Philips Senior Software Specialist 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: One hour written test.
Objective questions related to C/C++/OS + 1 coding question .
Tips: Basic C/C++ reference material should be enough.
Revise basic OS, Networks, Data Structures and Algorithms.
Duration: 60 minutes

Round: Interview
Experience: Two Technical Interviews (20 minutes each)
 Questions on your B.Tech project, M.Tech project, Favorite subject, Programming ability.
 Discussion about the company, expectations from the company, future opportunities.
 Too much emphasis on the work done by you before. They require every explanation in
detail.
 If your B.Tech and M.Tech projects are in the field which company is looking forward for, it
is an added bonus.
Tips: Questions are mostly related to BTP as well as other work done in the Department.
 Prepare a compendium of the topics expected to prop up during interview.
 Revision of basic fundamentals of the field.
 Short report of the B.Tech as well as M.Tech project.
 Refer to placement sites for some tips.

General Tips: For non-core companies, only puzzle solving skills and accuracy are needed to be
sharpened. So practice standard interview puzzles available on net. Also revise of topics in
probability and permutation/combination.
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: CGPA-9.55

Round: Test
Experience: Basic C Programming and Algorithms questions
Tips: General C programming knowledge is required. Nothing specific for the test
Duration: 60 minutes

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Subjects tested: Signal Processing, Speech Technology, and Machine Learning

General Tips: Mostly they looked for Research experience, Project works and a good knowledge of Speech
Technology, Signal processing and Machine Learning and maybe CGPA. They were looking for work related to Speech Technology, Signal processing and Machine Learning. I had my BTP and several projects related to these subjects.
Skills: Signal Processing, Speech Technology, Machine Learning
College Name: IIT Madras

Round: Test
Experience: There was an aptitude test on Day 4 and the interviews on day 5.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: In my HR interview I was offered the job and they elaborated on their packages and job description.

General Tips: Overall just doing the basic questions of ANSI C and solving elementary coding problems can take you through.
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Everyone who applied gets shortlisted for the test

Round: Test
Experience: 20 MCQs in each section
Tips: Try to not to waste too much time on English as other sections may take longer to complete.
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 60

Round: Test
Experience: Three coding questions
Tips: Practice some online coding test,know basic data structures and algorithms
Duration: 1 hour
Total Questions: 3

Skills: Ability To Express Your Ideas, Communication And Confidence

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.

-----/
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
Experience: Graph problem.
First step was to formulate the question into graph problem.

Then solve using standard graph algo (Dijkstra, bellmen ford, e.tc).
Tips: Practice writing whole code without using standard library.
Duration: 3 hours
Total Questions: 1

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: Question related to dfs.
Asked about networking, OS and integers.

One puzzle.(available on geeksforgeeks)
Tips: Prepare for puzzle. Generally they go for standard puzzle.

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: It was mostly related to technical project and internship.

General discussion on machine learning.
Tips: Prepare for the projects mentioned on the resume

Round: HR Interview
Experience: He was testing me regarding how I will explain a technical project to a non-technical guy.. And also general HR questions like why u want to join Samsung and other similar questions.
Tips: Nothing new.

Skills: Basic programming stuff. , Algorithm, Graph Theory, Machine Learning, Problem Solving Skills
College Name: IIT Kharagpur

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