Its not very often that a company like amazon…would come to DCE and ask for interns. Had always heard of how amazon loves to play with the third years…how they choose them..and then cutm them one by one in the tedious interviews. These guys love interviewing…(seems like they all wanted to be Journalists like me…..<hey…that actually makes me one o them>
) But then I realised it took a little more.
They began with these written papers…two papers (Short answers and subjective 45 minutes each..) which I managed to qualify with a score of 8 on 25 (Just think the standards..) It was 6 of us…me, AP…and 4 people from Comp. A sleepless night ….the charm of qualifying for an interview….no matter how much I deny the facts or try and remain composed…I was excited!
The day came…and the interviews began…with me!*^&*&%%@%
“Guys..after they interview me..dont expect anything ..just remain calm and leave” i said
Someone shouted “So you being such an ass already?”
“Oh..u didnt got it. Once they are done with me…they..would run for their own brains”
This guy opens the door for me (He was an usher or what..?) and I enter to look at a Dell inspiron..waiting for its owner. And this usher in sneakers happened to be one.
“This is Abhishek..How are you Prateek”
I resisted my urge to say call me nigam…and we began with the interview.
“So…tell me something about your …. interests..academic ofcourse”
“I love algorithms…..and data structures…and programming.” Where do all the subjects run away when you need to recall them??
“And i love algorithms…and I just love programming” (I have been simulating some stupid LRU things in my OS lab….Damn….I love programming)
“Any special research interests..?”
“I am not a research guy..I just love algorithms” (God…I overconfessed my love for algorithms..I dont even ove them so much)
Question 1…..
“ererererer……ererer…erer…complexity…..wtf^&$^&?”
Question 2…
Kidding??? Complexity again?
and 4 more questions….followed.
I offered them solutions…I did…I aint that bad. But every thing boiled down to complexity and order..and time…and memory. I was expected to come up with “efiicieeeeeeeennnnnt algos like tannebaum”
It was an average interview….I managed to do traversals right…and somehow fitted a BST in a question. It wasnt that bad to be a first interview…until…
“Whats the comlexity prateek…for the problem”
“Sir there are added costs of the BST i employed”
“O(n logn) it is”
“hmm….O(n logn) it is”
“Tell me how?”
“Welll.,…power of two…so logn has to come. right”
“And how does the n come?”
“You have been saying n logn for quiet a while…so I guess n logn it is!!”
It definitely made him smile…”So am I hijacking your mind?”
“You are my first interviewer…you are bound to”
“It was all right….as far as first interview are concerned…all the best then”
I waited and waited….
I spotted my interviewer…twice outside the hall. I gestured…a friendly nod of acquaintance…and I got acknowledged too. Somewhere…I expected to get shortlisted for panel interview.
But…we all got cut but the COE topper. Interviewd twice…and thrice as we sit and observe in silence. Somewhere…we knew..ok..it is over. But still lets wait for the official word.
And then came the official word..
“You..people faired well. But..may be next year when you focus more on the core basic concepts. Thats it for today thank you”
Am I jealous….yes I am. I mean…so close…
I deserve my every right to be jealous!
Do I think it was fair?
No. But company must have had their own reasons. What is fair by the way?
Was it a good experience?
If you breath for an experience…. ,fail and die then?
No consolations required.