Last bencher dozing off in a class

Hello everyone, I am Shashikanth and am just like the every other guy you find sitting at the back benches of the class idling his time away playing games on mobile phone, praying desperately for the lecture to end. Now, let me introduce you to my not-so-great academic profile. My highest qualification is a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering in a JNTU affiliated college in Hyderabad with an aggregate of 63.5% with 8 backlogs. So what am I doing here in this blog meant for “studious types” aspirants, eager to improve their skills for facing the dreaded interview?

Believe it or not, I have been given this opportunity to share my experience with you as to how I could score a respectable 1440 in the GRE Test(verbal 650, quant 790). Yes my friends, shocking it is, but I managed to crack GRE with the help of a few simple tips. I am now going to reveal few of my secret tips to get a great GRE score.

1. Fix the most auspicious appropriate date for taking the GRE test

   Generally, students enroll for GRE coaching during their semester break and take up the GRE Test immediately following the coaching classes. The myth being that their level of concentration is at the peak during and right after the coaching classes. So what is the perfect time to take GRE test? I suggest you to take your classes during a semester break and take the exam in the following semester break. Take my case, I took my GRE classes in the 3rd year 1st semester break and took the GRE test during the semester break of 3rd year 2nd semester.But, the truth is that your mind will be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of vocabulary and formulas that are needed to be memorized for the GRE. You may still want to take the test right after the classes and be satisfied with a mediocre score; which am sure would not get you an admission in the “coveted” college that you wanted.

2. Time management both for preparation as well as the main exam

   Time management is very important in GRE as it’s a timed test. You can master how to manage time with regular practice. Hence, prepare a schedule and set apart ample hours of preparation time for quantitative and verbal so as to train yourself to efficiently manage your time in the GRE test.Set your working hours depending upon your learning ability. You can take a break at times, but refrain from playing the computer games and watching TV. Recreational activities such as listening to music or physical activities such as an outdoor sport(badminton) or a refreshing walk, will help you prepare to take more load.In my case, I was more confident about the verbal section than the quantitative. So, I scheduled my preparation all through my semester break giving at least two hours for the preparation and revision of my word lists and more time for the quantitative.

3. Take the verbal very seriously

   Most of my friends prepared only for the quantitative section with the intention of trying out their luck on the verbal. They are of the notion that guessing the answers will get them at least 300 – 350. Fatal Error!! Mark my words; verbal on GRE is not as hard as you think, if you prepare for it the right way. The only way to boost your scores is to prepare equally well for verbal and quantitative as they carry equal marks(800 each). We Indians are inherently good at math, thanks to our high school math syllabus.There is no such thing as syllabus for GRE verbal section. It simply intends to test your reading comprehension and vocabulary. Practice upon the type of questions that you will be tested on. You need to memorize the word lists to get a good score in verbal section. This task can be tedious. Of course, this can be achieved by repetitive learning, but it’s more fruitful if you can find fun ways to stack the words and their meanings in your memory in a different way – such as a small song with rhyming words to remember meanings.You can even convert the sounds of the difficult words into some odd meanings in your mother tongue to make them easier to memorize. Remember, there are no standard mnemonics to learn the word lists, it’s just what suits you the best. I’m a Hyderabadi, so I try to twist the hard words into something funny in my vernacular. For example, I had problems with the words charlatan and mountebank. So I made a mental note of the sound charlatan as something to do with “chalu”, a fraud. Similarly for mountebank I made up a story: one who steals from a bank and hides it in the mountains. Very awkward revealing it, but it surely works.

