Company: Aricent Group

Hi Friends

I am GURU from university college of Engineering, Burla, Orissa. ARICENT came to our college on 4th Sep.
It had 4 stages in selection procedure.
1> Written test
2> Critical incident form filling
3> GI (group interview)
4> Tech interview + critical incident interview

1> WRITTEN TEST
This time the pattern was different. This test was consisting of 4 sections. each paper will be given 1 after another there was sectional cut-off. so be careful.

1st was Analytical Ability test including puzzle test + statement – assumption + logical reasoning + statement – conclusions + figure series etc. puzzle section was quite difficult n time taking n others easy. 30 questions were there.

2nd section was Aptitude test having 20 ques. which was very very easy. I managed to do them within 10 minutes.

3rd was Data structure which had 20 questions regarding time complexity of sorting algorithm like quick sort, merge sort also time complexity if an array consists of some particular no of elements through binary search(O(log2 n=? if n=10). and questions from linked list, tree (which tree is used in binary sorting). This DS section was very very easy I took only 5 minutes to do all d ques. So read DS very carefully, that ll help you both in written test as well as in interview.

In 4th test one has 2 opt for C or C++ or Java as you strong accordingly. I chose C. there ll be 30 questions. So practising test your C skill by kanetkar ll help u a lot. One thing keep in mind that there is sectional cut-off n a good marks obtained in this round will help u much more in the selection procedure. 21 out of 120 qualified for the next round. fortunately I was one of them. after the written test, all the remaining stages are open to the selected candidates.

2> CRITICAL INCIDENT FORM FILLING
After written test, we had PPT. then all candidates selected through written test were given a form having around 7 critical situation based questions and you have to answer all the ques within 30 mins. like:
1> give a recent experience where you had some proposal but you are enforced to change your opinion while working in a team
2> give your one recent situation while working in a team that you have managed to do some tasks at a time
3> while working in a group, how did you manage yourself to accomplish a task where you have no preliminary idea about that.
4> how did you make your team members understand a task, while they had no knowledge… etc.

3> GROUP INTERVIEW (GI)
Here I had 12 members in my group and as I said this is not an elimination round. our topic was: “PACKAGED FOOD IS A GOOD IDEA” (as compared to the mid-day meals or hot meals delivered to school going children)
We were divided in to two groups. don’t be worried you ll be given a sheet having some facts about the topic n you have 2 present your own views n not to oppose or to support others.

4> TECH-INTERVIEW + CRITICAL-INTERVIEW (TI+CI)
Here you ll be asked about some technical questions as well as from critical incident form you filled up. There were 4 panels and I was the first to be interviewed in panel no.-1. my interview was @6.30pm n like this.
1> introduce yourself briefly
2> what are storage classes used in C n their advantages, disadvantages n their uses
3> do you know fibonacci series n implement it 1>using main() as recursive 2>using user defined recursive function with parameter passing 3>without parameter passing (he just wanted to know whether you have sound programming skill or not)
4> different stages of C programming
5> function used for dynamic memory allocation n their differences
6> what is data structure n ADT (abstact data type)
7> given an expression n told 2 draw d tree. then 2 find out post-order n pre-order n explanation
8> implementing doubly linked list and adding n deleting nodes at some given positions
9> difference between C n C++
10> advantages of C++
11> about new n delete operator in comparison with malloc(), calloc() and free() functions
12> why malloc() function isn’t used in C++. instead we are using new operator
13> difference between structure and class in C++
14> difference between DBMS n RDBMS (told abt E.M.CODD’S 12 rules n key concept)
15> abt INF and 2NF
16> some simple queries
17> about page replacement algorithm
18> what is page fault n thrashing
19> what is synchronization n different tools
20> how to implement semaphor n monitor
21> what is deadlock n different mechanism to avoid it
22> which C/C++ complier you are using and it’s effect on size of data types. what do u mean by a 32-bits OS
23> what is computer network n distinguish from distributed system
24> what is an IP, it’s function n the layer on which it is used
25> diffeent version of IP addresses n explain IPV4 in details with classes
26> about OSI n TCP/IP network model
27> application of queue n stack
28> abt router, bridge, switch… etc.
29> 1-2 situation based questions
30> What is endianness. how can you know your computer is either little or big one. write a code to find it.
31> where extern n static variables are stored.
32> write program for binary search and derive its time complexity.
33> what is constructor and why it is mainly used.
34> what is binary search tree and it’s uses
35> hav you any questions to me

Definitely it was too long. My interview took around 1.30 hrs n almost technical. he was very cool, helping in nature n gave some hints when not finding any idea. 8 out of 21 got selected. That day was for me and luckily i was one of them. So my dear friends be cool, confident n do not try to bluff them. if you aren’t finding any point, simply tell I don’t know or I m not getting any point. So have faith on yourself n god. When your day will come, no one can stop you, even not you. but keep in mind that hard work always pays, bcoz good luck comes to it

For technical, have depth concept on C, data structure, OS, n/w and some fundamental concept on C++, DBMS and microprocessor. I was from Computer Science; for Electronics students depth concept about DEC, MP & MC n N/W is essential.

All the marks starting from written test to interview round are added and on that basis selection is done. so b careful and try to have good marks in written test, more particularly in DS and C / C++ / Java sections.