Before starting the interview experience let me tell you about my educational background.

I am an Electrical engineering graduate from an NIT and wanted to pursue CS.
So, I took a drop and prepared for gate CS...However, as things didn't go well on the D-day I was pretty disappointed and was searching for colleges which could provide me with the opportunities I was looking for.

I had applied very selectively and didn't had any offers prior to this interview and was pretty tensed beforehand as this was the last option.

I had appeared for the written test on 28 April. Aptitude section was of medium level with questions on Comprehension, Basic C, standard Aptitude questions.
Technical was of easy level with many questions repeated from Gate.
I had attempted all the questions as there was no negative marking.( ~70% accuracy)

Now, coming to the interview...I was alloted Panel 1 and serial no.4 on 12 June. I was prepared with Data Structures and Algorithms, Linear Algebra and OS.

There were 3 interviewers in the panel.P1,P2 and P3.
P1: Looked at my application and asked why cs.
Me: Told the prepared answer...However, he wasn't convinced and wanted to know more about me...even he went on to my family details to know the psych behind my decision.
Meanwhile, P2 and P3 had taken my folder and my final year thesis work(EE domain) and we're going through it ...They seemed impressed by my profile and work.
 
I had filled MTech(CS & CSIS) as my 1 and 2 preference and MS as 3 preference...They inquired about my career goals and were strongly suggesting for MS program.  

P2: He asked if they could question me on CS subjects and started with Linear Algebra.

Basic questions related to rank, eigenvalues & vectors, dependency, inverses followed by P1 & P2.

 Later a question on array was asked by P3 regarding the approach for finding the number which is repeated odd no. of times in array given all other elements are repeated even no. of times. I replied with hashing as one approach, he wanted a single scan approach...I was thinking but was intervened by P1 again suggesting about MS. (: XOR operation would be helpful in this question).

Later discussion regarding MS program followed and I was very skeptical and was saying that I will think about the program. They were suggesting you have mathematical background so you should pursue MS.

It was a 30 min interview...However, for 20 mins discussion was only about my profile and MS. I wasn't asked much from the technical side.

After the interview, I was in a mixed state about how the interview went and had started looking for jobs in the meantime to prepare for the worst.

On the evening of 18 June, results were announced and I was shortlisted for MS program in CSE.  FINALLY RELIEVED!!!!

My inferences are that for the selection you should have at least one among :
1) Good Profile
2) Good Technical Knowledge.
3)Maths matters a lot so prepare it well along with a couple of technical subjects.
posted in Interview Experience Jun 20, 2019
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10 Comments

10 Comments

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Congratulations and Welcome to IIIT-H !
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Thanks for the interview experience and congratulations!

I wanted to ask one thing, can you please elaborate about what is a good profile?

Thanks.
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Cngrts
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Thank you sir..
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By a good profile I mean having academic achievements which could vouch for you. Something like interesting projects , academic profile among others. There is no fixed notion of a good profile.

Mine was a average profile combined with average technical knowledge.
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Ok,Thank you for replying!
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Sir whats you rank ?
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My rank in gate was a disaster...2111 rank and 603 score.
reshown Feb 6, 2020 by
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Congrats Sir, I too am preparing for GATE CS 2020 being from EE Branch. This is my final year. Any suggestion from your experience?
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Complete your syllabus early and give ample time for practicing questions, tests and revision.