4. Make your quantitative preparation intensive not extensive

   Firstly, list down the areas where you would be tested upon and then try to do as many problems as possible on those areas. I was extremely poor at math so I made sure it received that extra attention. The Barron’s is the most recommended book for the GRE. It comprises of topics listed under categories where we are likely to be tested on and special notes called “tactics” for explaining the application and the basics to solve any problem quickly. Make sure you complete the Barron’s before attempting the more complicated Kaplan, Cambridge or Princeton.As a final step, make sure you work out the quant database. For those who don’t know, quant database is a regularly updated set of questions from GRE quantitative test that are compiled from the actual takers of the GRE. This means that they are the questions that actually have appeared in the GRE test. In case you are not able to solve these questions, take help from the most responsive community for the GRE on orkut.I took my test on October 19th and I stumbled upon this database only 2 days before the exam and I could work out only the questions posted for the month of October. Believe me folks, I got 3 questions straight out of the database and that saved me an ample amount of time. If you work through the database completely, I’m sure you’d understand the standard of questions in the GRE (the questions are from the actual GRE) and hopefully get some questions out of the database.

5. Promote your preparation to the next level

   The GRE test has now reached a state of saturation. There are innumerable websites and institutes who recommend their own “tested and proven” strategies. A mnemonic that suits a person may not be equally suitable for another. So it is better to try multiple options at hand and choose the best one which is the most suitable to “you”. For example, I have prepared for the GRE wordlists from the GRE KRUPA’s Pictionary’s which served as a visual aid for learning the endless wordlists. You may give this a try.

6. Don’t take your mock test scores to heart

   This is the most important tip that I would like to share with everyone. Don’t feel at ease or be discouraged looking at your scores in the mock test. The legend has it that the mock test scores reflect the actual score that you will get on the GRE. That is baseless; no one knows how the CAT (computer adaptive test) pattern of the GRE evaluates scores.I hadn’t scored anything beyond 1100 in most of the mock tests that I’d attempted. However, mock tests provided me an excellent platform to improve myself in the areas that I was weak. So, take the tests in an optimistic way, learn from your mistakes and try to improve your scores. There are many real life examples of people scoring well on the mock tests and failing on the GRE and vice-versa. Don’t get carried away by those scores.

7. On the day of the exam

   Stop studying on the day before your exam!!! Take a break; you have worked hard enough(hopefully) to earn yourself a well deserved sleep. Go to bed early and wake up early. Don’t try out any last minute reading. Remember to carry your passport and the printout of confirmation letter of your appointment. Avoid driving to the test center as it could be stressful. Ask your friend to drop you at the test center or take an auto. Reach the place at least half an hour early so as to complete all the formalities and take the test without any unnecessary conflicts.

A reminder to all of the GRE takers:

According to the test center rules, you are NOT allowed to carry anything including your hand kerchief or wallet into the test room. You will be provided a safety locker to secure all your valuables. Two sharp pencils and a booklet of 4 pages (8 sides) are provided for your rough work.

All The Best for exam!! Do let me know through comments if these tips helped you.

This article is for Indian parents who are looking for advice on choosing a good engineering college for their children.

It’s a parents’ choice

In India, the selection of engineering college is parents decision. Students don’t decide which college they want to join. At the age of 18, having just finished their 12^th, they don’t have enough maturity to choose a college to study engineering. Nor do they have sufficient financial authority to take independent decisions. So parents take an active role during this time. It is entirely parents’ responsibility to find the right college for their ward. So this article is dedicated to the Indian parents searching colleges for their children.

Know your child

The first and foremost thing you should do as a parent is to analyze the psyche of your son/daughter. Understand what your child expects from an engineering college. Not just in the academic angle but in a general view. Find out where you ward wishes to study. Does he/she prefer an urban environment or sub-urban or rural environment. Can he/she stay without you? Do they prefer to stay with parents or do they prefer to stay away from parents to learn to be independent? Does he/she have any regional or cultural preferences? Students from South India take time to adjust to cultural differences in North India and vice versa. Find out if your ward is comfortable with the food change and climate change.

Is public opinion useful?

Asking your neighbors or friends for opinion is a good thing. But they can only tell you which college suits them, they can’t tell which one suits your ward well. Their opinion is personal to their situation and not to yours. Their children may be smarter or dumber than yours. Their expectations from a college may be different from yours.

