In December 2019, I came across Nasdaq Intern Hiring Challenge on HackerEarth. It was organized by Nasdaq to hire interns for Summers 2020.
Round 1
It was 2.5 hours long online round, conducted in December 2019. The test consisted of around 20 technical MCQs on UNIX commands, Networking, Java, and so on. Also, there were 3 coding questions of medium-hard difficulty level. I was able to solve 2 questions completely and one partially.
In April I was informed that I’m shortlisted and my interviews will take place from coming Monday. There were various projects available based on the skill set and I was asked to pick two. I selected Business Intelligence Developer as my first preference and UI Development as my second preference.
Round 2 (UI Development)
It was a technical interview round scheduled in mid-April on Zoom. It lasted for 90 minutes. The interview started with the interviewer asking me for a quick introduction. Then he asked me about my projects mentioned in the resume. We ended up discussing my projects at length. There were also theoretical questions covering OOPs and Data Structures. Then he asked me 3 coding questions which were of easy-medium difficulty level. I had to write the entire code using the concept of OOPs.
I wasn’t expecting coding questions in this interview for UI Development, but since I was active in April LeetCoding Challenge (solve one question every day), it helped me a lot! I mean, I was able to convert my logic into code within minutes. This definitely impressed the interviewer. Plus, the interviewer was really cool.
Round 2 (BI Developer)
It was a technical interview round scheduled in mid-April on Zoom. The duration was 30 minutes. There were two interviewers from Nasdaq New York office. They mostly asked me about my past experience with handling data. And also, about my skill set. I explained some of my projects involving extensive preprocessing involved.
The next day I got the call from HR! She said I am offered the BI Developer role. Since it was my first preference, I accepted the offer and didn’t appear for the final interview round of the UI Development role.
Tips
- Consistent practice from LeetCode/GeeksforGeeks, or be it some other platform you like.
- The interviews can vary a lot from role to role as you can see from my experience. So prepare accordingly.
- Interviewers don’t expect interns to know everything. So be genuine and show enthusiasm to learn everything required from you.
- Stay composed and maintain a decent smile.
- Always keep at least 2 questions ready for the interviewer. This shows your interest to work in their company.
The next day I got the call from HR! She said I am offered the BI Developer role. Since it was my first preference, I accepted the offer and didn’t appear for the final interview round of the UI Development role.