19th August 2011, 6:00
am
The day started
with a sudden sense of excitement and fear :) I thought i will go through my
projects once but couldnt because there was no time. I got ready, prayed to God
and left hostel for Training and placement dept with my Roommate ( who go in
also :) ). When i was about to enter the dept a small drop of water fell on my
forehead from the shed outside the dept, rain water , I just smiled and thought
it as if it was like a blessing from the heaven :) . We reached there around 7:45 am and the company people were already
there and waiting for someone to open the department (They were on time for the
the third time ! ).
They collected
our MS resume and went in for a discussion to allot candidates to the panel for
the first round of technical interview.
1st TECHNICAL
INTERVIEW ( Duration: 45 mins approx,one interviewer):
The first
interview was pretty simple and they asked just the basic questions like:
(since i chose
to write a C technical paper in the written round, i had to give the interview
for C,C++ language but you can choose to change it if you need!).
Ques 1. Write the
functions to implement a queue using a array.
So, i wrote both
enqueue and dequeue with respective overflow and underflow conditions.
He suggested
what if the queue should never overflow unless you run out of memory ?
Its like growing
the queue towards the rear side infinitely so i could only suggest one
solution:
creating the
queue as a linked list where we can delete node elements from the front ( where
in array memory will be lost forever if we move the front ) and then we can
grow the linked list from the read side as much as we want.
but there can be
an another solution as well :
using realloc()
we can actually give more memory to the array where the earlier elements remain
as it is.
Ques 2. PUZZLE: There
is an array with elements from 1 to some integer 'n' and one of those numbers
is being over written by some other number in the sequence like:
for n=3 array
should be 1,2,3
but actually it
is 1,2,2 where 2 was copied over 3.
So the question
was to determine the missing number.
As i approached
the question i saw that the problem can be simplified if the array is sorted.
So i asked if i
can assume the array is sorted and he said yes lets assume it is.
at that time i
can think of two solutions:
a. lets say the array is like 1,2,3,4,4,6,7,8 for n=8
you can compare
consecutive array elements to find if we
get a duplicate. This can be done O(n) time.
b. Lets take the
same array as above and use a Divide and Conquer approach.
ie lets find the
middle index 'x' of the array and compare the value of index x with value at
index x+1 and x-1. If we can find consecutive numbers we are done! else we
divide the array into two left and right array and continue to do the same
until we have 3 elements in an array. This approach will take O(lg n) time.
But what if the
array is not sorted! My friend suggested that we can find the product of 1 to n
array elements and that will be (n! ) ie n factorial and we can find the
product of the actual array given, lets say 'P' Then when we divide (n! /P) the
numerator will give the missing number and the denominator will give the
repeated number. This approach will again take O(n) time in execution.
Ques 3. There were
questions on OOPS(General definitions), pointers.
Ques 4.Difference
between calloc() and malloc()
ans :
a. calloc
initialize the allocated memory with 0(zero) while malloc just fill it with
garbage.
b. calloc takes
the number and type of data as arguments while malloc takes the number of
bytes.
c. calloc may or
may not allocate contiguous memory locations but malloc always allocate contiguous memory locations.
Please suggest
if you know more.
Ques 5. What is the
difference between Static and a global variable in c.
ans:
a. static
variables local to the block are initialized only once for recursive calls.
b. static
variables remain in memory till the program in execution exits but cannot be
used outside its scope where as global variables are global in scope and can be
used anywhere.
I think initial
questions took more time and rest were easy. There was a catch that different
panels were asking different questions and puzzles so this information is just
about one panel. My interview went well overall.
First round of
technical interview ended around 10 30 am and they marked it as a elimination
round, at 1 pm when they announced the results out of 27 people (who cleared
the written) only 15 went through to the other rounds for further process. My
name was second on the list but i dont know if they ordered it according to
some score or just like in a random order.
Anyways in
another 30 minutes they gave us a FORM to be filled which had the following
questions:
1. Why do you
want to join morgan stanley?
2. Are you
willing to relocate to mumbai ?( if applicable)
3. Tell us about
your technical/ business projects.
4. Tell us about
your interests and hobbies
5. Mention if
you read any books/ magazines.
6. Do you hold
an offer from any other company? YES or NO.
And then it was
followed by a very interesting GROUP TASK.
It was not a
group discussion but a group task. Let me tell about it in detail.
There were 8
people in the group and there were 8 printed sheets with rough sheets, pastel
colors, some wooden cuboid shape blocks and white board markers on the table.