Rely Newspaper advertisements?

Don’t trust newspapers alone. Advertisements are meant to be advertisements. The very purpose of an advertisement is promotion. Don’t believe whatever is written in advertisements. Nothing can be a better check than a personal inquiry.

Get the inside story

I advice the parents to at least visit the college of interest 2-3 times before deciding to join their ward. Visit the college campus and observe. Don’t do anything else. Simply observe. God has given human beings a wonderful skills of deduction from observation. If you observe the college environment for half an hour or so, you will get a little idea about the college, how it works and about the students’ level of thinking.

Asking students for opinion inside college is a bad idea. Because students would not give your their frank opinion inside the college campus for the fear of talking against the college that holds the education and future career. You may ask students outside the college campus for a frank opinion. It is also a good idea to talk to the parents of students studying in a particular college. Again, asking teachers may not be a good idea. Teachers can’t voice a frank opinion against the colleges for which they are working.

Careful while paying admission fees

Do not pay the admission fees to unauthorized agents. Be sure to pay only to authorized agents registered with the college. I have known a case where parents of student from Bihar have lost 1 lakh rupees by paying to an unauthorized agent in Bihar.

College that fits your budget

Carefully plan your budget and decide whether or not to join your ward to a college. Think long term. Be sure whether you will be able to pay fees for all the 8 semesters in span of 4 years. I have known parents who had to sell their lands to pay fees of their students owing to the lack of forethought about the fees.

Placement is not everything

Career placement is not the only criterion for selecting a college. You should carefully examine the teaching standards of teachers in the college, facilities provided by college for education, food and health.

Make the best use of what is available

And after joining a particular college, you can’t compare the facilities of a particular college with other colleges. Once committed it’s done. You can do nothing complaining about the facilities in the colleges. Try to make the best use of the facilities given by that college.

About the author: Professor Kanniga works for Bharath University, Chennai. She has a teaching experience of over 10 years. She holds Masters degree in Engineering and Business Administration.(M.E, M.B.A). Professor loves her work as worship. You can ask education related questions to professor via email kannigatruth@yahoo.com

No matter how talented/knowledgeable/experienced you are, a single mistake during the course of an interview can topple your chances of selection. The interviewer, almost always looks for reasons not to select a candidate at the first place. Many a time, the interviewer draws (wrong) conclusions based on the candidate’s body language that the candidate is incompetent for the job posting.

The biggest challenge that fresh graduates face at job interviews is nervousness. They fail to show confidence and unknowingly show up a pattern of gestures that an experienced recruiter can easily read.

Nervousness is a very common complaint and is completely solvable. The bigger problem than nervousness is that people don’t admit to themselves at the first place that they get nervous at interviews. Sometimes, they don’t even know that they showed signs of nervousness in an interview.

Here are few symptoms of nervousness:

• Your heart beats fast and you can hear your heartbeat while speaking.
• Your palm and forehead sweat.
• You shake your leg / clasp your hands unconsciously.
• You get a feeling of butterflies in your stomach.
• You stammer while speaking or repeat a sentence twice.
• You suddenly loose concentration while listening to a question shot by the recruiter, ask him/her to repeat the question.

It would be easier to find a solution to this challenge, if you first admit it to yourself that you get nervous. After that identify the reason why you get nervous and then work on that weakness.

Few possibilities why you get nervous:

1. You have not attended any interviews in the recent past.
2. You subconsciously think that you are not competent for this job / that you don’t deserve the pay that they offer.
3. You are not comfortable with yourself – your dressing or your oral skills.
4. You are not confident with the preparation on topics to be interviewed.
5. You fear losing this job interview to a worthier candidate.

