Cohesity Interview Experience for SRE (On-Campus)

In this article, I’ll be briefing you about my Interview Experience at Cohesity. So, Cohesity develops software that allows IT professionals to back up, manage, and gain insights from their data across multiple systems or cloud providers. They came to our college for their campus placement drive.

Eligibility Criteria

• Only CSE and ISE (IT) branches were allowed for the online test.
• Students should have a minimum of 8 or above GPA.
• No active backlogs.

Round One (Online Assessment)

• An Online Test was held on 8th December 2022.
• Platform – CodeSignal
• Test Duration – 30mins (45 MCQs)
• No negative marking.
• Questions were mostly around CS fundamentals (Computer Networking, Operating Systems), Basic Maths, and Aptitude.

Tip: You have to be very quick in this round because you might lose on to some of the questions at the end if you don’t solve the early ones fast. 

Results:11 people were shortlisted after the online test out of 60-70 people. 

Round Two (Technical Interview)

• There was only one interviewer for me, and he straight up started asking the standard computer networking questions like (OSI Model, and protocols). A good knowledge of Computer Networks and Operating Systems would make the interview quite smooth for you as most of the questions are asked around these topics only.
• Another important topic would be Linux, knowing about all the basic Linux commands and their usage along with examples would help a lot as this might compensate for your fumbles in the areas of computer networks and Operating Systems as they really go into good depth for those subjects as they did in my case.
• Try to speak confidently for all answers throughout the whole interview process as they do look out for your communication and presentation skills surely. If you don’t know/are not sure about any question just ask them for hints instead of bluffing around as it may leave a bad impression about you. 
• Some topics, which you must give a look at – The OSI Model, Protocols, TCP/IP and UDP, Bootup Process, Good understanding of each and every layer with their associated protocols and functions.

Round Three (Hiring Manager)

• This round is all about behavioral questions but you can expect 1-2 technical questions also depending upon your interviewer. (I was asked to explain recursion in this round).
• Studying about the company well, and having knowledge about its products, and the tech they use is quite helpful. 
• Be very confident with your answers even if they ask some tricky questions and be clear with your vision towards joining the company, by explaining to them the same.
• This round did not have many technical questions and got over within 15 mins. 
• Questions about the work culture in the company, and the latest technology that they are working on could be asked at the end of the interview.

Results – 2 students were selected for the role of Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) including me.

All the best!