This is my experience during the Siemens DISW on-campus recruitment process. The selection journey included multiple stages, and I am excited to share how each unfolded.
Initial Shortlisting
The first round of shortlisting was based on CGPA, with 72 students selected to proceed further.
Online Assessment
The online assessment was conducted virtually and consisted of questions covering quantitative aptitude, general aptitude, OOP concepts, and a coding question. From this, 25 candidates were shortlisted for the interview rounds.
Coding Question:
You are given an array of operations to perform on a set of movie theater seats. The seats are numbered starting from 1. The queries are as follows:
0: Book the smallest available seat.
number: Unbook the seat with the given number.
The goal is to execute these operations in the order given in the array, maintaining the booking and unbooking of seats.
Interview Round 1
This round was conducted virtually, with most candidates having one interviewer. I had two interviewers on my panel. Here's how it went:
Introduction & Linux Discussion
The interview began with a brief introduction. I emphasized my strengths, mentioning, "As a Linux enthusiast, my favorite core subject is Operating Systems." at the end of the interview. They d asked if I used any Linux distributions regularly. I shared that I use Fedora daily and mentioned that I was using Windows at the moment only because it was recommended for the interview. I also told them an experience where I accidentally uninstalled Python on Ubuntu, causing my GNOME to crash since it depended on Python. I eventually took a backup and switched to Fedora, a new distro I wanted to try. They then asked how to find a file. I explained using `ls` pipelined with `grep` or the `find` command with the `-r` option to search recursively.
Questions on ReactJS
The interview shifted to my internship experience as a frontend developer, where I worked with ReactJS. They presented a scenario:
Suppose your component hierarchy is like this:
C1 -> C2 -> C3
C1 -> C4
Question: How would you change the content of C4 based on a state change in C3?
I said using Redux for state management, or, if C3 and C4 were in the same parent-child path, useContext could be a simpler option. When asked if I had used useRedux, I said no, as I had only worked with Redux so far. We also discussed other ReactJS-related concepts, although I don’t remember all the questions.
Project Discussion
They asked about my projects listed on my resume and why I hadn’t included any group projects. I explained that my personal projects demonstrated my skills and contributions best, but I had done 3 mini projects and currently working on 1 mega project in a team of 5.
Coding Question
They gave me a simple coding question:
Problem: Add a node to a linked list at the 10th index.
Follow-up: Ensure the solution can handle adding a node at any index, and explain the edge cases and time complexity.
Non-Tech Discussion
They said I seem like a coder person and asked if I would be open to working in a tester or DevOps role, which involves less coding. I responded that I see myself as an explorer who enjoys learning new things. Since I only had experience with tools like Docker, Git, and GitHub, I’d be eager to explore this domain.
They then asked if the work became repetitive, whether I would still be interested. I said yes and if I feel the task is repetitive and as you said I a coder person I will try to automate things as much as possible and if allowed I will request to change my work to something diff after a while.
My Questions
Firstly I asked for panel introduction and their work(it's good to ask this silly typical thing since this gives the interviewer a chance to open up and talk abt themselves). It was a google meet so adjacent to one interviewer’s name his role was mentioned so I asked about it(always good to pick up and notice small things :)). Later I asked them, you previously said the work for this role might get boring and you are working for this role, what's your experience, like is it really boring?(dont try this, stay humble :’)).
This round ended with 9 candidates being selected for the next phase.
Interview Round 2
The second round took place at Siemens' office, where all nine of us were selected as interns. Each candidate had two interviewers on the panel. Here’s how my interview unfolded:
Project Discussion
My interview started with my intro and theirs. They went on my projects first. The interviewers began by asking me to draw a box diagram of my favorite project. After discussing the project, they pointed out some areas for improvement and advised me to ensure my projects have unique and noteworthy features. Later, I was asked why is React.js so popular? and some more questions.
Product Design Question
They presented a hypothetical situation:
Question: If you had to design a quality telephone as a product, what factors would you consider?
I mentioned essential points such as ensuring correct functionality (e.g., pressing '1' should display '1'), avoiding duplicate components, and making the hardware durable yet lightweight. They followed up by asking if it was acceptable to change the sequence and size of the buttons. I said that altering these would harm the UX, so it shouldn’t be done.
Coding & Puzzle Questions
They asked a coding problem:
Problem: Given a string, find the longest substring where every character appears only once.
Then came a puzzle:
Puzzle: How can you cut a cylindrical cake into 8 equal pieces with only 3 cuts?
Git Questions
They tested my understanding of Git, asking about switching branches, merging, creating pull requests, and the difference between git fetch and git pull.
My Questions:
I asked about work-life at Siemens. Since one of them had mentioned earlier that React.js isn’t entirely bug-free, I was curious to know why. They elaborated on it, emphasizing that React.js is far more powerful than what I’d encountered in my learning projects. Thus, concluded my interviewer
I hope this insight helps those preparing for interviews at Siemens or similar companies. Best of luck!