TSMC Software Engineer Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I followed the format provided by IITB. Referring to others resume also helps to put your credentials properly.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Three rounds of interview. One telephonic interview was also conducted.   Level 1-87   Level 2-35   Level 3-14 (Final offer). Most of the things one has mentioned regarding positions of responsibility in his resume.

General Tips: After revising my resume so many times, still I came across a mistake. Though I confidently pointed out the mistake but it may go against you. Dressing plays an important role in Management/Consulting Companies. It is also a part of your preparation that seriously you are taking the interview.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Try to stick to the point and mention all your achievements. Don't include anything irrelevant as that might be seen as a mechanism to cover up white space & that will count more against you than if you actually had some empty space. Its also advisable not to write anything you can't back up.Don't bullshit. They WILL know

Round: Group Discussion
Experience: Experience is invaluable in a GD. Try to sit in a few GDs just to get the hang of muscling it out in a GD. Try not to practice GDs with friends. Friends react to you a lot different than strangers and your behaviour is also compromised. Try sitting for GD practice conducted by coaching classes for B-schools ; they're the most ideal simulations of GDs.   A few pointers:  Speak.. (people who don't speak don't get shortlisted  big surprise). Listen before you speak  you must come across as a team player. Don't stay in your own world blabbing out your own points. React to the points others have made as well..Speak less if you have to.. but speak sense. For heaven sake don't:   o Bang the desks   o Get into angry outbursts   o Bullshit without getting your facts straight   o Have angry arguments with others in the GD

Round: Technical Interview
Experience: The initial shortlist contained every DD/PG from Microelec.   The first round was a tech interview. Was asked about my internship, courses undertaken and my final year project. There was talk of extra-curricular activites also.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The second round was an HR interview. A few round-about questions to find out how serious I am about coming to Taiwan. My future aspirations.. My concerns.. etc.etc.   .

Round: Other Interview
Experience: The third round was a telephonic interview from Taiwan. Was called at 8:00 in the morning the next day.. and needless to say I was asleep ?. I vaguely recall getting up and somehow telling my interviewer to call me in another 5 minutes. Was live and kicking by the time I got the call again. Talked about my final year project, my knowledge of VLSI softwares, my grades, and some other HR questions

General Tips: Get your tech fundaes straight. Study and study hard because frankly speaking, it's a good company. Your interviewer will likely be Chinese so you'll have to perk your ears up a bit and try to catch hold of as many words as you can. Also, whenever you're speaking, he's probably doing the same ear-perking thing.. so speak slow and clearly but puh-lease DO NOT SOUND CONDESCENDING while you do so. He may be Chinese but he's not a retard.   Also, get your facts straight about Taiwan. It is literally turning your back to the US and going east. Do your research about what the country like, what're the taxes there, what's the life like.. Don't sit for the company if you're finally not going to go there. You'll only be wasting a seat.   Having said that, personally I must say that from what I've heard, it's a great place. You'll be paid through the teeth and you'll be spending almost as much as here in India. I've heard professors who've been there, say that if New York was made in China it'd be called Taiwan.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Procedure - Interview first round @ IIT, second round – telephonic interview from Taiwan
Tips: My experience : - after first round selection they were supposed to call for telephonic interview, but they did not call me up for the best reasons known to them. But no one is complaining.

General Tips: My preparation for software companies was not up to the mark. My advice to the M.Tech students with Science backgrounds are  (i) Please do not expect a core company to hire you. Software companies are the only choice   (ii) Hence prepare well in advance the following topics this was not known to me earlier. (a) STRONG C & C++ LANGUAGE SKILLS   (b) EMPHASIS ON DATA STRUCTURES --- linked lists, trees, queue, post-order traversal, pre-order traversal.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: INterview 1
Experience: They didn't asked much as I already had a decent Research profile. They only asked something about my thesis work. They were very impressed by my profile and my academics. No Technical questions or puzzles were asked, there was no HR interview. The way I explained my Thesis work went really well.They said that one day surely I will become a professor :P. I think the probable reason for my selection was my research Profile and my Academics

General Tips: Please always assess yourself. See your profile and interest, then only target for a particular sector.
Targeting each and every sector is a very bad idea. Not every one can go in a consultancy firm.See your profile then only prepare for it. Preparation is a very very important thing for coming out big in the placement process. So prepare well. Always maintain your cool during you interviews.
Skill Tips: You can include stuff like how did you narrow down to your career plans, the sectors which you were targeting and the rationale behind choosing them, difference between your expectations from the placement process and what you encountered finally, what you did to prepare, what you missed out on, what you think should be done, about the tests and GDs that the companies took, your thoughts before the final placements, about CAT, GRE, GMAT etc. and other fun stuff.

I was first of all preparing for each and every sector including Core, Finance, Analytics, Consulting. But at the last month of preparation i.e. November I realized when I was not getting shortlisted in finance or consulting firms that I didn’t had a profile for consulting, So I left the preparation and starting preparing only for analytics (basically doing some aptitude practice) and core preparation. For gds every alternate days we department mates used to practice Gds in our reading room.This really gave me a good flavor for the GD.

I never expected the placement process to be very tough , But actually it is and maintaining cool throughout the process is quite a difficult job. Everyday there is a new dream company and according to me whichever company takes you is the best company for you . I also was preparing for CAT, so I already had a good flavor of the aptitude exams.
College Name: IIT KANPUR