The printed
sheet stated :
You have to
design a LOGO and write a Slogan and a marketing strategy for the Technology
division of Morgan Stanley. The logo must comply with the virtues of the
company as:
*integrity
*ownership
* being a leader
*work life
balance
(there was one
more which i dont remember now )
there was also a
condition that if you dont make anything you will be disqualified from the
selection process.
GROUP TASK 1st ROUND (
Duration : 15 mins):
This was
individual level round where all the 8 people read the question ( the question
was of full 1 A4 sheet ) and design a logo and think of a slogan and marketing
strategy.
My design was a
M with a tilted S joined to M ( like a italic S with M ) with a globe balanced
on the S.
I filled the
globe with blue and green color ( according to my home work it shows integrity and
uplifting )
Wrote MS with
bold lines to show ownership and colored M alphabet like it is wearing a
jacket to show the charisma of a leader using a purple color.
the border or
the logo was bright logo showing vision and innovation.
and my slogan
was : put clients first/one client at a time ( for which my logic was that the
firm wont exist without clients ! ).
and somehow i
forget about the marketing strategy :P may be i skipped it while reading the
question itself :P
They gave like
only 10 minutes for the round saying that we have to cut the deadlines in the
industry many a times :P.
GROUP TASK 2nd ROUND
(Duration : 20 mins):
They made two
groups of 4 people and we were again given 20 minutes to do the same job. They
were observing us very closely, listening to every word you say there. I
presented my logo,slogan and the reason behind it to the three other people in
the group and then asked for what they did in the last round.
One guy just
wrote MS++ as the logo
with ++ meaning we are moving forward. One guy made a logo filled with Acronyms
but he also gave a acronym COMBINE with all the alphabets meaning something
which later became the marketing strategy. The last guy tried making a logo
with those cuboidal wooden blocks but was just like that. The round ended in
like 15 minutes or so and not after 20 minutes as told before.
GROUP TASK 3rd
ROUND(Duration : 20 min):
They made all
the 8 people in the room discuss about the Logo, slogan and the marketing
strategy. This was the time when actually noticed that there was actually a
marketing strategy to be decided. I presented my logo and mentioned how i
incorporated all the virtues in my logo which other people didnt really think
about it. We spent some time on the logo then moved on to slogan, we had many
ideas and it was truly an interactive session. 6 out of 8 people were talking
like anything and being intelligent we were able to reach a conclusion on logo,
slogan and the marketing strategy. This round actually went on even after 20
minutes.
After the 3rd
round they made us sit silently for some 10 minutes (not touching any paper on
the table) while they were writing about on our sheets. Then they asked us to
present whatever we decided on . I presented the logo which was a little
different than what i designed and did show off some of my knowledge of MS
total revenue and net profit which doing so.
In the end they asked us questions
like:
a. How was it
while you were working in the group of 4?
b.Do you think
you all compromised to reach the conclusion?
c.They asked
individually if you think you would like to change anything ?
d.They asked if
you can make it any better what would you do ?
Then they asked
us to leave. It was an hour and 15 minute of a real interactive session and my
throat was really parched after it:P
Then we thought
after such a group task they might just let go of the 2nd technical round and
just eliminate people and send the rest for the HR but they were up for a 2nd
technical round! and what hell mind bending experience it was !
2nd TECHNICAL
ROUND:
I just thought
.. just be calm and get it over with but it was not actually a very light thing
but to test your patience and your way of thinking in the real way. Questions
were such which you will never see in a normal exam or which you will never
expect before sitting for a company. First question was pretty simple "Are
you a Sindhi?" :P haha .. Ok let me give you the questions :P
Question: Tell
me what happens when after you compile
and run a C++ program ?
My answer: The
source program is broken down into token and parse trees are formed for the
expressions, actually called lexical analysis and then linker and loader comes
into play. the compiler create a .obj file and then a .exe file is generated
when we run the program.
Question:When we
say #include<stdio.h> do you include all the file or just the functions
used in your program?
My answer: I
dont know why i was confused in this but i said that only the functions used in
the programs get added to the code in the final exe, we had a lot of discussion
and he tried to convince me by giving an example of late binding where the call
to the function depend on the base class or the derived class function, so
because of the dependencies we should include base class as well in the code
and not just the derived class.
I argued can the
compiler not deduce all the dependencies ( like one function depend on other
function to do its work) and include all the functions used and the other
functions on which they depend. In the end i have to say that "What i said
earlier was wrong and what you said was correct".. he just replied with a
" Its okay " :P ...
