CSEBUET WEB:: Starting Your First Job

It is encouraged to start applying for job on your last year of graduation. Nobody will find you if you don’t apply. Make a nice resume (one/two page) and a cover letter. You may find lots of nice templates on the web. It is very important to have great resume because it gives the first impression about you to the employers and it is the key to get the first telephone interview.

Resume Posting

I used monster.com, dice.com as general place.
Post your resume to the company website (Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Paypal, Cisco, Oracle, Amazon,Google,Yahoo)

Telephone Interview

Choose a silent place to talk
Be ready with paper and pencil
Try to describe your thought clearly and gently.
Rest is up to you

On-site Interview

Dress formal. In tech companies, you do not need to wear a coat.
Try to remain fresh and enthusiastic.
Don’t be late. Try to be on-site 15-20 minutes before the schedule.
You will do the rest

Interview Questions

Usually, you will be given chance to discuss your background in short. And then you will face several questions from your resume. The interviewer might be pre-meditated to ask you question about one of you projects or you may tell more about your favorite project. Then, you will get some related side questions. So, be very prepared about every details of the projects mentioned in your resume.

I found the following question useful before my interview preparation:

General Question

1. Write code to count the number of ‘1’ bits in an integer (4 byte)

2. Write code to reverse a singly linked list.

3. Write code to find the middle element of a singly linked list.

4. Write code to find an element in a singly linked list (Microsoft)

5. Write code to insert in singly linked list (at head /tail/ after some element)

6. Write code to delete an element from a singly linked list (consider all the cases).(Microsoft)

7. Write code to merge two singly linked list.

8. Write code to convert a string into uppercase.

9. Multiple n by 7 without using multiplication.

10. Multiple n by 8 without using multiplication.

11. Write code to traverse binary tree: in-order, pre-order, post-order, level-order (BFS)

12. Write code to copy a binary tree.

13. Write function to find the depth of a binary tree.

14. Write code to delete a binary tree

15. Write code for heap sort. What is the cost?

16. Write code for quick sort. What is the best/average/worst cost?

17. Write code for merge sort. What is the cost?

18. How to use heap as priority queue.

19. Given an array t[100] which contains numbers between 1 and 99. Return the duplicated value. Try both O(n) and O(n-square).

20. Write efficient code for extracting unique elements from a sorted list of array.

21. Write a function that allocates memory for a two-dimensional array of given size(parameter x & y)

22. Write a routine to reverse digit of an integer without using an array (e.g. 1234 to 4321).

23. Give me an algorithm for telling me the number I didn't give you in an array in a given range (0 to n) of numbers. (Numbers are given at random).

24. Write code for strcmp, strrev, strcat, strch, strstr, strtok

25. Write to find the 2^nd duplicate character in a string.

26. Write to find the 2^nd duplicate substring in a string.

27. Write code for atoi (Microsoft)

28. Write code to generate all the permutations of a string given which has no duplicate characters. (Cisco)

29. Reserve the order of the words in a sentence. ( e.g. Convert “I write code” to “code write I”)

30. Write code to determine whether a given input is a prime number. (Paypal-eBay)

31. Set the highest significant bit of an unsigned integer (4 byte) to zero. (Paypal-eBay)

32. Lot of SQL query (Paypal-eBay)

33. 2/3 puzzle (Paypal- eBay)

34. Write code to swap two integers without comparing (hint: XOR) (Microsoft)

35. Write code to generate Fibonacci number up to n. (both recursive and iterative)

36. You are given 2 big file (Gega byte) which has one string in each line. Write a memory efficient code to find all the strings which are common in both the files. (google.com, ASK.com)

37. Discuss how virtual function in C++ (Intel)

38. Give an example of enumeration in C (Intel)

39. Floating point number representation (Intel)

40. What is the difference between TCP and UDP. When UDP is used? (Cisco)

41. Write code to find the factorial number (Cisco)

42. Write a signature of a function that takes a pointer to function, pointer to pointer and returns an array of pointer (Cisco)

43. Discuss RIP routing protocol (Cisco)

44. What is ARP and RARP? (Cisco)

45. What is MTU and segmentation? How is segmentation handled at routers or host? How packet fields keep track of that?(Cisco)

46. What are the fields of a frame at data link layer? (Cisco)

47. What are the fields of a packet at network layer? (Cisco)

48. Difference between java and C++ ( Bloomberg)

49. Design a spell checker (Bloomberg)

50. Discuss copy constructor in C++ (Bloomberg)

51. What is the different between interface, class and abstract class (Bloomberg)

52. Find the common root of two nodes in BST

53. Write code to do BFS traversal in a tree.

54. Given an array of integers (positive and negative), find the contiguous sub array with the largest sum.

55. Write code to insert in a sorted linked list

56. Advantages and disadvantages of array and linked list. How to combine the power of two (Hint: hash)

57. Write a program to remove the duplicate from a sorted array.

58. What is a static variable

59. What is virtual address, page fault?

60. Difference between process and thread

61. What is mutex (lock), semaphore, condition, synchronized block (in java)

62. Consumer producer problem.

Behavior Question

1. Tell me briefly about yourself.

2. What is your best project? Discuss in more detail.

3. What is your worst project?

4. Have you ever faced any serious disagreement with partner? How did you resolve that?

5. What kinds of activities do you like to do other than study?

6. Describe a project where you worked with your group mate. How did you divide the work load?

Tester Question (Microsoft)

1. How will you test open/save dialog box?

2. How would you test a printer?

3. How would you test a vending machine?

4. How would you test the function you wrote to delete an element from a singly linked list?

5. Let’s say you have an application which can print from windows XP but not from windows ME. The printer is connected to the network. You are given 7 documents to test. How would you start testing? (Don’t have a clear answer but you have to start and keep moving)

Tip: Try to consider all the test cases for any function you write or you are given. Don’t stop thinking. Dig as much as you can.