I was overjoyed when I received the invitation mail to give the online assessment test for Cisco's summer internship 2023.
I had less than three days to prepare for the test and knew in advance that there would be a total of 42 questions, 40 of them being MCQs and two coding questions. It was a 90-minute test with no constraint on switching between the sections; you could solve the MCQs and the coding questions simultaneously.
I was fairly nervous as this would be the first time I would give a test like this. I first looked up other people who had given the same exam as me and shared their experiences online. This gave me a reasonable insight into the type of questions. Cisco focused primarily on Computer Networks and emphasised Operating Systems and aptitude. In coding, most questions were asked from backtracking and DP.
I started revising CN and OS, as they were my weakest link and went back to solving questions on Leetcode to brush up on my logic. For some reason, I was convinced I'd be in a good position if I could solve both questions and all the test cases. So, I spent a considerable amount of time on Leetcode.
As the proctored test began, I felt like everything that I had studied was flowing out of my head, but I kept my cool. As the MCQs appeared on my screen, I realised that I had completely forgotten to prepare for the aptitude questions. It was a big mistake.
The other questions were not at all complicated and focused on the fundamental knowledge of the subjects. I went through most of those very smoothly but did spend a lot of time on some, especially aptitude ones.
Both the coding questions felt somewhat complicated at first and shook my confidence, but I kept reading the question to get a gist of what should be applied. One piece of advice would be to write what you're thinking on paper to get your thought process straight. I quickly realised that the first question could be solved with Dynamic Programming. It was similar to the Earn Max Money problem. As I moved to the second question, I already had DP in my mind. So, I intrinsically tried to apply it, and to my surprise, it gave me the desired result. I did spend some time second-guessing my solution but went ahead anyway. It was a version of this problem.
I completed the exam with 7 mins remaining and revised some of my solutions. I felt very confident, and the next day, I received the mail that I'd been shortlisted for the first round of interviews. To be honest, I feel like I got very lucky as it felt like most of the questions were repeated in one way or another. Also, before the exam, I was mindlessly applying DP to questions, which came in handy.
Key Takeaways :
Always keep a pen and paper with you.
Don't try to keep everything in your mind. Declutter your thought process by writing it down.
Don't underestimate Aptitude questions.
Don't overdo it. Trying keeping your fundamentals strong before moving on to more complex topics.
That's it from my side. I tried sharing everything I could, all the while keeping it concise.
I hope this was helpful!
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