The Solution:

• Do a lot of mock interview practice. Mock interviews help you to get adjusted to the interview environment, you can get to know of the common errors that you unknowingly commit in interviews. Make use of the free mock interview services.
• Look your best. Wear a brand new dress, get a special and decent haircut done for the event of interview. Use a mild antiperspirant, shine your shoes, wear a tie, look corporate. Looking good from outside helps you feel good from inside. Good attire is a confidence booster.
• Avoid unpleasant surprises in the last minute. Go through this checklist on things to do before an interview. Last minute surprises may disturb you and increase your anxiety.
• Get a grip of your emotions. If you feel your heart beating faster than normal, take a quick deep breath, hold your breath for 5 seconds and exhale slowly in the next 10 seconds. Repeat this breathing exercise until your heart slows down to its normal speed.
• Control your body language. Keep your shoulders stiff and back straight, do not slouch in the seat. Walk with heavy steps confidently like an elephant. While you are doing the interview, don’t clasp your hands, don’t shake your legs, use a handkerchief to wipe sweat from your palms.
• Condition your mind. Tell yourself that you are the best candidate and you more than deserve this job. Recollect your latest achievement at work. Think about a similar situation when you were nervous about outcome of an event and you succeeded. This exercise busts your diffidence and boosts confidence.
• Become a narcissist for a while, love yourself. Become supercilious, fill yourself with pride of being you. Tell yourself that you’d not join this company even though you get selected. This exercise helps you to lose the fear of losing this job to a worthier candidate.
• Imagine yourself giving an interview for the best company in the world. Tell yourself that if you can’t face an easy interview with this easy company today, you can’t face a tough interview with a better company in future. This trick works for me really well.

Hope these tricks work for you. Do comment below if you have any tricks or tips to beat nervousness.

Image Credit

The year 2011 is already one month old. But, it is never too late to take good advice.

Note that this article was written targeting fresh graduates looking for jobs.

Try to follow most of the bullet points given below

• You shall not lose hope, no matter how many interviews you fail
• You shall spend more time on your resume to bring it to decent shape
• You shall get in touch with all your contacts, relations and friends who work in the industry that you are aspiring a job for
• You shall forward your resume to your seniors and request them to refer to companies
• You shall spend time knowing yourself, strengths and especially weaknesses
• You shall feel happy about your unique strengths
• You shall work hard to overcome your weaknesses
• You shall spend more time in recreational activities like sports, reading, community service
• You shall spend lesser time on activities that add no value, such as watching TV/movies, listening to music, wandering on streets with no purpose, gossipping about movie stars
• You shall not aimlessly browse facebook or youtube or internet in general
• You shall not spend time in downloading nonsense using torrents
• You shall not discuss with friends about depressing topics like who has got the best salary package or who has got the best job yet
• You shall take career decisions based on your interest in the subject matter
• You shall not take career decisions solely based on the salary offered
• You shall not compare yourself with your friends or relatives
• You shall focus on specific technologies and not get tempted to learn whatever is trending
• You shall not take unsolicited career advices from relatives or friends, who infinitely lecture about career decisions (especially those that don’t have first hand experience in what they are advising about)
• You shall not spread discouragement or pessimism to your peers

Good luck for job search!

Once there lived a grasshopper in a meadow. Everything was green and the scene was very lovely. The grasshopper was very fond of dancing and singing. He danced and sang at all times. He had nothing to do. He did not think that there was anything else worth doing at all.

He never cared to do any work while it was time to work. He kept singing and dancing throughout the spring and the summer.

When winter came, it began to snow. It was snow everywhere. There was snow on hills and snow on plains. No flower or leaf was visible. The once-happy grasshopper was now very unhappy. He had nothing to eat. He felt very miserable. He looked for his friends to help him in his time of trouble.

The grasshopper went to his friend, the ant. The grasshopper said to the ant, “Please give me something to eat. I am dying of hunger at the moment. You alone can help me in my hour of need.”?

The ant said to him, “We ants work hard during summer. We store food for winter. But what were you doing during summer?”

The grasshopper replied, “I sang through summer, the time was so happy. Everything was beautiful and lovely.”

The ant was angry and said to him, “Then you should dance winter away as well.”

