Tata Consultancy Services Interview on 18th Nov at Hyderabad

Company: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Hi everyone,

First of all I request the organizers to publish this article at any cost, because I?m able to send this article almost after 10 days of my interview. I wanted to send all my experience of tech, MR and HR interviews at once. That?s why it became late for me.

I?m Nagarjuna Reddy. I?ve had my technical interview on last Saturday, 18th November 2006. Before this interview I?ve taken the written test on 07th October 2006
I?ve had my technical interview on last Saturday, 18th November 2006. The interview was so cool. My interview was scheduled at 12 in the noon. But its gone late and I?ve had it at 04:30 in the evening. The duration of my interview was around 35 minutes. The interview panel consisted of only one member. Later one more lady employee joined him. They mainly concentrated on DBMS, C programming language, OOPS concepts with C++ and Operating system.

He started the interview with the routine question
(Before my interview started, he has gone through my resume thoroughly.)

Interviewer: Tell me about yourself.
Me: told about myself without any problems as I?ve prepared already for this question.
Int: What is DBMS?
Me: given the definition in my own words and also the different databases that are available right now in the market.
Int: about joins.
Me: explained it neatly and various types of joins with examples.
Int: what is ?Index? in DBMS?
Me: sorry, I don?t know much about it. But the basic info about it is?. each entity will be assigned an index in the database environment. (Like wise I?ve told.)
Int: what is a key and its types.
Me: explained with no problems. primary key, foreign key, super key with examples.

(Here, we had a long discussion on the concept of foreign key. He asked me to explain it with examples. I?ve taken two tables ?Student? and ?Course? tables and explained neatly. He was simply convinced.)

Also the interviewer asked me the following questions from DBMS.
What is Embedded SQL, stored procedures, integrity constraint, cursors and views?

(Here also we had some discussion over the concepts of cursors and views. I?ve told the differences between tables and views and explained about the cursors neatly.)

Also he asked me some simple SQL queries. I?ve given correct answers for all of them as those are not that much complex queries. Not only for me, but for anyone those are simple SQL queries.

Then he came to my MCA academic project work. I?ve told him clearly the abstract of the project.

Int: What are the software that you?ve used for the project development.
Me:Told about the software. (Since my project is based on J2EE, I?m keep on saying about those technologies. Then he revealed me that ?it?s ok. But I don?t know JAVA?)

That time the lady interviewer joined us. Then he introduced her to me by saying her name. And she started asking me few basic concepts on java like abstract class, interface etc.

Int: How many marks will you rate yourself in C on a scale of 5?
Me:I?m sure. 4.
Int: So 8 out of 10. It means good.

Then they started posing questions on me from C. The questions covered from this subject are??.
What are the differences between C and C++? What is a Pointer? Overloading and overriding concepts from C++.
Then he asked me to write a C program to print the following structure and started writing it on the paper.

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* * *

As soon as he started writing the structure, i told them that the structure is like Pascal?s triangle, then they both replied ?yes?.

This time I told them that ?I need some time to think about the logic involved, for generating the given structure. But I can print the same in Right angled triangle shape? and I started writing the structure on the paper like..

*

* *

* * *

They asked me to do that.

Immediately I?ve took the paper and asked them ?whether only the logic is sufficient or shall I?ve to write the entire program??. They preferred only the logic.

So I?ve written. Then they asked me to explain it. I?ve started explaining. Meanwhile they asked me ?Stop. it?s ok?.

Lady Int: Write a program to swap two numbers using only two variables. i.e without making use of third variable.
Me: Sure. I?ll do it and (I started writing it. When I?ve written just two lines of code, she has a smile on her face and asked me to stop and said ?I understood the logic that you are going to use?.)

Also they asked me some more questions from Operating systems (Memory management, paging, demand paging etc).

Int: Do you have any questions to ask us?
Me: (didn?t get any question at that time. But I preferred to ask them at least one question, which is always there in my mind.) i.e. can I get the chance here in TCS to work on J2EE technologies, if I gets selected, as I?m sound in that area?
Int: (Started saying about the training they are going to provide and its consequences) And finally he said I?m also new to TCS, so I don?t know about it here. (Immediately the lady interviewer started saying ?Sure, you?ll get the chance, and I?m also working on that platform these days. But it may not be immediately after the completion of your training?).

Finally, those were quite satisfied and the interviewer himself told me ?It?s ok. I?m recommending you for the MR interview.? (And asked me to wait outside to know the schedule of MR interview)

(I?m quite happy to hear the result from the interviewer and thanked both of them)

Here I want to say one more thing, while the interview is going on, one servant came and gave snacks to the interviewer. He made it 50-50 and offered me. But I rejected it. Then he asked me ?No problem, you can eat it first? and he gulped his share of the snacks. But I replied him by saying ?It?ll be difficult for me to discuss while eating?. Later when I?m coming out with good news from the interviewer, I?ve taken my share of snacks with me as I?m feeling so hungry then. I even didn?t have my lunch today. Then we all have only smiles.

Friends!!!! See how cool the interviewers and the environment is?

After that TCS people have announced the results along with the MR interview schedule. My interview was on 21st (Tuesday). This time they?ve given a form to us to be filled before coming to the MR interview.

I want to say one more thing here, through out all my 3 rounds of interviews, I?ve not used the words ?sir? or ?madam? to salute them. I even called both the interviewers with their names in my technical round. Also they expect to be called like that.

