Adobe Interview Experience | Offcampus (7 months experience)

How I got to know about the opportunity?

I got to know about this opening from LinkedIn posts. It was an offcampus opportunity for the position of Member of Technical Staff (MTS) for 2021 batch. The opening was listed on firstnaukri website. I applied directly and 1 week later I got mail from firstnaukri that I have been shortlisted for the test.

My background:

I completed my B. Tech from Chandigarh group of Colleges, Landran (CGC Landran) in 2021 in CSE branch. After that I joined Infosys as a specialist programmer and working on full stack projects. I use C++ for normal DSA coding and have projects in Android using Java and XML, and full stack projects using MERN stack. I also used to do competitive programming on CodeChef and have a 4 star rating there.

Round 1: Online Test

There were 32 questions in this test and the time given was 90 mins. Test pattern: 2 coding questions, 10 aptitude questions, 10 English and 10 logical reasoning.

The questions were not that hard. Anyone with regular practice could solve them.

Next day I got mail that I have been shortlisted for the interviews and 2 back to back interviews will happen 4 days later (5th May).

Round 2: Technical interview (5th May, 9 am)

The interviewer introduced himself then asked about my introduction. Then we proceeded with the interview. Questions asked:

• Given an array of float numbers and a number k, you can take any number from the array and reduce it to its half. Repeat the process and make all the numbers less than or equal to k. Find the minimum number of operations.
• Given a binary tree, check whether it is bst or not.
• Explain any project of yours.
• Why do you want to switch from Infosys?
• Any questions for me?

I asked about his journey so far with Adobe and is there any difference between SDE and MTS (he said no difference). The interview went around for about 50 mins.

Round 3: Technical interview (5th May, 10 am)

This time there was no introduction. He directly began by asking questions from project. Then he asked what is favorite language and rate yourself out of 10 in it. I said C++ and rated myself 8/10. He grilled me a lot on the internals of C++ like:

• What is red black tree? Difference between avl tree and red black tree?
• How is avl tree balanced? Time complexity of insertion in avl tree?
• Implement compile time polymorphism and run time polymorphism.
• Clone a linked list with random pointer. I did it by using one additional map. Then he asked to clone without taking any additional map.
• One more coding question. (I don’t remember)
• Then he asked me to rate my performance in this interview and give feedback about him(interviewer) also.

I said that “I couldn’t answer some of the questions related to C++ internals but I think I did pretty well in coding questions”. And about him I jokingly said, “I didn’t expect you would grill me so much on the avl and red black trees”. Then he replied that you rated yourself 8 that’s why I grilled you. Then we both laughed.

Honestly, this round was the hardest round for me. Then around 11:30 am I got call that are you available for the third round at 12:30 pm. I asked if it is final round, they said yes. So I replied, Yes I am available.

Round 4: Technical interview with Manager (5th May, 12:30 pm)

First she introduced herself then asked my introduction. She asked how was your day so far. How did the interview rounds went. Questions asked:

• Tell me about experience in Infosys. What is your tech stack and training?
• Asked about my project. How I got the idea and which technologies I used?
• Given an array. Find the unique numbers and you cannot modify the array. She said give me the most optimized approach.
• Then she asked me to design a download manager.

I honestly told her that “I have never encountered a system design question before. So can you please tell me like what details are you expecting in my answer?”. Then she provided me some hints and somehow I managed to give a reasonable answer. The interview went for around 40 mins.

Next day I got a call to provide some details like address, notice period, expected joining date, etc… So that we can release your offer letter.

Tips from my side:

• Be mentally prepared to give 3–4 rounds in a single day.
• Honesty is the best policy. If you don’t know any answer, accept it and tell them. You can ask for hints or they will change the question.
• During interview, don’t jump straight to the solution. First reiterate the question, ask for edge cases. Tell them about what assumptions you are making.
• Think out loud. Convey your though process like how you are arriving at the solution. Start with brute force then keep improving the solution further.
• Don’t hesitate to ask for clarifications and hints about the question.