My Arcesium Interview Experience [Selected]
Arcesium is a global financial technology and professional services firm, launched as an independent company by D.E. Shaw group in 2015. Around 3rd week of March 2022, I got a mail from a recruiter who was scouting for 2022 graduates for Full Time Software Engineer role at Arcesium for Bangalore/Gurgaon/Hyderabad location. In the mail, I was asked to fill a form where I submitted my resume and other details to get started with my application. After 3 days, I received the link for an online coding assessment.
Round 1- Online Coding Assessment
The duration of the coding round was 60 min and was held on HackerRank platform. There were total 3 coding questions of medium to hard difficulty which had to be solved in an hour. The questions demanded good understanding of data structures and algorithms and were based on the topics like arrays, strings, stacks, graphs, trees and dynamic programming. There were no MCQs or aptitude questions in the test. I was able to solve two questions completely and one question partially.
Overall the test went well for me and after a week, I got a mail that I have cleared the coding test and that they would like to move ahead with my technical video interviews. The interview process consisted of 1–3 technical, in detail interviews covering Data structures, Algorithms, Problem solving, OOPS, Coding etc. All the interviews were held on Zoom and a Codepair link was shared to demonstrate my coding skills.
Round 2 — Technical Video Interview 1
There were two interviewers who were taking my interview. The interview started with my introduction and discussion about my technical interests. Then, they asked me two coding questions of medium difficulty based on algorithms, mathematics and recursion. I was also asked a pattern making question after that. I was able to code the solutions of both the questions with the most optimized approach. Then I was asked questions based on Object Oriented Programming, Operating Systems and a bit of SQL queries. At the end, the interviewers gave me an opportunity to ask whatever I wanted to and with this, my first round of technical interview got concluded.
A quick tip - Never miss the chance to ask your interviewers some questions because it depicts your interest in joining the firm and the role. It will leave a positive end note impression about you on your interviewer.
Below mentioned are some sample questions that you can ask at the end of your interview:
What kind of technologies the company is currently working with?
What are the most challenging aspects of this job?
What resources does the company have for its new hires to study about its products and processes?
What kind of work environment did you find when you joined the company?
Can you walk me through a typical day of an employee in this job?
Round 3 — Technical Video Interview 2
There were again two interviewers taking my interview, starting off with their introduction and then mine. The interviewers began with discussing about the projects that I had mentioned in my resume and a bit about the role in my current spring internship. Afterwards, they asked me a coding question based on stacks of medium difficulty and a follow up question after I coded the solution for the same. There were a series of follow up questions on the basis of the previous question that I was asked. Then they switched on to ask some questions on Object Oriented Programming and Database Management Systems. After all these technical discussions, the interviewers switched on to discuss some behavioural situation based questions. In the end, by asking some firm related questions, I wrapped up my second round of interview.
Results
My recruiter informed me that they will be taking only two rounds of interviews for me basis of my performance in the interviews. My interviews went pretty well and I had the best experience giving these interviews. After two weeks, my recruiter called and congratulated me on my offer for the role of Full Time Software Engineer at Arcesium and moved forward discussing about the compensation details. Woohoo! 🥳
At the end, I would like to say “Never Ever Give Up!”. Always remain patient, consistent and keep chasing your goals. You never know, what future holds for you! Be active on LinkedIn, make some good connections and participate as much as you can.
Good Luck and let me know if you have any questions!
Feel free to reach me on LinkedIn ❤️
