CIQ

Experience at Capital IQ:

Capital IQ was the 2 company to visit the campus after Commvault which left disappointment for all of us.
          The process started off with a written round consisting of 4 sections each for the posts of SE,DBA,BA and QA.We were asked to give 2 preferences for the above posts.Most of us went with SE/DBA.Looking at the paper  we were tensed initially as it was a very huge one..I somehow recalled my intermediate competitive exams where I had to solve many questions in a time limit..slowly got used to the paper.The questions were really good.SE section had about 3 to 4 codes and the DBA section had about 4 queries based on the tables.(moderate level).
After this,some of us(donn remember the number) were shortlisted for the GD that was scheduled immediately.This happened to be good and most of us cleared this.It was now followed by the interviews.

As per my preference I was interviewed by an SE panel.He spoke a lot and my interview was for about 1 hr 15 min.He asked me almost all concepts coding(with minimum complexity),DB queries and then OS what not he tried covering all the concepts.I somehow felt he was impressed,but to my surprise after an hr when it was about late 9(when I was ready to leave home) they said that I have an other interview for the DBA panel!I almost lost my hopes now.
                The DBA guys were very friendly and asked me some concepts and queries on DBMS.
This interview was just for about 30 min.Even they could understand my situation(as I looked very tired).He then concluded with some OS questions.
             Immediately I was told that I was shortlisted for the DBA post and my further interviews would be at the Capital IQ office.I was very happy(unexpected this time).Almost 11 of us were shortlisted(including the 4 posts) and were asked to come to the company for interviews within a week's time.

At Capital IQ:

The environment there seemed to be very friendly.All 11 of us were asked to wait in a conference room.After some time came my turn.And my interviewer oh my god!!He is so friendly!!
He started off with my achievements and then it went to my internship project.My project involved more of databases and thus he asked me to design the DB schema for my project.He tried changing my schema to the real time situations.He asked me to write some queries(like triggers) based on my schema.He gave me certain cases and asked me how I would solve them for real time applications.He later asked some DB concepts.He seemed very cool,I now somehow felt I impressed him!!!!
And this time I really did!And to my surprise he was the DBA head!!!!
After every one got interviewd they said 3 of us were shortlisted for the next round!!out of the 3,I was the only one for DBA.I had mixed feelings.I finished off my interview(first interview) at about 1(followed by a sumptuous lunch) and then I almost waited till 7,but I was not called for the next interview!!!To my surprise I was informed that I got selected after the 1 interview at Capital IQ itself!!!My joy now had no bounds!!!!!




 

EXPERIENCE AT D.E.SHAW

                        It's an other BIG company..'big' coz of the pay - 14Lacs per annum. Thats seriously huge right!! Lets see what all turns and twists it gave us. This was open to all the branches of BE,ME,M.Tech everything. They needed 8.0 gpa.It was notified to be perfect on data structures, computer organization, operating systems concepts, database concepts, languages etc., It was a one day process. We had a written test followed by interviews on the same day.

                       Written test was a 40 min test. The twist we had is that we had negative marking. Test had two parts, aptitude and technical. Aptitude consisted of super high level questions which could easily take 2mins or more to solve each one but we were provided with only one minute each. It was seriously tough. Then after twenty minutes technical test started, it consisted of programming languages,operating systems,database concepts, what not..everything was on the paper..again 20 min and 20 questions.Even this was tough.Everyone except for CAT and GRE trained students, were like its all over..chalo lite..but i bet each one was waiting to test their luck. by 1pm in the afternoon we had the results out.

                       15 people out of all were selected.We were shocked to be selected. Then immediately they called us for interviews. First we had a HR round which was just a 5min one where normal questions to test our behavior were posed. It went off well for every one. Then we had technical interview, it was same as all the other interviews experienced till now. Questions from all subjects were asked and importance was given to data structures, mini project and all..there were all kinds of tricky puzzles asked and etc., Each one was interviewed for 30-45 min and hence we had to wait for a long time to get every one done.

                       Then for results we had to wait for another hour or so..by the time we were tired of waiting one of them came and asked us one of my classmates(Meghana) to come for the second round, again all of us started getting tensed and nervous..then after another 45 min she was done with her interview and then they called on another girl from my class again(Praneetha). Then immediately all the rest of us were told that we were rejected..it was little disheartening..but still we waited for the result of the other two friends..after praneetha was interviewed, they called every one of us and slowly told the great news that none of us were selected. They also suggested us to choose a subject and go into depth in that subject, know all the features of it and real time applications which were seriously important. Thus a day with lots of waiting, lots of hopes.. ended up with a simple warm suggestion. :)
    

 EXPERIENCE AT CAPITAL IQ:

