My interview experience as Senior Associate Engineer | Publicis Sapient
In conversation with Prakash Rao Shelke, who got placed in Publicis Sapient as Senior Associate Engineer with the help of our course Renaissance at Programming Pathshala. Read about his complete Interview preparation in this blog.
#100Stories is a series of transformational stories of courage and indomitable will to excel, picked from the lives of tech students, particularly in India. An initiative by Programming Pathshala.
Hi Prakash, can you tell us a little about yourself?
Hi everyone, my name is Prakash Rao Shelke and I graduated in 2015 from Mechanical Engineering background and have more than 5 years of experience in IT Service Industry.I have recently gotten placed with Publicis Sapient as Senior Associate Engineer.
That’s Great Prakash, so how’s the feeling of finally making it to Publicis Sapient?
Honestly, I am very happy, Publicis Sapient has made me realise that I will get better experience here. I have 5.5 years of experience in development and I have not got such experience like I am hoping for in Publicis Sapient. I am very motivated and happy to join this company as SDE.
What motivated you to choose software engineering as your career industry?
I am a mechanical graduate of 2015 batch. Even though I started with Mechanical field and was liking it but somewhere in the back of my head I always wanted to switch to IT. Soon, I started leaning Java and coding. So, from there, I started my journey.
That’s Lovely Prakash, so can you take us through your journey to the same, from starting your coding journey to getting the offer letter?
Back in 2015, I learnt Java in Bengaluru by doing offline classes and cleared one of the off-campus interviews of mass recruiting MNCs. And I have been working as a developer ever since. But my journey to become better developer started after joining Programming Pathshala in December 2021. I was preparing. I was preparing for new companies and started giving interviews. Soon, I realised that my DSA was very weak and I needed help and advice to be good at solving DSA problems. From December to April, I made a rule to always solve at least one problem a day. I knew I needed to be consistent and I could not give up. Sometimes, some videos were difficult for me, so I used to do similar questions as in the video. In that way, I could have personal progress and the problems started getting easier after a period of time. I did not sit idle and kept going on.
How was your experience with LLD (Low level design) techniques at Programming Pathshala?
I was very impressed with the LLD concepts here, because the way I learned LLD, it was very tough. It’s like I never knew LLD at all, I always felt it was very tough but here at Programming Pathshala, it was made easier for me with great guidance by the mentors and I started gaining confidence with my LLD skills eventually.
That’s nice Prakash, and how was your Interview process at Publicis Sapient?
The interview process was quite tough and lasted for 4 hours.
There were a total of 4 rounds out of which three were technical. The LLD (Low Level Design) discussion went really well. I could design somewhat efficient solutions. Before giving the interview, I was doing research on how the interviews take place in Publicis Sapient. I got to know that it comes under the top 25 toughest interviews. I was a little scared but I did not give up and learned and practiced all the concepts thoroughly.
I sat for the interview after gaining confidence in myself. The first question that was asked took me 10 mins to answer. It was a tough question. I was scared at the question but I knew I could solve this if I tried hard. I solved the first question with efficient solutions. The difficulty level of questions were varying from hard, medium, and easy as well. There were questions about database systems where I was asked to design a database system and I was given a problem with it.
From shortlisting my resume to getting the offer letter, it was a 15 days procedure.
That’s great Prakash, any techniques for resume preparation you would like to share with our readers?
Yes. The main technique which I want to share is that resumes should be of a single page. There are some projects which are similar in nature. We can add them in the ‘Experience Summary’ section and list down our projects. The resumes should be short and crisp so that all of our projects are visible at one glance. The interviewer will ask what we did in our projects which is easier to explain than to pen down on the resume. If resumes are made in this way then they holds a chance of getting shortlisted and of course with good work experience.
That’s lovely Prakash, would you like to share your experience here with Renaissance at Programming Pathshala?
Sure, so here at Programming Pathshala, I am very happy. I am not happy with the progress of the course from my end because I have not completed the course yet. Vivek sir is my favourite mentor. He taught us to solve problems and also gave us basic concepts so that we could solve problems that are new to us. His concepts made me strengthen my instincts on how to solve any problem. There were some questions related to sorting and searching, I was able to code these questions. I would like to thank Programming Pathshala for teaching from the very basics. My experience has been great with Programming Pathshala and my goal here was achieved which was to strengthen my DSA and interview skills. Vivek Bhaiya helped me a lot in understanding the programming languages. I did not know that coding and programming could be understood in such an easy way. I am proud to be a student of Programming Pathshala.
Amazing Prakash, it has been lovely having a word with you, but before you leave, any piece of advice for our budding SDEs?
Yes! I would say, if you want to be a part of the Software Developing Industry, just give a start to it at first. Even if you are not confident, just believe in yourself and there is nothing that you can’t do. You can always contribute something to this industry. All you have to do is constantly keep improving yourself. Don’t sit idle and keep on improving and coding. Be excited about your journey and enjoy your work and classes. You’ll soon be able to reach heights where once you only wished to be at.
Thank you so much for those amazing words Prakash, It has been lovely having you here and I wish you all the best for your future endeavours. Take Care!
You can also start your journey with Programming Pathshala now. Log on to www.programmingpathshala.com and take a free trial.
Have a doubt or suggestion? Reach out to us at info@programmingpathshala.com
