TCS HR/TECHNICAL ROUND 2012/2013

Each interview lasted approximately 10-15 minutes no more.There will be three interviewer, 2 will ask you questions while the third interviewer listens and takes notes. And yes make sure you can answer questions asked from your resume they do read it unlike most companies. You will be given a print out of your camous commune application form.

Pure HR Panel:
 Easy to clear for the most part, IT IS REALLY CRUCIAL THAT YOU SPEAK GOOD ENGLISH OR ATLEAST TRY ". As far as i have seen most people with good English speaking skills were selected

• Asked to give a self introduction about themselves(refer to the post which i made,should give a good idea)
• "Are you ready to go anyway we send you are is there a particular place you like most?"
• "Do you have a Girl Friend how long have you been together?"(for boys ofc)
• They will ask you about your hobbies, if you say painting for example they will ask what you have done to improve your skills in it.
• "What is your fathers job?" or "How many brothers and sisters do you have?". For most of the HR interviews there was always a family type question, shouldn't be a problem.
• The biggest challenge you have faced so far in college
• Why you choose your department and your favorite subjects (basically questions related to why you choose the department and your interests).
• THEN THE STRESS TEST: expect questions like "you have a low score in your aptitude why?", "your marks are consistently low why ?", "You don't sound confident is that why you are speaking so softly ", "you are an emotional person is it not , you look very tense".Remember these statements may or may not be true about you  try reply with a smile and positive comment like "I will try hard next time " or "I will do correct these mistakes" etc. Just don't burst into tears like some  of the girls in my college did NOT GOOD!!!
• "How badly do you want this job?"
• And of course the most common questions "what did you eat in the morning? ",maybe a slight variation like "you look tired have you had your lunch".
• Then there was some questions on details about the company like "who is the CEO", "What do you know about TCS", "Do you know what sector in IT TCS working". For these make sure you visit the campus commune website and read all the details.
• "What are you expecting from TCS?". For this just prepare a well rehearsed answer like "To improve my skill and abilities in such a way that it is mutually beneficial to company and me"(What 2 of my friends said , both selected of course)
• Some questions from the resume, your co-curricular achievements , extra-curricular achievements. In some cases the programming languages you know about.
• Then some of the HR's asked questions logical questions like "Two people start from Delhi and Pune one traveling at 20km/hr and the other 160km/hr in opposite directions both meet at a point who is closer to Pune?" The answer is easy both as same distance since it is mentioned that they meet, THE KEY HERE IS TO LISTEN CAREFULLY TO WHAT THEY ARE SAYING, some of my friends from other colleges did not answer and thought the one going at 160km/hr was closer.Be prepared for questions of this type testing your concentration.
• "Are you going to do higher studies some time?"
• "what is the hardest  data structure for you "My friend said Trees, the HR are was like "Trees really what about graphs, the LOLed real loud"
• "about the various certification programs you have completed and why you took them"

Tech Panel:

To be honest this isn't hard really, all questions are simple nothing deep and tuff. Some of the Interviewers did not even look at the code my friends wrote they just took the paper and used it as paper fans :), 

Programming, Data Structures and project related

• "Write a java code using try catch statements"
• "Explain about your project, implementations, front-end, back-end, technical details etc" BE extra through about the details of all your projects 
• "code to implement a link list in C". "write it using pointers"
• Some will ask you to write code from your projects(For some mechanical students theory behind functionality of the project)
• swap function without using temp variable
• Explain linked list concept /stack/queue/trees
• Explain different types of sorting 
• What is a null pointer, void point and a wild pointer 
• Explain the object oriented concepts in java(polymorphism,inheritance,encapsulation )
• Then the sizes for various data types in C and Java
• Program using thread/overriding/overloading in java.
•  Infix/postfix/prefix convertions
• Java database connectivity.
• what is a constructor?
• other programs like prime numbers, odd/even easy stuff basic programming

Networks and OS 

• OSI layers in network model and functions of each layer
• difference between TCP and UDP
• "there are 2 systems in 2 different networks will you use a switch or a router to connect them"
• What is the difference between switch, router , bridge
• In OS questions related to the fork() command
• Scheduling algorithms in OS
• What is a semaphore
• How many bits in an IP address
• Draw a rough sketch of an IP packet
• Layers of TCP/IP
• A few questions related to the linux file system
• Questions related to network address and host address
• How is windows 7 different from XP
• what is paging and questions related to that.
• process life cycle
• What is the ping command used for?

Database and Testing

• This was all really easy MySQL queries which included select statements using where condition etc, very easy queries. 
• Also some questions about normal forms, 1NF ,2NF, CNF.
• Black box and white Box testing differences
• Types of testing?
•  What is a test case?
• Software life cycle models(waterfall models etc)
• what is meta data?
• Why is testing important?

This section had the most easiest of all questions, just study all the basics.

Other Department Students Tech Panel
Yes there is programming but it is not that deep here are a few samples

• "explain about your project "(most frequent question asked to 78.9% students i got this information from)
• Then the interviewer asks what programming languages you know (most replied C), then he asks you to write a simple programming like prime numbers ,swap without temp etc. In some cases write any C program
• To some EEE students the interviewer has ask how the ceiling fan/generator etc  works
• 4 Mech students and 1 ECE student told me that the HR asked them their favorite subject and to explain about it
• "what is CAD(he had CAD in his resume)"
• Some questions related to data structures basics "what is stack" 

Overall Pragramming and OS concepts are not going to be asked much unless you say you know them.For example if you say you know java obviously he is going to ask a lot from it. Mostly others departments had HR questions only or HR/tech.Everyone i asked said it was nothing tuff.Make sure you know C programming , at least the basics.

Tech/HR panel

 This is a mix and smash of both types of questions . Basically one HR will ask a tech questions and the second HR will ask a HR questions. My friends kept on talking for all the HR questions he says it help reduced the number of tech questions asked to him (I do not know the degree of effectiveness of this idea :) ). By far these type of panels are easy to clear too.


After a few interviews it should be clear which panel is of which type. In my college the placement representatives were responsible of putting you in a panel, just talk to them depending on which panel you feel comfortable with.

Some important things

• Speak clearly, most of the students who were selected could speak good English 
• Try not to sweat a lot, lots of interviewers ask they questions
• Keep a separate copy of your resume in a stick file.
• They was a incident in our college relating to under-performance. Basically some of the students who were already placed went in and said they were placed in such and such company and they don't want to come to TCS etc or that they don't like going for a job and want to do higher studies. DO NOT DO THIS IT PISSED OFF THE INTERVIEWERS AND RESULTED IN LESS PLACEMENT COUNT AND IS REALLY RUDE. The head of HR mentioned it during the closing ceremony. IF you want to under perform then do it without it being too obvious. This incident happened in 3 colleges so far as I know, remember do not let your actions effect other :)  .(tell your friends who are planning on under performing this)
•  try wear a tie for boys and girls no high heels(one of the girls in my college tripped and fell in those ).
• I do not know the degree of truth in this but most of my friends were saying that the female interviewers were hot but deadly, since they asked the most questions and their interviews lasted the longest

One more thing in my college students with cgpa over 7.5 had direct interview and those with < 7.5 had to write aptitude which was tuff.  Overall the hr/tech round is not that difficult just be calm and you can clear it easy. Those who were selected got the offer letter on the same day through campus commune.

Good luck