We started with the Pre-placement talk. It was a really long and informative one, I should say. We noticed a crazy thing which happened. First Directi puts no restriction on gpa, branch etc. Then suddenly after the ppt, they realized that they are running short of question papers. They tell us that those who do not have any knowledge of Linux, or programming can leave coz they won't make through for sure (You could have told that earlier). In fact they started distributing t-shirts to people who wanted to leave.(Good strategy I should say)
The written round started. If you want to clear the written, please please go through previous years papers, Sameer's blog (Google it). Many were repeated. Infact, I didn't take Unix but was able to answer since I had seen them before. Questions like what does ps do, ls * do, kill do. Also another tip is to go through the whole paper.
For example i remember 1 question where they asked
what command is used to get file status
options: stat, ps ,kill, None
I knew it wasn't kill , had confusion between stat and ps. When I went through the other questions, there was one question related to ps and I understood what ps does, thus stat was the answer. So it can be cracked using COMMON SENSE also at some points.
After this we had the rigorous coding round. I expected algorithmic challenges but what came was different
Implement the find command of unix in any language
You should get it by using "man find" and help (everything is there..pretty simple)
Cleared it too.
My profile was filled with web-dev projects like GSoC and other portals built. 1st round was cool. I talked about GSoC and other projects. Was asked basic Networking questions TCP/UPD/ why tcp why not udp. why udp why not tcp, DNS, DHCP etc etc
Made it to next round.
Now I had finished my first interview at 6:30 pm and then my next interview was at 10:30 pm.
Let me explain. They were interviewing other candidates and if they liked them, they were called in again for next round and next round. By the time I had my second interview, all were done with their third rounds as well.
2nd interview was BAD.
I talked about MVC frameworks, Codeigniter, had used it. He asked me if I can think of MVC being applied to any other place other than building web-apps. I told mobile apps. He asked me the difference structure wise of MVC in mobile-apps and web-apps. Clueless. Next he went deep into DNS, routing, nameservers, DHCP, switching and things like that. Phew. Next he started talking about Booting (mostly related to Grub).
I was done with this. I knew I won't make through.
Another really frustrating thing which I experienced was this. There was one lady whose major role was to communicate to the students (if they didn't make through to the next round- basically telling good-bye in a pleasing way). So after my interview was done, she called the other people who had completed 3-4 rounds and bid them good-bye(they were not selected). 1 person made through and was selected.
I was waiting to be called. They didn't call me at all. My 2nd round interviewers come and tell me "You're a great web-programmer but you don't fit this profile correctly".
Directi, this is what your company ethics is. You make a guy wait for 6-7 hours for his 2nd interview. You don't treat him in the same way the others are treated and then 2 people come up and say that I don't fit the profile. It took them 6-7 hours to understand that.