Question: PUZZLE
: You have a Stack that can grow indefinitely and and infinite number of
elements are getting pushed into it. There is a random event and when it occurs
an element is popped from the stack and at that moment you have to find the
minimum element of the stack. Tell me how will you go about it. algorithm is
not needed.
( this question
is just to check how do you think about the problems at hand).
My answer:
I initially took
a "min" variable that will store the min of the stack at any time and
everytime a new element is added it will be compared to the minimum and
accordingly the value of min will be updated. So as a counter question he asked
if you can find the disadvantages of this approach. I found out "what if
the element to be popped out is the minimum element?" we will loose the
minimum of the stack. So, why dont we keep last n minimum for N minimum of the
stack. its like creating another inifinite stack and pushing the minimum value
in it everytime a new element is pushed into it. So whenever a random even
occurs " and element is popped from both the stacks" and then the
element at the top of the 2nd stack will be the minimum element then.
Still the stack
uses infinite space. please suggest a better approach than this if you can.
Let say :
a.
Stack 1 : 5
Stack 2:5
b.
Stack 1: 5 ,2
Stack 2:5,2
c.
Stack 1:5,2,6
Stack 2: 5,2,2
d.
Stack 1:5,2,6,7
Stack 2:5,2,2,2
e.
Stack
1:5,2,6,7,1
Stack
2:5,2,2,2,1
There was a
issue of syncronization also as in when are you checking the minimum ie before
or after the random event. So i said we can use "Syncronized" key
word for the stack access but he asked me " Do you want me to take an
interview in java ? " to which i politely denied :P . So in C++ we can
have semaphores and he asked about difference between mutex and semaphore and
if mutex is a semaphore.
Question:
Dynamic memory allocation
If we write:
int* ptr=new
int;
ptr++;
the code as we
know will access a illegal memory access but can the compiler know it at
compile time ?
My Answer:
I argued : if we
write int *ptr=new int[n];
then do a ptr
++;
Then the value
"n" must be taken as input from user at runtime and until that value
is known new cannot assign a memory address ( if it doesnt fail ) to the ptr
and only after that ptr++ will be an illegal memory access. So there must be a
genralization of everything so the statement in the question must also detemine
a illegal memory access on runtime only. Also since new allocate memory at
runtime the illegal memory exception will be thrown at runtime only.
But then he
argued since the compiler knows that (if at all) the new operator will allocate
memory of just 2 bytes to ptr so can it not know that there is a illegal memory
access at compile time ?
There was a lot
of discussion on this point and i literally got him confused :P to which he
said "You are confused and you are confusing me as well" to which i
said " No sir i m not confused ! " haha :) I later said yes since
size of int is known to the compiler at compile time by some code optimization
the compiler can actually detect a illegal memory access at compile time.
Question: How
does the compiler distinguish the call to the overloaded functions ?
My Answer: lets
say there is a function void abc(int,int) and void abc(float) then when the
program is compiled the compiler actually change the name of the functions, as
in the 1st function name will be like abc_int_int and second function name will
be like abc_float to distinguish between the two and this naming process is
called name mangling ( i think ! ).
Question:PUZZLE:
There is a infinite while loop with a statement like int *temp=malloc(some_bytes);
in it.
So when you run
this program the system will ultimately run out of memory and the program will
stop.
So if you have
two systems with 1 GB memory and a 2GB memory on which one the program will run
out of memory first ? assume there are no other processes running.
( the question
actually demands that you find constraints ( whatever) under which the system
will run out of memory in the 1 GB system )
My answer:
I said if the
program is running under a JVM environment, it depends how much memory is
allocated to the JVM and it will not depend on the memory of the system ( WHICH
WAS WRONG BECAUSE YOU CANNOT ALLOCATE MEMORY USING MALLOC IN JAVA). He again
said " Do you want me to take your interview in java ?" :P To which i
politely declined again ! so he asked what will happen in c++ ?. Since the end
result of a c++ is a .exe file so the operating system must allocate mermory.
The second
constraint that came to my mind was then concept of User Memory and System
Memory. it will depend on the system which has a smaller user memory, which
ever has will run out first since the user program will execute in user memory
only, to this he said lets say operating system takes zero memory then answer
the question.
said 1 GB will run out first.
He again said
you have studied Computer architecture try thinking in that direction.
