GENERAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS How many processors are there in a Pentium ? Difference between risc and cisc. Is risc always fast. What is a real time system. Name some real time OS What are the characteristics of Real time OS. Is DOS a real time OS. What is a kernel,shell. What is binary search, traversal, hashing etc. Given a scenario what is the suitable data structure. Write a code to count the no. of 1's in a binary rep.of a number. Memory taken for char *, int * etc. Char *cp; int *ip; cp++,ip++ - what is the result. Compare the no. of bytes in unix and Dos for long char short int. How to make programs portable on unix and Dos under such circumstances. In c++, what is a constructor, destructor etc. What is friend etc. What is waterfall model, prototype model etc. What is testing. what is unit testing, integration testing etc. What is indexing in databases? What is atomicity? Can recursive pgms be written in C++, Write a recursive pgm to calculate factorial in c++. What is best data structure to store the processes Info in a real time operating system? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First round (around 45 minutes) contained, questions from Real-time ----------- Systems (my research area), operating systems and Software Engineering Explain U'r research work. What is a Real-Time System ? What is the difference between Hard and Soft real-time systems ? What is a mission critical system ? What is the important aspect of a real-time system ? Explain the difference between microkernel and macro kernel. Give an example of microkernel. Why paging is used ? Which is the best page replacement algo and Why ? WHat is software life cycle ? How much time is spent usually in each phases and why ? Which one do U want to work if selected in Honeywell ? ( I said I don't like testing ) They asked why ? I said it is a boring job. Then they tried to analyse the knowledge in testing. What is testing ? Which are the different types of testing ? Then they explained the way they do testing. They said that they are doing testing in requirement phase and design phase so that if any problem comes in those phases it is not ncecessary to go back and change the requirement or design. All the test processing is automated. Why do U want to join Honeywell ? Ans : To get a practical feeling of Real-time systems. Do U know C++ ? How good are U in C and C++ ? Rate U'rslef in both C and C++. ( 1 - 10 marks) Second round (around 45 minutes ) ------------ They wanted a bio-data at the time of inteview. I gave the placement office bio-data and in that one there was column 'Major subjects studied'. Many of the questions came from those. Explain U'r research work. Lot of questions from it. What is a distributed system ? Some questions about CSP. ( I kept quiet) Which languages do U know ? What are the differences between Pascal and C. I said Pascal is a strongly typed language. Then what is typing and its advantages ? Then he asked some questions from Compiler construction and Lisp. WHich are the different computer architectures ? What is the requirement in MIMD ? What is the difference between RISC and CISC processors ? Difference between loosely coupled and tightly coupled systems ? What is an open system ? Still a lot of questions from software engineering . Which are the different phases in Software life cycle (asked again) Why is analysis and testing phases very important ? Which methodologies are U familiar with ? Have U worked in windows ? (Yes) What is the difference U have seen from a Dos environment ? I said it event driven . So what do U mean by event driven ? How do WinMain look like ? How the messages are processed in Windows ? (Queue of events) What are parameters needed to distinguish an event ? Have U done any network programming ? Why networks are layered ? What is the advantage of that ? How many layers are there in OSI ? WHy is it called OSI model ? Are U familiar with network topologies ? Which are the different network toplogies ? Tell an example of bus type network. I said ethernet. What is the Bandwidth of ethernet ? Explain the advantage and disadvantage of ethernet ? Which is the protocol used in ethernet. (CSMA/CD) Why is it called so ? If all stations tries to communicate at same time, what will happen. What is binary exponential backoff algo ? What is the advantage of Ring network ? Compare it with ethernet. In a real-time system which one do U prefer and why ? What is the basic requirement of a real-time network ? Which one is costly - ethernet of ring networks ? Some questions form OOSD and Digital signal processing. What is inheritance, encapsulation etc. Third Round (15 minutes) ----------- Asked about the percentages and marks during SSC, PDC, B.Tech and MS. When can U join ? Who is U'r guide ? U are from which place ? Where is it in Kerala ? How do U perform in the first two interviews ? WHy have U given Honeywell as dream job ? Some more personal questions Fourth Round (45 minutes) ------------ What do U like in Bangalore ? I said the weather and all my friends are here. Asked about my family members. How do U interact with friends ? How do adjust to a new environemnt ? Suppose U solve a problem and after that U are getting an almost same problem with high complexity ( and lower complexity). How will U approach to the next problem. What is U'r approach towards a new subject ? How do U prepare for exams ? Suppose in a project meeting, somebody fires U, how will U react ? Are U patient enought to wait in long queues ? Still some more which I don't rememebr..... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- write a C code 1.to reverse a string using a recursive function, without swapping or using an extra memory. 2.To reverse a linked list as above. given a macro like #define MAX(A,B) {to return that is larger} what will MAX(i++,j),MAX(i,j++) return. Difference between Macro and ordinary definition. Difference between Class and Struct. Testing and Maintenance.