Frequently Asked Questions regarding Placements

14 Sep, 2018
Below are some of the most frequently asked questions regarding placements and interviews:
Is competitive programming enough for placements?Competitive Programming plays a very important role in boosting problem-solving skills and ability to perform under time pressure. But obviously, it is not at all enough to get you prepared from placement perspective. This is because companies focus on core data structures and algorithm concepts along with other important CS subjects. You need to have a good grasp of concepts with good problem-solving abilities (as you are required to solve some of the real-life problems during your job), good coding practice.Does writing clean code increases the chance of getting selected?Writing clean code surely creates a good impression of you in front of the recruiter. Recruiters always prefer someone who can write code which is easily understandable and should also be efficient at the same time.How should I prepare for whiteboard interviews?You can practice for Whiteboard coding interview rounds with your friends and colleagues. You can ask your friend to discuss different corner cases of any problem on the whiteboard. This will help you in writing code on the whiteboard parallelly covering different cases. It showcases not only your coding skill but also your presentation skills.What programming languages should I learn?You can learn as many programming languages you want but make sure to master at least any one programming language of your choice. Recruiters only see whether you are able to code a given problem in any language of your choice (C, C++, Java etc.). We recommend you to master any one structured programming language like C and any one of the Object Oriented Programming language like C++, Java etc.Should I mention my competitive profiles in Resume?If you have a good competitive profile then we recommend you to mention it in your resume. This does not mean that recruiters only look for competitive programmers but if you have a good competitive profile then it also reflects that you have good problem-solving abilities. So, if you do not have a good competitive profile then it does not decrease the chance of your selection in any sense at all. All you need is to show the recruiter that you have a good problem-solving ability.How much projects are important to be added in resume?Projects add a pinch of salt to your resume. Try to add 2-3 good projects with somehow description of 1-2 lines. Also, be prepared to deliver detail description of your project and also some of the corner scenarios your project should handle. While applying off-campus, try to include projects according to the technology on which company has vacancies because many companies have a resume filtering option. That is when you apply for a vacancy on their website your resume passes through an initial keyword matching process before it reaches to the hiring team.How should I use GeeksforGeeks for placement preparation?Practice core Data Structures like Stack, Queue, Linked List, Tree, Heap, Graph are few DS which is very common and you should know ins and outs of them irrespective of company you are targeting. Start these topics in the order we have mentioned. Solve few questions of each and then you will start observing patterns. For example, Most of the tree questions boils down to solving it in three parts, Solve left subtree, solve right subtree, combine the results.Problem solving: Based on some interview experiences, we found that Problem solving and strong coding skills are the two major areas top MNCs look for. You know DS and coding. Great! But how and where to use these are more important. Here comes the Algorithms part. So go for practicing below topics:Divide and Conquer Archives – GeeksforGeeksGreedy Algorithm Archives – GeeksforGeeksBacktracking Archives – GeeksforGeeksDynamic Programming Archives – GeeksforGeeksPattern Searching Archives – GeeksforGeeksOut of all, Dynamic Programming is one of the toughest topic which is most challenging to master upon. And also you should expect to face at least one DP problem in each round of Tech Giants (specially in Google) interview.Practice Advanced Data Structures: Once you are comfortable with Core DS, it’s time to move to Advanced Data Structure Archives – GeeksforGeeks. TRIE, TST, Interval Tree, K Dimensional Tree are also important.
Is competitive programming enough for placements?Competitive Programming plays a very important role in boosting problem-solving skills and ability to perform under time pressure. But obviously, it is not at all enough to get you prepared from placement perspective. This is because companies focus on core data structures and algorithm concepts along with other important CS subjects. You need to have a good grasp of concepts with good problem-solving abilities (as you are required to solve some of the real-life problems during your job), good coding practice.
Does writing clean code increases the chance of getting selected?Writing clean code surely creates a good impression of you in front of the recruiter. Recruiters always prefer someone who can write code which is easily understandable and should also be efficient at the same time.
How should I prepare for whiteboard interviews?You can practice for Whiteboard coding interview rounds with your friends and colleagues. You can ask your friend to discuss different corner cases of any problem on the whiteboard. This will help you in writing code on the whiteboard parallelly covering different cases. It showcases not only your coding skill but also your presentation skills.