            Capital IQ was the second company that came to our college. We had a very good impression on the company and many of us wanted to get into it because it offers 4-2 project for students who get placed into it.They had four job profiles open to us(Data Base Administrator,Business Analyst,Quality Analyst and Software Developer) . We were allowed to chose any two of the job profiles and give them priority. I gave BA as my first priority and DBA as next. So we had written round consisting of math(for all profiles), databases(DBA), BA questions(Describe how to design an online library, questions on GUI...) and few coding questions.
            The second round was a group discussion on general topics among the selected candidates from written round. We had this topic 'India in Olympics' because it was Olympics time. The other group had 'India on the red carpet'. GD was pretty good,almost everyone spoke and very few candidates were eliminated.Then we had interviews and i can tell you that it was the best interview i ever had. My interviewer Bhaskar was jolly good person.He asked me some Software Engineering and then many other general questions(Do you use facebook? What differences you found between Facebook and Orkut? I was squinting and trying to answer then he suddenly asked me if i remember Orkut. Overall it was funny)
            Then all the other rounds were at the Capital IQ office building.We got pretty tensed but fortunately our senior helped us through everything.I had my interview before lunch and my interviewer was a strict man.He asked me to use white board and explain login process. Questions like what if i was a friend of Mark Zuckerburg and he came up with this idea of facebook.How would we proceed and some questions about my project. I was so dazed and just hoped i wouldn't trip down and fall while coming out of the cabin. Then we had lunch( sumptuous one). To my surprise i was called for the next round.This time i was not very tensed and i answered all my interviewer questions( Though i got them wrong).He asked me if i know some shares and stuff because CapitalIQ gives analytics for financial companies.
            Never mind i couldn't get into Capital IQ but it was worth an experience.I can tell that this experience got me into Oracle.  Two of my friends sneha and vinay got into Capital IQ and i was happy for them.
      

EXPERIENCE AT DELOITTE PLACEMENT:

                    The name Deloitte immediately makes people think about vocab,stylish dressing etc..but i say all that is only partially correct after my experience with it during the placement process. We had all kinds of rumors that Deloitte would place only people who look pretty,who are fair,who are superb at vocab etc etc. But that is not the case with CSE grads. Deloitte offered about 3 different posts- FAS(only for BE CSE), ERS and DAS for the other branches including CS. I dont have any idea about the other branches and their placement procedure but we CS people had a total of 3 posts(above specified ones). The entire placement procedure was planned for 2 days.We had a written test on one day and the results were given the next day and final selection procedure on the other day.

                     Written test..it was an online exam of mcq's followed by a coding test. The written test consisted of 3 sections--quantitative aptitude,english,critical reasoning.The questions were of the basic level and people who prepare for CAT and GRE can easily make through it. Then we had a technical written test which consisted of coding and mcqs. Coding was in C language, each one was given two questions and 60 min time to write the code and see that they execute properly. Then there were mcqs from DBMS,SQL,PL/SQL . 20 questions and 20 min time was given. They said results would be announced on the next day. There were 16 people who got selected from CSE and MCA.

                      Next day we had a long PPT for about 3 hrs. After which they collected our preference order of the different posts we would like to apply. We were told that they would test us depending on the first preference and if they think we are not suitable then go for the second preference. Most of the CS people gave FAS as the first preference and so we were all grouped together to have a group activity. It was a case study where we were given a scenario and had to come up with a solution and present it to them. 15 min time was given for discussion followed by 10 min to present. I can say that it was rather a bit difficult to face that because of the kind of questions they were showering on us. But somehow it went off well. They shortlisted only half of the people. It was rather a tough one coz I was competing with our own friends who are as good as I am. Finally i could get through the round.

                  Then we had a new kind of interview process, where we had two panels and each of us had to take the interview in both the panels. It was a one to many interview, where 6 people were interviewing us simultaneously. Interview was only 6 min long in each panel. The very first question they asked was whether I was interested in AD(application developer) or DA(database admin).They asked us a mixture of questions about DBMS,OOP's concepts,JAVA,few coding questions,behavioral questions and everything else.It was again a tough time cause we didnt understand how will they decide about a person in such short time. Then with in half an hour they announced the results. Three of us were selected, including me.We were all shocked,and finally ended up happily. :)

                So...finally i would like to say Deloitte is not the one which is completely based on looks and vocab stuff..but for CS it provides with the special post of FAS where we actually code and do database management stuff for which we are interviewed on core stuff rather than on vocab and other things. Being confident is the main key to get in to Deloitte. Good Luck!!

EXPERIENCE AT MORGAN STANLEY PLACEMENT :

                  Unlike other companies Morgan Stanley planned the placement procedure on two successive days, Sunday and Saturday. As there is no office in Hyderabad and they cant keep visiting AP often, they scheduled the test for both the top universities-OU and JNTU together, venue being our college at OU. On Sunday we started off with the Pre-Placement Talk(PPT) followed by a written test. We had a great twist given by the Managing Director that, they shortlisted only few candidates out of the eligible ones who were present there, to take the written test. Every one was shocked,tensed and what not. At the end of the PPT, they said they were convinced by our behavior and other stuff and thus allowed every one of us to take the written test. HUFF......thought everyone of us :).
             