Managerial Round of Interview: (On 21st November 2006)

This interview was also so cool for me. With the confidence I?ve gained from Tech round, I?ve attended this interview with coupled confidence.

Actually my interview was scheduled at 11:00 in the morning. But it became too late again. It started at around 4:00 in the evening. To my surprise, I was asked all HR questions in this round even though it is said to be Managerial Round. This interview also consisted of only one member. But many of the candidates who were appeared for the MR interview were been asked questions based on their academic project and/or technical questions only, in this round of interview. I was asked the following questions like?..

Tell me about yourself, what are your areas of interest, positive and negative points in you, your achievements, About TCS, Why should we hire you etc (Some more questions, but all these are purely HR questions. Its duration was 20 minutes for me.)

After it is over, they announced the results. I was through the MR also. Again they announced the HR interview schedule. For me it was 05:15 in the evening on the same day. In this round also TCSers eliminated some candidates.

HR interview: (On 21st November 2006)

This interview remained almost all miserable experiences for me. I?ve had a stress kind of interview here. The interviewer seems to start argument with what ever I say. And I was asked even unexpected questions. This round consisted of Project related questions even though it is HR interview.

For me it started at around 05:30 in the evening. Here I?ve faced many problems with the interviewer. The interview consisted of only one member.

As soon as I entered into the cabin, I wished him good evening. No reply from his side.

Int: (with no smile rather seriousness in his face) Tell me about yourself?
Me: keep telling about my PG briefly and moved on saying my achievements, goals etc.

(He interrupted me, and here we had some long discussion over my PG college as I?ve quoted in my resume that I was figured in top 2% of the candidates appeared for ICET-2003, Entrance examination for MBA and MCA aspirants into all universities in Andhra Pradesh)

Int: If so, why didn?t you select campus of any university in the state?
Me given the reasons. (He seems to be somewhat convinced).
Int: Can you tell me the subjects that you are having in your last semester (3-2) of MCA.
Me: told the subjects.
Int: (Again he asked me the subjects of the previous sem than 3-2 i.e 3-1)
Me: told some of the subjects.
Int: Do you have DBMS in your curriculum?
Me: yes, in our second year of MCA.
Int: what are the concepts that you know from DBMS?
Me: written all the major concepts related to it on the paper.
Int: its ok.

(Before my interview started, the interviewer gone through my resume thoroughly, and with that, he came to know about my project briefly, as I?ve written our project?s abstract in my resume).

Int: Tell me about your project in detail.
Me: told about the project clearly. My responsibility in its development (as we 2 people were developed the application) is coding for 4 out of 7 modules and entire testing.
Int: (Concentrated on project design, especially on database design process) How many tables are there in your application?
Me: (shocked!!!!! Didn?t expected this question, even though I know it) told clearly that ?even though the database design is not my responsibility, I need to know the basic concepts of the databases of our application, since I need to make use of them while coding. It consists of 18 tables totally.
Int: why that many number of tables? Why don?t you maintain all the data in a single table? (with the same amount of seriousness on face)
Me: told the problems with that approach.
Int: if so, why don?t you create a separate table for each column?
Me: (stunned) even then told the problems with this kind of approach also.
Int: I was not convinced with your answer, again the same question, why that many tables?
Me: (thought that he is expecting me to talk about some other concept like normalization or so) I?ve told about normalization and its types.
Int: can you explain where you have used all these different types of normal forms in your project?
Me: Actually all this process is carried out by our project member. I was not involved in this process. So I don?t know about it.
Int: Again asked me the same question for the fourth consecutive time.
Me: (I got irritated and loose control on myself. This is where I?ve committed a biggest mistake.) I?ve drawn the structure of the TCS building roughly, where our interviews are being conducted, and questioned him ?why you are maintaining all these departments in separate rooms why not a single big hall??
Int: (Came to know that I was fell into his trap) Finally what do you want to become in TCS?
Me: (with a little bit of guilty feeling because of previous answer) I want to become System Analyst within 3 to 4 years.
Int: will you become System Analyst immediately now?
Me: No No. Right now I came here for recruitment with TCS as a software programmer. But my goal for the next 3 to 4 years is to become System Analyst (SA).
Int: Ok, can you tell the responsibilities of SA?
Me: As I?m a fresher, I don?t know all the responsibilities of SA, but one of the major responsibility is to analyze the system to be built and again analyzing the system after it is built to find whether it is meeting the client?s requirements or not? Apart from this he may also involved in some more functions. But I?m unaware of them now.
Int: So, you want to become SA without knowing his responsibilities.
Me: I?ve nothing to say for this question and remained with blank face with this kind of his questions.
Int: So, it?ll be difficult for you into TCS, anyway I wish you all the best.
Me: came out with complete dissatisfaction.

So friends!!! What happened here for me is? I was asked MR questions in HR interview and all HR questions in MR interview.

This is all about my tech, MR and finally miserable HR interview experiences at TCS. Everybody says that the interview will be cool. But some times very rarely, we may come across this kind of stress interviews. With this experience I?m not confident of being selected for TCS. Still the results are awaited. The TCS people are going to announce the results through their portal in the first week of December or so.

So friends don?t be panic of interviews. It?ll be very cool as everybody says. Very very rarely only we may come across such type of panel members. Even there you should not loose control on yourself. Here I?ve committed a biggest mistake by questioning the interviewer. Also in TCS, you can?t expect only tech questions in tech round of interview and only HR questions in HR interview. Anything can be asked depending on the panel member.

I wish all the aspirants of TCS, all the best
Thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

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