Interview with Commvault

2022, Jan 23    

Interview with Commvault:

I still remember the day I went to Commvault’s Bangalore office to give an interview for the SDE role. I was nervous but then I said to myself let me see what happens, it’s just either a rejection like my past interview or an acceptance (which changed my career forever) and boosted my confidence.

Two days before the interview:

Commvault had approached our college for SDE and SDET roles. SDE role focused on application development in the data management domain which needed a strong understanding of C++, OS, and DBMS. SDET role focused on testing which needed a strong understanding of Python and testing skills. First-round for the SDE role was a preliminary screening round and had typical competitive questions related to linked-list, trees, and graphs. After completion of this round, I knew I had aced it. Finally, my preparation for months and solving hundreds of competitive problems on “Hackerrank” and “Geeks for Geeks” had come to my rescue.

The day before the interview:

The shortlist of the first round came, to my memory 13 of us were shortlisted. The second round was a system design round which would last for six hours. System building was my forte and I had positive thoughts about this round. Commvault developers had come to our college campus and one of the senior dev explained the problem. The problem statement was to create a system that would mimic a backup system. Initial 40 to 50 minutes were spent on coming up with the design itself and taking the feedback from Commvault’s dev. My design was approved and then they asked me to implement it in C++. I started with my implementation and every hour I used to get feedback from Commvault’s dev. I changed my code accordingly and then at the end of the fifth hour I had done what was required. As it was almost 8 in the night, HR informed us that the shortlisted students will be invited to the office for final rounds the next day. I still remember the anxiety I had and checked my phone every 5 minutes for the mail. I think it was 10 in the night when I finally got the mail from Commvault that I have been shortlisted.

The interview day:

I reached the office at 9 in the morning and I was told to wait for my turn. I had to wait till 12 for my turn. While I was entering the interview room I was soo nervous that I could hear my heart beating. The interviewer introduced himself and made me feel comfortable. The interview started with an easy problem-solving question which I was asked to code in detail covering all the corner cases. Then the interview followed with OS questions which covered OS in pretty detail. OS was followed by OOPs questions which were then followed by C++ technicalities and finally the interview completed a little bit of compiler-related questions. I had given my best and this was the perfect interview which I was waiting for. This technical interview was followed by an HR interview which went on for a short time of 15 to 20 minutes. I got my results the next of the interview and I was selected for an internship and full-time SDE role. That was the time when nature made me believe that perseverance always prevails.