Be sure to read up on your projects.They asked to explain the code.On the lines of how would I approach the problem of getting faster downloads in cellphones.

General Tips: I got selected because of my projects fit the profile they were looking for. They seemed to like the Olympiad ranks too.Data structures and algorithms basic fundaes, C coding and theory (asked in every profile), Revision of your electives (depending the core specialization)For any communication profile, do not ignore revision of courses and also it was necessary to read up
further as MTechs and MS students have an edge.
Skill Tips: Went through all the literature for all my projects.My courses and projects were all related to Communication Networks and Communication Systems. This background made the questions easier to answer. Majority of questions were about network protocols and network architecture.Started preparing DS&A at the beginning of seventh sem because I had never taken the course. The rest of it can be revised a couple of weeks before the tests start.
Skills: Algorithm, C Programming, Communication Networks, Communication Systems, Network protocols, Network architecture.
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Shortlisting done based on resume.
Tips: Create good resume highlighting projects and research work. Remain updated about the company's research work.

Round: Test
Experience: There are two written tests. One is based on C and algorithms.
Tips: Old Samsung tests that are available online.Knowledge of C is must.
Duration: 30 minutes

Round: Test
Experience: The second test is paper-based coding test.
Tips: Coding test is used to mainly gauge your logic applying abilities.
Duration: 60 minutes

Round: Interview
Experience: Personal Interview: one round lasting around 40 minutes.
 Interview questions were mostly straightforward, technical and based on projects and
research work mentioned in the resume.
 Previous day's code is also asked to explain.
 Couple of questions were about the company's on-going work. In-depth knowledge regarding courses related to the profile is necessary.
Tips: Revise courses, Project work. Additional reading is recommended.
Basics of core subjects.

College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Experience: There were 40 aptitude questions of variable difficulty. More questions revolved around topics like time and work, distance, speed, time, profit loss, age etc.
Tips: A regular and prior preparation will go a long way in determining a good test score.
Use tricks to solve the questions and calculations should be fast.
Duration: 30 minutes
Total Questions: 40

Round: Test
Experience: The questions weren't that tough when it came to programming. An example would be conversion of temperature from Celsius to Fahrenheit and vice versa. This was a question in my paper. So I'm hoping the difficulty would be more or less the same.
Tips: Do certified programming courses. They help you a lot in cracking good jobs.
Duration: 45 minutes
Total Questions: 3

Round: Puzzle Interview
Tips: This can be tough if you can't imagine scenarios and situations. So make sure you inculcate critical problem solving thinking in your everyday life. I feel that's the best way to do things in this round.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: This was a short interview so not much happened.
Tips: Whatever you do just know your stuff properly.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: It was a simple interview. Basic questions and their basic answers helped me get through it.
Tips: The tip would be to stay positive in your approach while answering the questions

Skills: Technical Skills, Interpersonal Communication, Aptitude
College Name: VIT Vellore

Round: Test
Experience: The test was conducted through Cocubes. It was moderately difficult. Some of the questions are time taking. We need to be decisive in attempting such questions.
Tips: Need to manage time properly. Should assess and choose which questions to attempt and which ones to leave.
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 30

Round: Test
Experience: The three questions are of three different levels.

1. You will be given two numbers. The first one is the starting point and the second one is the ending point of a range of integers. You have to count the number of integers in that range which are divisible by the first number.

Ex : INPUT : 3 18
OUTPUT : 6

2. You will be given a number. You have to find the sum of the digits. If the sum exceeds 9, you have to add the digits of the sum recursively until you a get a single digit sum.

EX : INPUT : 9999
OUTPUT : 9

Explanation: 9999 => 9 +9+9+9=36 => 3+6 =9

3. You will be given an array of characters which include ( L, R , or a number in the range '0' to '9'). A ball is kept on a line of integers initially kept at zero. The ball has to execute the instructions sequentially as follows:
(i) If an 'L' character is encountered, the ;position of the ball has to be decremented.
(ii) If an 'R' character is encountered, the position of the ball has to be incremented.
(iii) If an integer (in the range '0' to '9) is encountered , we have to go to that index in the array and execute the instruction present in that index.