———————————————————————————-

Can you relate to this story?

When you join a college, everything looks beautiful and lovely. We have new friends, new world, new life.

Due to our natural urge for enjoyment, we waste time partying, watching movies, playing computer games, wandering aimlessly around the town, trekking, watching TV, picnicking and hanging around with friends, gossiping and having fun.

Like the grasshopper, we don’t see any immediate need for doing anything else at all. We mock at people like the wise ants to get a life. Wise students invest their time in scoring better marks, bettering their technical skills, learning foreign languages, improving their written and spoken communication, participating in events that add value to resume.

The first two and half years of engineering are like Spring and Summer. Everything will look rosy and comfortable. The last two years of college are like Winter and Autumn.

Once on-campus placements start in third year, we start feeling uncomfortable. It feels very painful to know that we don’t qualify for a campus placement interview due to poor grades or due to backlogs in college. It feels like chilling winter, when others secure jobs well ahead of graduation from college, while we don’t manage to impress the interviewer in the job interview.

As a reaction to our failures, we stop partying, and start grieving. We start losing our self confidence and stop believing in ourselves. This makes the tough task of getting a job look tougher. Job search becomes a depressing task.

Avoid all this. Learn from the wise ant and lazy grasshopper. Don’t waste your time in enjoyment. Balance your fun activities with useful and recreational activities that benefit your job search activity.

Are you an ant or a grasshopper?

Congratulations to the five winners of the C Quiz Contest.

In all 50 people responded to this contest. Out of which only 7 people got all the answers right. The earliest five responses have been chosen as winning entries.

Key for the quiz contest in C language

Srimannarayana Karthik, a 25 year old Indian International student of University of Southern California is a role model for all upcoming engineers. He didn’t compromise his dream of getting a CORE job for anything else in this world. He pursued his love for VLSI (Very-Large-Scale-Integration) designing and recently joined Intel as a Design Engineer.

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Karthik. Young engineers who are on crossroads wondering which way to go shall benefit from this!

Tell us why did you choose the Electrical Engineering in Bachelors?

I had a simple reason to choose this line. I joined Electrical because everyone said it was tough and I wanted to take the challenge! Basically, I had to choose between Computer Science and Electrical. I knew that I’ll anyway learn computer languages irrespective of the fact that someone teaches me or not. Also I figured out that i can come back to CSE if I wanted to even after I did EEE, but not vice versa. So I joined EEE branch in Sathyabama University, Chennai.

How did you fall in love with VLSI?

In my B.Tech college days, I always wanted to build an autonomous machine and one fine morning there was this advertisement from ALTERA, the chip design company, regarding the same on the department notice board. I proposed my idea to them and it got accepted. I got funding and my design was selected among top 15 designs in India! I made a presentation in Bangalore. I didn’t win the contest, but this incident raised my interest towards VLSI. Later, I participated in NIOS Design Contest and made it to the final round. Then I attended a VLSI conference in Hyderabad. This is where I met a bunch of professors and corporate people, and realized the advances of electronics and which way it was heading. Since then I wanted pursue my career in it.

Was there any specific reason why you did Masters in Electrical Engineering?

Like half of the people I know even I was an IIT aspirant and like majority of them, I failed to get into IITs! After my Bachelors, I got an opportunity to be a Research Assistant for a professor at IIT Mumbai. I stayed there for a week. I noticed that even in IITs there are very few chances to reach the pinnacle in any core field. Moreover, everyone there looks forward to get a job in banking or finance which would give them a salary of 12 lakhs per annum. No one was really that passionate about their specialization. I felt that no one in India does design even in the big companies like Intel, Qualcomm, and AMD. They do testing or support work. I wanted to do design to the core. The best option that I saw was to do my MS in the field I like and work in the field that I love and where the actual designing is done!!

How was your stay in the University of Southern California during your Masters Program?

