Novartis Hyderabad Interview Experience 2020 | On-Campus

Novartis came for conducting the recruitment drive for our campus (KIIT UNIVERSITY) and conducted the online test followed by an interview round (Technical+ HR) one week later. Out of the five-campus interviews which I’ve faced in my life this one was one of the most comprehensive and punctilious one.

Job Profile: Associate for Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and IoT.

In total, it consisted of 4 rounds.

Round 1 (Online Written Test): A total of 650 students from CSE and IT appeared for the online test. The test comprised two sections, Quantitative Aptitude, and English. Aptitude questions were basically from — Average, Time & Work, Probability, Profit & Loss (medium difficulty).

Tips: Solve the questions with a calm mind. Don’t stress yourself during the test because you have to do 40 questions in 60 minutes. Don’t spend too much time on any question if you are not able to do it in the first attempt.

Round 2 (Online Coding Test): It consisted of three coding questions in a medium to a hard range of difficulty along with 25 Technical MCQ(s) to be answered in an hour. The MCQ questions were mostly from core CSE subjects like CN(Computer Networks), Data Structures & Algorithms, OS(Operating System), DBMS(Database Management System), some Linux Commands. Medium difficulty — anybody with basic understanding can solve them. The open-source computer science guide “GEEKS FOR GEEKS” is the ultimate source to learn everything.

Around 280 students gave the second round from which 40 progressed.

Round 3 (Technical Interview Round): My interview lasted an hour. It was all virtual and a “Microsoft teams” link was sent to the shortlisted candidates for this round. Two interviewers were interviewing one student at a time. I introduced myself and then the interviewers directly asked me to talk about my projects. The questions asked were mostly from the projects, research papers (if any) from the resume. In-depth knowledge of the projects done as needed. My research paper particularly took their attention which was based on Deep Learning and I had to explain my project in detail for about 20–25 minutes. They asked various typical questions on Deep Learning Algorithms (Why, How, etc). The interviewers tried to pressure me into changing my answers being confident was the key. Then they asked some questions from Java, OOPs, and DBMS. One of the interviewers asked me to rate my proficiency in Java on a scale from 1 to 10. Lastly, to check my problem-solving skills they gave me a mathematical formula and asked me to prove it by drawing a geometrical shape on a graph. I thought for a minute and came up with the answer and they were impressed.

To the best of my memory the questions were:

1. How is Java different from other programming languages?
2. Explain the properties of OOPs.
3. What is Polymorphism in Java explain with some real-life example?
4. What do you mean by joins in SQL?
5. Explain left join and right join with some real-life example.
6. What are the technical problems that you faced and how did you manage the overall project?

Tips: You should know each and every word of your Resume. Show them you know how to start the problem, and the ways that they give you hints should lead you to the solution. They want to see you think and analyze, and they are willing to help you.

Round 4 (HR Round): It lasted 20 mins. All you need is to be natural and genuine about your answers. Also, the HR interviewer was very friendly.

HR asked me the following questions :

• Tell me something about yourself.
• What is the meaning of your name?
• Apart from your academics and technical background tell me something about which you are most proud of?
• What is that one thing that makes you different from others?
• Why did you choose KIIT University for your undergraduate?
• Why did you choose to be an engineer?
• What are your three best qualities and strengths?
• Tell me about your internship experiences.
• Would you be comfortable in relocating to Hyderabad?
• Lastly, he asked — “Any questions for me”? To this, I questioned him about the new challenges as a fresher in Novartis.

Tips: Be calm & answer politely.

The same day after the interview

The result — You’ve been selected!

IMPORTANT THINGS :

1. Have a complete idea about your projects.
2. If it’s a group project tell the interviewer prior. If they asked a question from the part which you haven’t done, you may face difficulty to answer.
3. Be confident.
4. Be strong technically in your areas of interest.
5. Good communication skills are an added advantage.
6. Don’t compare yourself with others. Everyone will have their own knowledge. Brace yourself. Self-motivation is very important.
7. It might happen that you can’t answer a series of questions and it’s natural to get nervous, which happened to me. Just hold your nerve, you will get a question you’ll know and keep trying.
8. Don’t stress a lot. You are the sailor of your own ship, irrespective of the interviewer, irrespective of the company, you take your interview forward so take it to where you want to. This might not happen all the time, just present your strengths and good things will happen. If it’s your day no one can stop you from your success.

So guys, hope you will find this article useful for your interview preparation. Best of luck!