SAP Labs India hires me!!

On September 21, 2013 Some of us attended placement process for SAP Labs India. First round was an on-line test conducted on a website. Online test had 5 sections

i. General Ability(Quants)
ii. Verbal and Paragraph writing
iii. Logical Reasoning
iv. Computer Fundamentals
v. Coding
Each sections had around 10-12 questions. For each question marks distribution was given. For each student set of questions were different. General ability questions were easy. R S Agarwal will be good enough to do general ability questions. Verbal part was as usual find the errors, para jumbles, find errors etc. For paragraph writing my topic was “Can Olympic games be organized in India?”. It was alone for 10 marks. Logical reasoning questions were based on finding patterns, age problems etc. Computer fundamentals were all around C, C++, pointers, DBMS, Networking. If you listen to your class then you don’t need to worry about this section. Most important section was coding for 20 marks alone. Question will be shown and you are just supposed to write only the asking function, not full program starting from main. You can code in any of your favorite language C, C++, JAVA, C#. My question for coding was “Reverse a string ”

Input – Amrita is good platform for research
Output – AtirmA Si Doog Mroftalp Rof Hcraeser

Conditions – i. I have to reverse word by word.
ii. When I reverse a word the Last alphabet of word should be printed as capital letter. Code here

After completing your code, you can compile your code and see whether its running fine or not. Your code will be run against some sample test cases. Even You can give sample test case of your choice and check your code.
After 1st round 36 students were shortlisted for technical interview rounds from 700-800 students. Second round was a technical interview. For me it went for more then 1 n half hour. My interviewer was extremely helpful and caring. When I went for interview I was a bit tensed but as I entered in my room my interviewer shook hand with me and asked me to be relax and feel like I am sitting with a friend. After this formal talk he started asking me questions. The questions he asked me were –
1. Which is your favourite language? I told C, C++. He asked me to rate myself out of 5. I told 4.
2. Can we create a interface with the help of C language alone. I told yes, with the the help of graphics we can create. And with the help of command line we can take user input. But it will not be as good as we can do same with java.
3. Difference between switch and if-else conditions?
4. Difference between C and C++?
5. Difference between Object based programming and Object oriented programming?
6. OOP Properties? Explain Encapsulation and Polymorphism with real life example?
7. What is constructor and this pointer?
8. What are difference data types in C++? What is static function?
9. Can we use this pointer in a static function?
10. Write a code to reverse string with the help of pointers.
11. Write code for Linked List declaration.
12. Write a structure for employees. Why is difference between structure and class?
13. What is difference between HTML and HTML5?
14. Whats is difference between HTML and XML?
15. What is CSS? What is use of CSS?
16. What is PHP? Why do we use PHP?
17. What are different activities in Software Development? How did you use these activities in your project development?
18. What is Virtual Memory?
19. What is Paging?
20. What is fragmentation? Explain types of it?
21. Tell about your academic projects?
22. What is throw and catch? Tell about exceptional handling in C++?
23. How to open a file in C++?
24. What id difference between abstract class and Interface? Write sample code for both?
25. Does final keyword exist in C++?
26. What is this pointer?
27. What is static function? Can we use this pointer in static function?

Interviewer touched almost all the computer science curriculum subjects. He was not expecting me to tell definitions. He asked me to answer the question by the way I understood those concepts. Overall this interview went very well for me. He was very much impressed with my knowledge and promoted me to third round which was the Second technical interview.