I would put my USC life as the most interesting phase of my life. For many reasons, I would rate my course (in VLSI) one of the best in world for sure. The course dealt with bottom to top approach. Right from how a Silicon is used to fabricate to building processor based system. I didn’t just learn them, I practically built them too!

I cursed my college every night for the amount of work that they gave to do me. But, every time I felt like finishing it properly and learning something new out of it and not just doing it for namesake. At the end of the day, I constantly felt that I learned something new and achieved something. I used to study about 14 hours a day. As a matter of fact, we never needed to memorize anything, because we were allowed to carry the required book to the exam! You can only pass a course if you can figure out the solution to the problem. There are no question banks, no predetermined set of questions! I wouldn’t say that all courses and universities are the same. But if you want to learn, Masters in the USA is definitely a viable option. You can complete your degree by taking easy courses or you can take up the challenge by choosing tough courses. Unlike in India, the courses are not mandatory. So you’ll do it only if you want to learn and hence all my courses were of my interest and were challenging!

One more thing that I would like to add is that every time I paid fees in B.Tech, I used to feel that the college was stealing money from me. But during my MS, even though I paid much more than B.Tech, I felt that I got value for my money!

What qualities should an electrical engineer have?

In order to be a good Electrical Engineer, you need to be passionate and hardworking. In fact, many companies in the USA are trying to export parts of VLSI design to India. One insider for you — 80% of people working in technical jobs in US doing highest level of design work is either Indians or Chinese!

Just be passionate and start working towards it. Never stop your learning once you come out of college. There are so many things to do around. Many design contests, lots of funding. Just browse around and try to do something on your own apart from what you have to do for college or for marks. You will automatically end up in a good job and feel much better at the end of the day and feel satisfied for the thing you learnt on your own.

Tell us something about your job at Intel?

I am really excited. In fact, super excited!! My position is of a Graphics Hardware Engineer and I am entering a team that is about to start a new graphics architecture. It will come to market after a couple of years. So I am working on something that the world is unknown of!!

My part is basically physical design. To tell a little bit about it, you write a code and fix bugs. This is front end. In back end you take this debugged code and do all the necessary steps to make it to silicon. I’ll be working in the back end.

Describe your interview with Intel?

The interview is mostly technical with about just about two minutes of intro about the team and position. The Manager contacted me about the position and after that a telephonic interview was scheduled. Someone from his team then called me up and asked a few questions based upon my resume and their requirements. I actually did well in my telephonic interview and based on my performance, I was called for the on-site interview.

The job requirement was for both front-end and back-end design engineer. The on-site interview was very grilling. One full day of interview for about 5-6 rounds with different team members in different fields and each one of them at-least 1 hour long. There was one lunch where you get to meet the team and socialize with them. I was interviewed on Friday, so they offered me to stay there over the weekend and get to know the location also. They said that they will get back to me on Monday.

Interviews are tough. They interviewer wants to see what is your breaking point. They will look the way you approach an issue, were you able to solve it if helped and trust me they are very friendly. They want to know how much you know and not how much you don’t know!!

Describe your job search strategy in detail?

In the US, the ratio of success to application is lesser than 1%, which means if you apply for hundred positions, only one manager would look at your resume!! Understand this, digest it and plan accordingly.

I finished up most of my hard course in first 3 semesters and did only one course in final semester so that i can completely dedicate my time for job search. Make sure that you keep applying jobs as many as you can. I mean writing a cover letter for each position separately, and modifying your resume for different positions. Making a good resume is long process and I don’t want to get into that. Just keep it latest and updated. The job search here is so screened. They won’t hire you if they need someone, they’ll hire if they find someone good enough for their requirement!!

Resume gets searched for keywords by softwares and by the Hiring Managers based on the requirements given by Technical Manager. So they have no idea how good you are if your resume is not picked up by their software! The manager then takes a look at your resume and if he likes, he will talk to his team and decide to have interview to support someone for some responsibilities. Then he’ll get back to you. So you need to do your ground work. Look what a specific company is looking for and what your strengths are and then apply to them properly. I used to apply for only 5-10 jobs/day and it took me about 2-3 hrs/day. In one instance when a manager contacted me, I tried to find him on LinkedIn and see what his specialization is, where he studied and stuff like that. Based on that you know how he will approach an interview.