Finally, after all the instructions are executed, you have to print the final position of the ball.

EX : INPUT :
Number of instruction : 5
Instructions: LR1R2

OUTPUT : 3

Explanation :
(i) Initially, the ball is at 0. Since the 0th index in the array is 'L' , the ball moves to 0-1= -1 position.
(ii) The 1st index is 'R' hence, the position of the ball is -1 +1 = 0 position.
(iii) The 2nd index is '1', hence we have to go to index 1 in the array which is 'R', hence the new position is 0+1 =1.
(iv) The 3rd index is 'R', hence the new position is 1 +1 =2.
(v) The 4th index is '2' , hence we have to go to 2nd index is '1' , hence we have to go again to 1st index , which is 'R' hence the final position is 2+1 =3.

Tips: We need to solve all the three the problems to have better chances of clearing this round.
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 3

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The interview was focussed majorly on coding. It went for about 45min with around 10 coding problems given to solve. Some basics of Computer networking are also tested in this round.
Tips: Be prepared with some basics of networking. As the company's main focus is on Telecom, good knowledge in telecom and networking would be a big advantage.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: This round was focused on the aptitude and reasoning skills. Some puzzles were given in this round. These puzzles are of moderately complex and are more common ones in interviews. Like the (find the heavier ball among three balls using a balance in min no. of attempts).
Tips: Sometimes the interviewer tries to confuse. You need to be confident with your answers and explaination.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The interview was more of a traditional HR round. Majorly concentrated on the final year project, personal strengths and weaknesses.

Skills: Coding Skills, Computer Networking, C Language Basics
College Name: G Pulla Reddy College of Engineering & Technology

Round: Test
Experience: It was a simple aptitude test in which around 150 students cleared the test.
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 40

Round: Test
Experience: Three programs were given and we had to write the code in either java ,c or c++ and get the required output.Around 90 students cleared this round.
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Questions: 3

College Name: VIT Vellore

Round: Test
Experience: Only a few students will get shortlisted who do all the questions correctly.

Round: Other Interview
Experience: First 4 rounds on day 1 and this are just to shortlist for more rounds on some other day.
Tips: They will focus on almost all the concepts of computer science.You need to practice a lot and start it right now. Should be easy if you have prepared well enough. Use your holidays to start preparing for placements.

General Tips: Sooner you start, better your placement will be as lack of practice & last day study works only for exams but never for interviews. You'll get enough time to prepare for interviews once you get shortlisted. Focus on it even if you are placed already.
Skill Tips: They will focus on almost all the concepts of computer science.
Skills: C , Aptitude
College Name: NIT SURATHKAL

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: On-site interview (5 hours).

4 back-to-back 45-minute coding interviews, followed by a design interview, with a lunch break with a Googler in the middle.

The first coding interview was a set of (surprisingly) trivial (no algorithms needed) incremental coding questions.

The two next coding interviews were problems straight from the "Cracking the coding interview" book. Even though I divulged that I'd solved pretty much exactly the same problem before, they didn't give me an alternative problem and I quickly coded up a general and optimal solution for the problems. Follow-up in-depth questions were minimal and not hard.

The last coding question was a pure algorithm question related to search trees/tries. No coding required, spent the whole time reasoning about the most effective algorithm. This was a bit of a brain twister.

The design question was related to high-level system design (not OO design) for storage and search in geographic data. Focus was effective search as well as scalability both in traffic and data volumes.

Tips: Read "Cracking the coding interview" or other similar literature. Solve all the problems and you should be good to go. If you solve a bunch of problems at HackerRank (or similar) as well, you'll have the added bonus of training on how to generalize the algorithms.