(will you work in it and what are they) Give the outputs of a compiler and assembler and loader and linker etc. If a new data structure, suppose a queue is to be added like int, long etc., where shall the changes be -- lex or yacc or where. what is a Real Time OS. Name some. Describe VRTX in few words. How does the scheduler know the time how it should be scheduled. sockets, TLI, streams. What is deadlock? How do you avoid it? What is a semaphore? What exactly happens after each system call in sockets, both at the client and at the server. What is the difference between widget & gadget in XWindows? Tell about strtok & strstr functions. Motorola Interview. There was a Technical Interview,followed by personal interview. Mainly concetrating on the interesting subjects. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **these are some of the important ques..that are asked frequently ->Why paging is used ? ->Which is the best page replacement algo and Why ? ->WHat is software life cycle ? ->How much time is spent usually in each phases and why ? ->What is testing ? ->Which are the different types of testing ? ->Which are the different phases in Software life cycle (asked again) ->Why is analysis and testing phases very important ? ->Why networks are layered ? What is the advantage of that ? ->How many layers are there in OSI ? Why is it called OSI model ? ->network topologies ? ->Which are the different network toplogies ? ->an example of bus type network. ->What is the Bandwidth of ethernet ? ->Explain the advantage and disadvantage of ethernet ? ->Which is the protocol used in ethernet. (CSMA/CD) Why is it called so ? ->What is the advantage of Ring network ? ->Compare it with ethernet. ->What is inheritance, encapsulation etc. ->If there are too many page faults what is the problem? ->To ensure one pgm. doesnt corrupt other pgm. in a Multi-pgm. enviornment what you should do? ->Which one you will use to implement critical section? Binary Semaphore -> Which one is not needed for Multi-pgm. enviornment? options are: virtual memory,security,time sharing,none of the above. ->Which one is not done by Data link layer ? bit stuffing, LRC,CRC,parity check -> Which one is not related to Data link layer? -> Which one is not suitable for client-server application? tcp/ip,message passing,rpc,none of the above. ->Term stickily bit is related to a)kernel b)undeletable file c) d)none ->semaphore variable is different from ordinary variable by ? ->unix system is a)multi processing b)multi processing ,multiuser c)multi processing ,multiuser,multitasking d)multiuser,multitasking ->x.25 protocol encapsulates the follwing layers a)network b)datalink c)physical d)all of the above e)none of the above ->TCP/IP can work on a)ethernet b)tokenring c)a&b d)none ->a node has the ip address 138.50.10.7 and 138.50.10.9.But it is transmitting data from node1 to node2only. The reason may be a)a node cannot have more than one address b)class A should have second octet different c)classB " " " " " d)a,b,c ->the OSI layer from bottom to top ->for an application which exceeds 64k the memory model should be a)medium b)huge c)large d)none ->the condition required for dead lock in unix sustem is ->set-user-id is related to (in unix) ->bourne shell has a)history record b) c) d) ->wrong statement about c++ a)code removably b)encapsulation of data and code c)program easy maintenance d)program runs faster ->which is true a)bridge connects dissimiler LANand protocol insensitive b)router " " " " " c)gateway " " " " " d)none of the above ->const char * char * const What is the differnce between the above tow?. ->In Unix inter process communication take place using?. ->About i-node numbers ->Max relaxable permisssion value with out giving write permission to others?. ->About ln(linking) ->Linking across directories?. ->process id for kernell process ->very first process created by kernell ->function to repaint a window immediately?. ->Function entry for DLL in win3.1 ->win 3.1 is a ->win 3.1 supports which type of multi tasking?. ->Message displayed when a window is destroyed ->About fork()? ->About send message and post message ->Message to limit the size of window ->System call executable binary file intoa process ->About GDI object?. ->API used to hide window ->Initialize contents of a dialog?. ---------~C SKILL SET---------- ->How do you write a program which produces its own source code as its output? ->How can I find the day of the week given the date? ->Why doesn't C have nested functions? ->What is the most efficient way to count the number of bits which are set in a value? ->How can I convert integers to binary or hexadecimal? ->How can I call a function, given its name as a string? ->How do I access command-line arguments? ->How can I return multiple values from a function? ->How can I invoke another program from within a C program? ->How can I access memory located at a certain address? ->How can I allocate arrays or structures bigger than 64K? ->How can I find out how much memory is available? ->How can I read a directory in a C program? ->How can I increase the allowable number of simultaneously open files? ->What's wrong with the call "fopen("c:\newdir\file.dat", "r")"? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technical Questions in the second round -- --------------------------------------- [1] What are the current trends and areas of focus in IT. My Ans. Talked about emerging trends of S/W Engg and ISO 9000 stuff (gave vague ideas about them as I don't know much nor do I care about these topics myself ;-)). Then mentioned the proliferation of O-O methodologies and their usefulness in speeding up development process, code re-usability, ease of maintenance, ease of bug-fixing. Thirdly, mentioned the work going on in High-Speed N/w - FDDI, ATM, Fast-Ethernet(100Mbps). Told whatever little I knew about ATM in response to another question. [2] What is a Micro-Kernel architecture. My Ans. This is a developing area in OSs where instead of building the kernel as a single monolithic structure starting from scratch, it is built as a set of layers. The micro-kernel provides only the bare-bones like Device-drivers, rudimentary filesystem support etc. on which, depending on the intended area of application of the OS, it can be customized to provide various higher level OS features like Multiprocessing, IPC, etc. Personal Questions in the second round -- -------------------------------------- 1. Tell us about yourself, your background. 2. What does your father do currently. 3. Your performance in schooling, B.E. 4. Your +/- points. 5. Why do you think Wipro should take you. 6. What qualities do you have that make you a person suitable for going into the IT industry (a corollary to the previous question). 7. What do your friends opine about you. 8. When do you think you will complete and be able to join. 9. How can you assure that you will join by that time. 10. Anything you want to know about us. } /* End of for() */ a) Describe the memory management policies in Unix. How is paging implemented? How page faults are handled? Seems to be a favorite question for these chaps ---- Maurice Bach. b) Write a macro in C for swapping two nibbles in a byte. -Use the shift operators and be careful while defining temporary variables( if you do so) as you have to write a macro. Otherwise it is pretty simple. c) What is the CPU-scheduling policy in Unix? - Round robin scheduling with multilevel queues. d) Diffrence between short term, long term and medium term scheduler. -First two should be peaceful. The last one is also known as swapper. (See Taenenbaum and/or Peterson) e) Name various page-replacement policies. Which can be implemented both with and without pre-emption? - see Peterson. f) Describe the Sliding window protocol. What is it's advantage over stop-and-wait? - Saves bandwidth. (Taenenbaum please) 2ND INTERVIEW (Both personal and technical interleaved) a) Tell us something about yourself. b) Aren't you going for higher studies abroad? Why? c) Rank and CGPA. MSites do not have ranks but still they wanted to know my approx position in my batch. - Shady question. It is your job to convince them that for MS, grades do not hold any meaning. d) What is re-entrant code? --- Non-self modifying code. Can be shared by many processes simultaneously. Gave e.g. of text-editors like 'vi'. Counter Q: But then no code modifies itself. What does 'non-self modifying' mean? ---- I don't know for sure. e) Diff between compilers and interpreters. Some fundaes about how to link code in different files. f) What would your friends tell us about you if we ask them? Standard question for everyone. Second interview: (fully personal) --- This was more interesting;-) a) What did you feel about the ppt? --- wasn't very impressive so gave some shady answer. b) Have you heard of creativity? -- Ya. Have you heard of Bernard Shaw? -- Ya. (Then he rattled off some quote of BS regarding creativity) What do you say? --- I put some shadiest fundaes regarding visionaries and Leonardo da Vinci conceptualising Helicopters in his time! ************************************************************************ NOTE: If you have been offered a job previously by any other company after your BTech/BE or if you have even slightest of work experience then make it a point to mention about it. It is a major plus point. The interviewers will be definitely interested in knowing that some other company also found you good enough to be selected. ************************************************************************ Personal Questions asked: a)question 1. Tell me about urself, family background .. 2. Btech projects and M.S. projects ( spend more time here, even if u have not done much workl; create a good impression) 3. Significant achievements in life. ( may be paper publications etc. ) 4. Why did u leave ur previous company ( If u were working) 5. What do u expect from a company ? ( like how shd be the work environment etc. etc. ) ************************************************************************ Technical Questions asked: 1. Explain your project 2. What are your areas of interest in Appli Prog Personal Questions asked: 1. Introduce yourself 2. Why do you want to join INFOSYS 3. Do you have a passport 4. Have you taken GRE/TOEFL 5. Will you go abroad 6. Which prog is better - MTech or MS 7. Which prog do people prefer - MTech or MS 8. Why Personal Questions asked: a)Which other companies are you applying to? in interview a)question my weakness, kinds of friendship, family details b) response They are impressed if one presents papers. I have presented conference papers in the national level. Generally most of the companies asks about the project. Regarding other technical questions, they put questions on the courses I did. B) Personal ----------- i) Tell us something about yourself. (This has to be there) ii) Strengths and weaknesses (This question also disguised in various forms is always asked). iii) Why should we hire you? iv) Can you describe your project in short? v) Why did you take 2-1/2 years to complete (My case!) vi) If given the job when can you join. (Caution: Don't think that if you give some unreal early deadlines they will offer you the job. Always play safe and give a deadline by which time you are sure to complete and join. Asking for extensions is the worst scenario). Tips: Be confident, frank (But need not give away information which may weigh against your case), free (use first names while addresing them, so be alert when they introduce themselves) and cheerful (attend an interview with a positive frame of mind). Remember you are IITians and you always have an edge. That may sound arrogant, but its true.