Adobe Interview Experience | Product Intern | On Campus 2024

When it comes to interviews, every step counts, from the initial online assessment to the final round. I recently went through this process, and I'm excited to share my experience with you. I hope it provides insights and helps you prepare better for your own interviews.

Online Assessment

The first stage was an online assessment consisting of two coding problems and 30 MCQs covering C, DBMS, and OOPS. The coding problems ranged from easy-medium to medium-hard difficulty. I managed to get fully accepted solutions in the last 5 minutes, even though I only had partial solutions after 50 minutes of coding. The MCQs were a mixed bag for me—I had little idea about some of the questions and had to make educated guesses.

Pro Tip: If you encounter a tricky C programming question, remember that you can check its output using the compiler provided for the coding problems. This trick saved me precious time and helped me cross-check my answers.

Interview

There was only one interview round, which began with a discussion about my projects. The interviewer asked if I had deployed one of my projects. I had, but unfortunately, it didn't open for 5 minutes due to technical issues. This could have thrown me off, but the interviewer was kind enough to tell me to relax. This taught me a valuable lesson—don't get tense when things don’t go your way.

We then moved on to coding problems. The interviewer shared a CodePair link, complete with inbuilt test cases, similar to the online assessment. The first question was to merge two sorted arrays. I explained both possible approaches.

Next came a problem about finding the minimum swaps needed to make a set of parentheses balanced. My initial solution passed only 3 out of 15 test cases. Feeling the pressure, I dry-ran my code on an example. The interviewer explained the issue, and after rethinking my approach, I managed to pass 12 out of 15 test cases.

The third problem involved making a queue from stacks. This time, the interviewer asked me to explain my approach without writing the code. I used comments to explain my O(n) to amortized O(1) solution, and the interviewer seemed satisfied.

With some time left, the interviewer asked one more question: how to find the middle of a linked list. I quickly described two different approaches, and the discussion wrapped up smoothly.

Toward the end of the interview, I asked the interviewer about his role and the projects interns typically work on. I also requested feedback with a smile, and he mentioned that I seemed enthusiastic about showing my projects, which he found positive.

The next day, I received a call informing me that I had been selected.

Takeaways for Aspiring Candidates

• Stay Calm Under Pressure: Technical issues can happen to anyone, but it’s important to stay composed and focused on the task at hand.
• Be Thorough with Your Projects: If you’ve worked hard on your projects, be enthusiastic about sharing them. It leaves a good impression.
• Ask for Feedback: Engaging with the interviewer and asking for feedback shows that you are keen on improving yourself.
• Keep Learning: Even if your initial solution doesn't work, don't get discouraged. Take the feedback, rethink your approach, and give it another shot.

I hope this article helps you in your preparation and gives you the confidence to tackle your next interview. Good luck!