Second Technical interview started with my introduction, my interests in field of computer science. First thing he asked me was to tell me a software product which I like most and about which I feel like that I should be working on this software product. We discussed it for 15-20 minutes. Then he asked me about my subjects on interest. And then he started with puzzle –
28. We have 10 forks and 20 spoons in a bucket, Without seeing in bucket I have to take out 1 spoon, 1 fork , 1 spoon in same order. so what will be the probability of this? (Hint: think out of box)
29. He asked me that July 21, 2015 will last for how many hours on earth? (Hint: look for different time zones on earth)
I tried my best to answer both the puzzles but Unfortunately I couldn’t make any of correct answer. Now he started asking me about computer networks-
30. What all different network protocols I know?
31. Write different layers in network and corresponding protocols used in each layer?
32. Difference between HTTP and HTTPS? We discussed it for 10-15 minutes. Interviewer was going deep in everything whatever I was answering.
Now he turned to Operating System-
33. What are different functions of Operating system?
34. What is scheduler? Explain different types of it?
35. Why do page fault occurs?
Now he turned to Data Structure –
36. Write a code to insert elements in a linked list such that odd element should go to odd position and even element should go to even position only? There should not be any memory waste. I tried to solve this question for 25-30 minutes. I tried to give him different approaches but I was not able to make the program work completely correct. Later he asked me to leave the question and move on to another question.

Now he told me that he wants to check my object oriented programming skills, so he asked me to write the attributes and functions to design Sudoku game.
We discussed it for 40-45 minutes. Interviewer was modifying the program on every step like –
i. He asked me to design it just for 9 x 9 Sudoku. Later he told that its up to user to select that size of Sudoku.
ii. He asked to design it just for integer values. Later he told that it may contain any value types like int, float etc.(Hint: Use template)
iii. He asked me to change game initialization based on different difficulty levels like Easy, Medium, Hard.

Now he told me to code a program to generate random number, program should work on any given machine in world. I tried to code but he was not satisfied. Later I asked him how to do this. He told that random number will be generated with the help of “Mac address of system + System configuration + IP address”. I was shocked to hear this answer. Because I was no where around this solution.
Now he asked me to write an optimized code to generate prime number. I did it. Then he asked me the biggest prime number and method to store it. I told I don’t know and this was end of my second technical interview, I was grilled by now. In the end I asked about feedback to my Interviewer. He told me that he was trying to check my technical skills in real world application, how well I can use the OOP concepts in designing a real world application like sudoku game. He suggested me that your technical knowledge is very good but you should concentrate on using your knowledge in real world applications.
So as soon I came out of the interview room, My interviewer gave me green signal to next round. 🙂
My fourth round was an HR interview. My interviewer asked me about me, family background, college etc. Now he started asking me general Technology based questions –
37. What is Cloud? What is SAAS?
38. What is Data Warehouse? What is data mining? Give real world example where you see it everyday? I gave example of Facebook, Twitter.
39. How many interviews you have attended before SAP? How many offer letters you have in hand?
40. I told him about my Zoho interview, then he asked me to compare Zoho and Google? Who is CEO of Zoho? Basically he was trying to judge that how much knowledge I have about the company.
41. He asked my dream company and why?
42. Do you read newspapers?
43. He asked how do I keep updated myself about technology?
44. What is CSS?
45. He asked about my website www.techtofun.com. We discussed about it for 15-20 minutes about my posts, how I get visitors etc.?
He asked many more question in between. I suggest you to tell truth and answer only point to point. Because was questioning back on everything I was telling him.
After some time I got call for my next round. It was my 5th round, another HR interview.
My interview asked me again about my family and all. The question he asked me were –
46. Since I have good percentage of marks then why I am not opting for higher studies?
47. For how long I would like to be with SAP Labs if I get offer from SAP Labs?
48. About my hobbies?
49. How often I interact with my juniors.
50. Which was the last movie I watched? How often I watch movies?
51. About my academic projects? He asked about my contribution in project?
52. About modifications I want to do in my academic projects?
53. My views about open source softwares and licensed softwares? Pros and cons of open source softwares? He gave me a scenario and asked which software I will choose? We discussed on it for 15-20 minutes?
54. Preferred job Location?
55. Asked to speak French?(I have studied French before so)

This was my final interview of the day. After some time they announced the results and 3 people got selected, Along with me two of my friends Kavya and Vaishnavi.After our selection, we had a company dinner the same day, which we enjoyed a lot. I am extremely happy and excited to get into SAP Labs. I dedicate my success into the feet of My Guru, My family, My Teachers and My Friends.
If you have any doubt regarding SAP Labs interview process feel free to ask…. 🙂