What programming languages should I learn?You can learn as many programming languages you want but make sure to master at least any one programming language of your choice. Recruiters only see whether you are able to code a given problem in any language of your choice (C, C++, Java etc.). We recommend you to master any one structured programming language like C and any one of the Object Oriented Programming language like C++, Java etc.
Should I mention my competitive profiles in Resume?If you have a good competitive profile then we recommend you to mention it in your resume. This does not mean that recruiters only look for competitive programmers but if you have a good competitive profile then it also reflects that you have good problem-solving abilities. So, if you do not have a good competitive profile then it does not decrease the chance of your selection in any sense at all. All you need is to show the recruiter that you have a good problem-solving ability.
How much projects are important to be added in resume?Projects add a pinch of salt to your resume. Try to add 2-3 good projects with somehow description of 1-2 lines. Also, be prepared to deliver detail description of your project and also some of the corner scenarios your project should handle. While applying off-campus, try to include projects according to the technology on which company has vacancies because many companies have a resume filtering option. That is when you apply for a vacancy on their website your resume passes through an initial keyword matching process before it reaches to the hiring team.
How should I use GeeksforGeeks for placement preparation?Practice core Data Structures like Stack, Queue, Linked List, Tree, Heap, Graph are few DS which is very common and you should know ins and outs of them irrespective of company you are targeting. Start these topics in the order we have mentioned. Solve few questions of each and then you will start observing patterns. For example, Most of the tree questions boils down to solving it in three parts, Solve left subtree, solve right subtree, combine the results.Problem solving: Based on some interview experiences, we found that Problem solving and strong coding skills are the two major areas top MNCs look for. You know DS and coding. Great! But how and where to use these are more important. Here comes the Algorithms part. So go for practicing below topics:Divide and Conquer Archives – GeeksforGeeksGreedy Algorithm Archives – GeeksforGeeksBacktracking Archives – GeeksforGeeksDynamic Programming Archives – GeeksforGeeksPattern Searching Archives – GeeksforGeeksOut of all, Dynamic Programming is one of the toughest topic which is most challenging to master upon. And also you should expect to face at least one DP problem in each round of Tech Giants (specially in Google) interview.Practice Advanced Data Structures: Once you are comfortable with Core DS, it’s time to move to Advanced Data Structure Archives – GeeksforGeeks. TRIE, TST, Interval Tree, K Dimensional Tree are also important.
Practice core Data Structures like Stack, Queue, Linked List, Tree, Heap, Graph are few DS which is very common and you should know ins and outs of them irrespective of company you are targeting. Start these topics in the order we have mentioned. Solve few questions of each and then you will start observing patterns. For example, Most of the tree questions boils down to solving it in three parts, Solve left subtree, solve right subtree, combine the results.
Problem solving: Based on some interview experiences, we found that Problem solving and strong coding skills are the two major areas top MNCs look for. You know DS and coding. Great! But how and where to use these are more important. Here comes the Algorithms part. So go for practicing below topics:Divide and Conquer Archives – GeeksforGeeksGreedy Algorithm Archives – GeeksforGeeksBacktracking Archives – GeeksforGeeksDynamic Programming Archives – GeeksforGeeksPattern Searching Archives – GeeksforGeeksOut of all, Dynamic Programming is one of the toughest topic which is most challenging to master upon. And also you should expect to face at least one DP problem in each round of Tech Giants (specially in Google) interview.
Divide and Conquer Archives – GeeksforGeeks
Greedy Algorithm Archives – GeeksforGeeks
Backtracking Archives – GeeksforGeeks
Dynamic Programming Archives – GeeksforGeeks
Pattern Searching Archives – GeeksforGeeks
Out of all, Dynamic Programming is one of the toughest topic which is most challenging to master upon. And also you should expect to face at least one DP problem in each round of Tech Giants (specially in Google) interview.
Practice Advanced Data Structures: Once you are comfortable with Core DS, it’s time to move to Advanced Data Structure Archives – GeeksforGeeks. TRIE, TST, Interval Tree, K Dimensional Tree are also important.
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