My Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) interview

After the selection in the written test on the previous day, we were present at the central library of our college at 9AM where campus interviews were supposed to be conducted in the discussion rooms. We were waiting for the TCS interviewers to come. Some of my friends were rigorously preparing at that moment, recalling all the C programs, aptitude questions etc., with full of tension, till they came at last around 11:30. Finally after settling down, the interviews started from 11:50. There came the first hurdle…

THE TECHNICAL ROUND

Students of each branch were sent to an interviewer of the respective background, ours being ECE. After a long wait, I, finally, was allowed to appear in front of the first interviewer in my life.

1)      The first question – Tell me about yourself

This seems very simple; people usually think they can spontaneously answer this question without any prior preparation, but NO! This has to be well prepared, in fact, better than all others. Our preparation should be such that we can talk about it at least 10 to 15 minutes. The content can include the basic introduction (native place, your percentage if you like, and parents’ occupation; no need to tell their names), school life, our interests during school, why we chose this college for engineering, why we took our branch, our present interests, hobbies, achievements etc.

2)      There is question generally asked for most of the people - why are you here for a software job (in case you are not from CSE or IT)

My answer was like this: when I was to make choice between CSE and ECE during my joining of the college, I had no clear idea of which branch is what, and further, I was told that if I took ECE, I could go to either a core or a software job. But in case I took CSE, I would have no option for a core job. So I preferred ECE! (Before they could pose me this question, I merged this answer in my bio data)

3)      Selecting a familiar subject to ask questions in

The interviewer saw my resume for the interested topics I mentioned there, and asked to choose a subject, not mentioned in that list. Generally software professionals don’t deal with core subjects during their work in TCS, and so they obviously have very little knowledge in them. Thinking as such, I replied “EMF theory”. He said, “Aah! That’s somewhat complicated subject... Let me test you in Digital circuits,” he proceeded with those all-time expected questions - the race-around condition in flip-flops, what are universal gates and why are they called so? Give me an example of making OR operation using NAND gates… etc. They mainly check for confidence levels, not the correctness of the answers. If they point out one of our answers to be wrong, without hesitation, we need to put an “okay, no problem” kind of expression and say “ok sir, I’ll refer to it once again.” We’re done.

4)      Main/mini project

He asked me to draw the circuit diagram of my mini project and explain it. I was confidently drawing some circuit, which, he thought, was absolutely correct. A minimum relevance must be maintained of course, and I explained the basic concept (it was FM transmitter). No questions on main project for me.

5)      Questions in C

By this stage, he was confident enough that I had good technical knowledge, so he skipped asking me questions in C. But all of my friends had them…

Now, I was immediately sent to the next round.

THE MANAGERIAL ROUND

This time I had an old person as interviewer, he asked me the same question – tell me about yourself. And then he asked, “Assume that you are working as a team leader in TCS. You are supposed to deliver your project (a code) to your client tomorrow. But the code is accidentally deleted by one of your team members. What will be your reaction? (Will you scold him or not?)”

I said, “I will not scold him. But first of all, such situation will not happen with me at all because I will have its daily back up safe with me.”

He added, “What if the whole system in the office crashes? Such things happen too… Then what about the project? What will you tell the client?”

I said, “I will ask the client to extend the time for a few days.”

He further added, “Then can you manage to write all the code your team has developed all the time in just those ‘few’ days? And also, because you delayed this time, the client will not give projects to you from the next time… What about that?”

I didn’t know what to say, but the correct answer could have been “Yes, as our team worked all the time on the project, we would be much familiar with the code and also with the most possible occurrences of errors in it, so unlike the first time, it won’t take much time to write again. Regarding future projects, I won’t lose them because I assure better quality in my products than anyone else. So I will not lose clients.”

This question is further debatable, but he stopped here. Then I was asked to wait for the last round.

THE HR ROUND

After a long wait, I finally entered. The HR person was a young lady. She queried about my percentage, hobbies and interests I have put in my resume, and then asked “Why do you think we should give you job in this company? How can you prove yourself better than others?”

I said “My thinking is in an innovative way.”

She said, “How?”

After thinking for some time, I said, “I used to write C programs innovatively.”

She said, “Well, fine, then write this program innovatively” and gave me this…

main()

{

      printf(“Hello”);

}

I remembered my roommate telling me how to write a program without using a semicolon. I applied it here…

main()

{

      if( printf(“Hello”) )

      {

      }

}

She was well impressed with my answer. She proceeded with a traditional logical question, “Suppose there are two rooms A and B, with their doors closed, and two keepers, one in front of each. There is a lion in one of the rooms, and you need to find out which room it is in, by asking one of the keepers only one question. But you know that there’s a problem here… One of the keepers always tells truth and the other always tells false. And you don’t know who is who. What will be your question to find out where the lion is?”

I was aware of this question earlier, but in the act of creating a scene as if this were the first time I was listening to it, I asked her to repeat.

I think unless with prior knowledge, possibly, no one can answer it. I answered, “I will say to one of the keepers as follows: ‘Ask the other keeper where the lion is, and tell me what he says’.” This is the only answer to the question. And if you want to see how it came, just be clear with the question again. The explanation is as follows:

Suppose the lion is in room A. Let me denote the truth telling keeper with ‘T’ and false telling keeper with ‘F’.

(i)                 Suppose I approached T and asked the question. He asks F where the lion is. F shows the room B. Now, T comes to me and shows the room B.

(ii)               Suppose I approached F and asked the question. He asks T where the lion is. T shows the room A. Now, F comes to me and because he has to tell false, shows me the room B.

Now it is clear, the room opposite to what they show is the lion’s room.

She was further impressed. She said, “So you prove you are innovative…” I took chance, and added, “Yes, ma’am, and there’s a good opportunity for innovative people to shine in TCS. For example, our present CEO Mr. N. Chandrasekharan might have been very innovative, so he could become CEO of the company in just 22 years after he joined TCS.”

Some of my friends were asked questions like “How do you want to see yourself in the next 5 years” or “after 10 years?” Be cautious, they may definitely not select us if we say answers like “I want to start my own company”, or “I will go for higher studies”, or “MBA”, etc.

She asked me if I was willing to sign a 2 year bond agreement with TCS there itself (on the spot). I said “yes.” This was a test too, to ensure our willingness.

She asked, “If, after working for 2 years in this company, if you get an offer from Infosys with a higher salary, what will you do?”

I replied, “I will not go ma’am, because being at only one company alone causes quick development and promotions will be faster.”

Finally, she asked me whether I had any doubts regarding the job in TCS. It’s always better to ask something. I asked “What is the kind of work that I will be assigned in TCS?”I didn’t really listen to what she said. I was in the joy that I did very well in the interview. I came out soon, thinking I will surely be selected. So was I.

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