                   Finally the written round began,there was an option given to us regarding the language on which we can take the test. Each of us can choose one from C,C++ and JAVA. Along with 30 technical questions on the chosen language,we had a 10 questions from aptitude and 10 from computer basics. Technical questions covered all the basics and key points of the language in depth. Computer basics covered questions from operating systems,data structures. Aptitude was from the general side.There was no negative marking and the twisting part is that there was cutoff for all the three sections. The test was well organised,we were given OMR sheets to mark answers. The test process completed by 7.30 pm and they announced that results will be posted into the portal by 9.30 pm. By 10 or so the results were out and there were 22 candidates selected from both the universities out of which 16 were from OU and others from JNTU. I was one among the selected ones.

                     Early the next morning they started off with the further process of selection.We had a technical interview first,which covered all the basics from our academics,along with few coding questions. Each student was interviewed for 30-45 min. Then after an hour, we had the shortlisted candidates announced. I was selected along with 4 other friends from my college and 3 from JNTU were selected. There was no further elimination for these 8 students. The next round was a group activity round. We were divided into two groups of 4 each and were given a scenario where we need to discuss and present a solution to the client which is most appropriate for his present situation. We had 15 min to discuss and 10 minutes to present the solution. This round went on well and we had interaction with the officials also during this round.

                  Then we had a another technical interview followed immediately by a round of HR interview.Technical interview consisted of puzzles and difficult coding questions. About 3 such questions to each were asked. Then HR was cool and fine..with simple puzzles and casual behavioral questions. When everyone of us were done, they took about an hour of time to decide and finally declared the result. They selected two of us, both being from OU. Unfortunately I couldn't make up but was very happy for my two friends(Sarika and Srinivas) who were selected :) :) .     

                  

EXPERIENCE AT MAQ PLACEMENT:

    MAQ was the third company which came to our campus after Commvault and capital IQ. Capital IQ i couldnt make it to the last round.
    Well most of them will have a doubt whether to take up the company or not... Well lets c.. Read on :D :P
   
     The day started with a Pre-Placement Talk by VISHAL, MD of MAQ software,hyd about their company. In that presentation he explained about the work which we would be doing there, schedules, pay etc. He talked about the technologies like windows azure, sharepoint, silverlight etc which we would be learning and working. He kind of scared us a bit about the load that would be on us, strictness of the work, expectations from us etc which made all of us to think if it was a good decision to go on with the selection process or not. they dont have cab facilities. Since it was the 3rd company and none of us got a job by then we all decided to go on with the selection process and if selected thought of keeping it as an option.

     Then started the written test which had 2 sections general aptitude and technical aptitude(c/cpp) questions. This round was pretty easy. Next immediately without any eliminations we had an algorithm round which had two questions one of which was sorting the file. After an hour or so the results were out and 16 of us were shortlisted for the interviews. For me personally MAQ interviews were the toughest. They asked me to write many optimized codes, puzzles, many reasoning questions, few mathematical proofs(this screwed me off) , database questions, unix based logical questions(tough) etc.. So all in all they covered all the subjects and they tested me on every domain. Dont be nervous, you can answer them if you are good at basics. After the first tech round they shortlisted 8 of us and after the second tech round 6 of us were shortlisted. The day ended finally with the HR scheduled the next week at the MAQ office,HITEC CITY.
   
    The day at MAQ office: Office infrastructure was pretty good to look at. We were asked to sit in the visiting room. We were all a bit nervous :P . The md vishal was taking our HR. HR round was pretty casual asking our family background, our interests, some questions asked looking at our resume. I felt he was looking at our sharpness, confidence, time we took to answer etc. One by one all the 6 of us had the HR round done and after about 15 mins results were out . 4 of us were selected- me, sneha, vinay and srinivas as software engineers.

   Matter of advice: If you are fine working for long hours(even till night 11) and adjust to the work pressure only then apply. you will have many companies coming up for the selection process. So chill :)

EXPERIENCE AT COMMVAULT PLACEMENTS:
   
   topics covered: mostly pointers, c, c++, DBMS, os
   rounds: 2 online rounds, 2 technical interviews and a HR round

      Well to begin with first we had an online round which consisted of questions based on c(pointers), c++ and os. I did that round pretty well and got through for the next round which was an online program execution round. The question they asked was polynomial addition with many contrains like no extra usage of memory and had to follow the design which they mentioned in the question. they gave about 1 and half hour to do that but we did that in 3 hours :D :P . They selected 7 members including me for the next round. I faced two technical rounds which tested me on the basics of c, c++, databases. Many programs were asked which were simple though but complexity matters.. they wanted me to code the programs with minimum complexity. Finally at around 10 pm when all the interviews ended with the HR round remaining i was the only one shortlisted for the HR round. But due to the lack of time or whatever they canceled the process and they sent a mail that HR will not be conducted and there it ends :D Since that was the first company which came to the campus i wasn't worried but concentrated for the next companies :D :)
      A matter of advice:Be very thorough on the concepts of pointers in depth.