The third
constraint i could think of the RAM .. which ever system will have a smaller
RAM will crash first since secondary memory cannot play any role in the program
execution.
He literally
asked then " can you think of any more constraints to answer the
question?"
I said " no
nothing else is coming to my mind right now".
Well this was
the end of the technical interview. I asked him " how was my
performance?" to which he answered "that you will get to know in the
evening" ( with a smile :) .
I came out of
the room all drained out and my friends told me mine was the longest interview
till now .. almost one and half hour! even i was amazed ! I just sat there for
like 15 minutes and i was called for the HR round and the Executive Directorhe
(literally 7 ft tall) was there to tke
my HR :P ( which i didnt know then :P )
HR Interview (
Duration : 30 minutes )
He started by
asking about the software development cycle, all the seven steps
1. Requirement
gathering
2.Requirement
analysis ( he asked what tools would you use for this ! meetings and
Questionaires )
3.Design ( he
asked what tools you will use for this ! DFDs and ERDs)
To which he
asked what do you think comes first design or architecture ?
I said design
comes first to which he argues shouldnt the architecture come first ? like you
create a blue print of the home and then create it ? is it not like that ? I
dont know what i answered for that ! :P
He then asked
what is a DBMS?
At this point i
was confused if this was a HR round or a 3rd technical round !! anyway i
answered what a DBMS is .
He again asked
what is Relational Database ?
I told him the
definition of a relation and then i dont know why i said " i dont
know", my mind was not working at all !
He asked me
about my projects. I stated all of them except my java speech to text and text
to speech convertor to which he asked have you not done any object oriented
projects ? then i said yes i did one in java too! but he was not really interested
in the content of the projects ( in total nobody asked about what i did in the
projects ).
Then he started
with the real HR !
Q. Who do you think is a leader ?
Answer : i was
really prepared for this one !! i chose 3 leaders and stated their qualities
real well to show all the qualities of a leader ie charisma, inspiration
,innovation , will power, pointing to the right way.
Q. what is a
difference between a leader and a manager ?
Answer: i said a
leader is someone which points its followers in the right direction and inspire
them to innovate and work well whereas a manager is someone who manages
resources. A leader can or i should say should be a manager but a manager may
not be a leader always.
Q. Do you think
you are a leader ?
Answer : I can
be a leader if the situation demands me to . If there is a dire need that i
should stand up i will !
Q. Why Morgan
Stanley?
Answer: I
studied a long history of MS last night so i just threw it all up saying that i
think i will get more opportunities in future since MS is such a well reputated
firm, when i entered NITK i found myself among people with so diverse thinking
and now if i join you i will get a chance to meet even more technologically
diverse people which i think which be a good exposure.
Q. What
motivates you ?
Answer: I said
my curiosity to gain more and more knowledge and gave an example how i started
loving economics when i studied it in my grad college.
Q. Where do you
see yourself after 5 years ?
Answer: i said
diplomatically that i dont really care about what profile you are offering me,
till now i have done just so small level projects and i have no experience so
when i join a company i know i will get to learn more and more so even after 5 years i think i will just be
learning and there is no upper limit to learning :)
( i dont know i
think he repeated this question ! )
In the end he
asked me if i have any questions to which i asked him ( my bad luck ! i was
asking because i wanted to sound curious :P )
Ques. Tell me
something about the work culture of the company ?
He questioned me back ! Were you not there in
the PPT last evening ? i discussed everything !
And i was
actually not there so i just apologized and said that was my bad :P remember i
was half and hour late and still couldnt understand a word because of the echo
:P anyway he answered my question.
i again asked
Ques. Tell me
about the technologies that i will be working on?
To which he
again said you should have discussed the PPT part with your collegues even if
you werent there ! (i was like SHIT ! what the hell i m doing ! ) he anyways
answered that as well !
i asked again ..
Ques. how it is
to be a beginner in MS ?
( Ohh that was
wrong again !) He again said you should ask your collegues about the PPT. i
discuseed everything yesterday .
After 3 wrong
questions i thought i should just say a thank you and get out :P and that is
what i did :P
After so much of
drama and saying " i dont know " , " i was wrong " and asking so many wrong questions :P i was having
a very negative feeling that i may not get in
.. there were 15 people till the last round and it was like they might
just select 7 at max. I was roaming around in the campus with my friends after
being drained out of life ! :P and then i was just about to return to my Hostel
Room I got a call that made my heart go easy ... I was selected ! along with my
roommate Vijay :)
