Sabre Interview Experience at VIT University

Sabre came to our college for the role of Associate Software Developer (Intern+Full-time)

Round 1:

Online Test

Duration:1 hr 30 mins.

Total Marks: 164

40 Multiple choice questions containing mix of aptitude and technical. Each question carried either 2 or 3 marks for a correct answer and -1 for a wrong answer. There were also two coding questions for 50 marks and 20 marks respectively:

1. Given two strings S1 and S2. Convert S1 to a palindrome by replacing characters by any other character, such that S1 contains S2, in minimum number of steps. If not possible return -1.
   Example:
   S1: archie
   S2: ar
   Output: 4 (arcchra or arhhra)
2. Given a number N, write the number of permutations possible such that if the numbers are written in an array prime indexes (1-based indexing) contain only prime numbers
   Example: N=4
   Output: 4
   Explanation:
   1 2 3 4
   1 3 2 4
   4 2 3 1
   4 3 2 1To solve this problem simply calculate the number of primes till N and then return the product of factorials of prime and non primes, like for N=4,
   Number of primes = 2   Number of non primes = 2
   So results = 2! x 2! = 4

In this round 900 people appeared out of which 35 were shortlisted.

Round 2:

Technical Interview

Estimated Duration: 1 hr 15 mins.

The interview began with regular tell me about yourself questions followed by explanation of the mentioned academic projects. Then there were some OS and memory questions like: what is the hierarchy of memory for storage of a variable created in a code, what is an OS, what is a kernel, what is the OS hierarchy, what is a file system. Then he asked me questions related to networking: OSI Model, difference between HTTP and HTTPS, types of HTTP requests, difference between get and post, difference between post and put. Then he asked me some things on DBMS: ACID properties, what is normalization and an example for 2NF. Then finally DSA and coding, firstly he asked me about real time applications of stacks. Then an easy coding problem: Check if a number is palindrome. Then a slightly more complicated problem: Mobile Numeric Keypad problem. Finally the interview ended with questions for the interviewer.

Out of the 35 people, 14 moved ahead to the next and final round.

Round 3:

HR + Technical interview

Estimated Duration: 1 hour

This was mainly HR interview with a brief technical part. Interview started with common HR questions, Describe yourself etc. Then I was told to explained any one project which I had worked the most hard on. Then he asked me to implement Java’s Garbage collector in CPP. After that that he told me to write any simple code in any language, I wrote in CPP, so he asked me about the use of namespace std in that. After this main HR questions began. He asked me about regrets in life, happy situations, recent tough situations, questions about family, hobbies, rate my myself in confidence level etc. Finally asked me if I had any questions.

Finally 9 of us were selected for the role.