My Summer 2021 Internship Interview Experience

Hello, this is my software engineering internship journey fails (and successes) in 2021!

Google SG (STEP) - Rejected (Online Test)

• Technical Test: 2 questions, 1 hour ish

Where I Failed:

To be honest with you, this was only for click bait. I failed the online test miserably.

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GDP Labs (SDE) - Offer

• Technical Test: 4 questions, 2 hours
• Technical Interview: 2 questions + 1 OOP

Where I Succeed:

Prior knowledge of BFS and Bucket Sort.

Takeaways

Technical test was pretty hard, solved 2 and partially solved 2.

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Garena SG (BE) - Rejected (Technical Interview 1)

• Technical Test: 2 questions, 1 hour
• Technical Interview: 1 question

Where I Failed:

Didn't know how to solve leetcode's Basic Calculator.

Takeaways:

Interviewer was super nice, actually learned alot about postfix and infix notation.

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Shopee ID (SAP) - Rejected (HR Interview)

• Online Test: UTBK TPA style test
• HR Interview: 10 minutes

Where I Failed:

Recruiter: Why did you apply for SAP?
Me: Oh, I heard from my friend that it's good

That was my blunder, that should've been my supporting answer. A good answers would've been I see SAP as an opportunity for me to grow and experience real-work projects. and then my original answer.

Takeaways:

Super fast HR round, SAP doesn't have an engineering program.

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Microsoft ID (Specialist) - Offer

• HR Interview
• Lead & Director Interview

Takeaways:

Offer deadline was super fast, decided not to take it as I wanted to experience more interviews (it was worth it). Plus, this was not a Software Engineering position. Also, surprisingly no technical questions.

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Dekoruma (SE) - Offer

• Technical Interview: 2 questions

Where I Succeed:

Referral to get the interview, thx Ko Jojo & Ko Stephen. Knowledge of Merge Sort, Hash Map, and Set. Interviewer was super nice, gave subtle yet very heplful hints.

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Reflection

A year ago, I only had one offer and numerous rejections. I kept on practicing Leetcode, Codeforces, and Atcoder. Even though I still suck at competitive programming, I can still see the progress that I've made.

It's nice to set goals for yourself.

Advice

• Find help from awesome seniors, ask and show enthusiasm.
• Web development organization experiences are helpful in many ways.
• Find a mentor, mine is Ko Jowin.
• Don't be afraid to apply to sarang toki internships, find a way to stand out.
• Practice leetcode.
• Write a one page resume, perhaps using latex / word.

Surprises

• I rarely get asked about my competition awards.
• I almost didn't get an interview because i shared too much information lol.

Decision

I'll be joining Dekoruma's engineering team in the summer!

FAQ

• Do you have to have CP experience? No, but it helps
• How to pass the coding interview? Just practice leetcode, plus a little bit of luck

It's 2 am, I don't even know why I'm writing this now.