HackWithInfy Hackathon Experience

HackWithInfy 2024 Experience

In 2024, I took part in the HackWithInfy, a coding competition by Infosys. Unfortunately, it was only open to students from some top-ranking colleges. After registering, I received an email inviting me to participate. The coding challenges were tough, with the easiest one being as hard as a typical LeetCode hard problem.

Note: Before 2024, Infosys hired for three positions: System Engineer (3.6 LPA), System Engineer Specialist (7 LPA), and Power Programmer (9.5 LPA). Candidates could interview for a particular position based on the number of coding problems they solved. However, in 2024, Infosys was only hired for the Specialist Programmer role.

Online Assessment Details:

Format: Web-proctored coding round

Duration: 3 hours

Challenges: Three coding problems (1 easy, 1 medium, 1 hard)

The "easy" problem was as difficult as a LeetCode hard problem, highlighting the overall high difficulty of the assessment. Good coding skills are necessary to succeed in this round.

I successfully solved the medium and hard problems completely and partially solved the easy problem. The easy problem involved concepts related to mappings, the medium problem utilized a greedy approach, and the hard problem required both binary search and dynamic programming techniques.

Interview Process

A few days later, I received an email stating that I had been shortlisted for the Specialist Programmer role interview. The interview was conducted in person at the Infosys campus in Chandigarh. Here’s how it went:

• Introduce Yourself: I started by introducing myself.
• Puzzle: There are three boxes: one contains only apples, one contains only oranges, and one contains both. The boxes are incorrectly labeled. Determine the minimum number of fruit picks needed to correct the labels.
• Medium DSA Problem: Similar to problems on LeetCode, manageable with practice.
• In-Depth OOP Questions: Topics included features, inheritance, polymorphism, and virtual functions.
• Medium SQL Problem: Solvable using group functions.
• Internship and Project Questions: Basic questions about my internship and projects mentioned in my resume.
• Operating Systems: Questions on the working of the round-robin algorithm and differences between some routing algorithms.
• Computer Networks: Basic questions to test my understanding.

Result

Approximately 15 days after the interview, I received an email informing me that I had been selected for the Specialist Programmer role at Infosys.

Tips For an Interview

• Never Lie in your resume
• Be confident
• Always talk with the interviewer
• Don’t tell the optimized approach at the beginning.
• Never say “No” to “Any Questions?”

Conclusion

Participating in HackWithInfy and going through the interview process was challenging but rewarding. It allowed me to demonstrate my skills and knowledge, ultimately leading to my selection as a Specialist Programmer at Infosys.