I used to be honest in interviews. If I couldn’t answer a question, I would always ask the answer directly to the interviewer and would try to find out more about it. This helped me a lot. This way I learnt so much in interviews more than one can learn in college. Also this shows the manager that you are interested in learning.

At the end of the day, you need a bit of luck. Good luck!

If you want to get in touch with Srimannarayana Karthik, you can contact him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/srimank

Recently, we had posted a Quiz Contest on C language.

So far we have received received 30 responses. And we are shocked to know that only 1 out of the 30 people,  got all the answers correct! According to us, the questions in this contest are far from being tough. They simply test basic concepts of C language.

Not to forget, this quiz contest is like an open book test. You have Google, text books, lecturers and friends with you to check your answers. You even have free compilers and IDEs for C to check the output.

It is so hard to believe that there are so few Indian students who can get all the questions right. Guys, try harder. Before you send your answer, check and double check if your answers are correct. To win this contest you must get ALL the 20 questions right.

Take this as a challenge and forward it to all your friends who are interested in C programming.

Update: This contest is now closed. Key and Winners will be announced soon.

Instructions

• This quiz has 20 questions – 19 multiple choice questions & 1 text answer question
• Each multiple choice question has only one possible answer
• This Quiz Contest is targeted for freshers who have recently passed out of college.
• The first five people who send accurate answers at the earliest are rewarded.
• The winners would be mock interviewed by Sridhar Jammalamadaka on phone.
• To send your answers, send an email to sridhar@interviewmantra.net in the format 1)A, 2)B, 3)C ……. 19)B, 20) (text answer)
• Winners will be intimated via email and results will be announced on www.interviewmantra.net
• If you want an offline copy of the quiz questions, click on Download PDF icon below.

Mock interview is one of the best ways to prepare for an actual job interview. Mock interviews help you to find out how well you can fare in a real job interview. Mock interviews help you to boost your confidence and give a smooth performance at the real interview.

Your time starts now!!!!

This contest is closed now. Winners Announced.

Download Quiz

Download Key

Questions

1)            The correct order of compilation of a C program is

i) Compile source code to object code
ii) Link object code and libraries
iii) Create binary or executable file
iv) Process Preprocessor directives

A)     i → ii → iii → iv
B)      iv →  i → ii  → iii
C)      i → iv → ii →  iii

2)            Which of the following data type can be used for storing a floating point constant?

A)     long int
B)     double
C)     unsigned char

3)            What is the result of running the following code snippet?

float result;
result = 5/2;
printf("%.1f",result);

A)     2.0
B)     2.5
C)     0

4)            What is the result of running the following code snippet

if(0)
printf("The Sun rises in the East");
else
printf("The Sun rises in the West");

A)     The Sun rises in the East
B)     The Sun rises in the West
C)     Compilation Error

5)            What is the value of variable ‘i’ after running the following statements?

int i = 10;
i = i / 2;
i = i % 2;

A)     0
B)     1
C)     2

6)            The purpose of the function int toupper (int c) as defined in ctype.h is to

A)     Convert the input string stored in variable c to upper case
B)     Convert the input character stored in variable c to upper case
C)     None of the above

7)            The difference between the user defined constants ‘Z’ and “Z” is

A)      ‘Z’ is a string constant whereas “Z” is a character constant
B)      ‘Z’ is a character constant whereas “Z” is a string constant
C)      There is no difference

8)            Output of running the following code snippet is

int i;
for ( i = 0; i < 3; i++ )
{
if(i == 2)
{
printf("%d\t",i);
}
}

A)     0              1              2              3
B)     0              1              2
C)     2

9)            The conversion character for printing an integer in hexadecimal number using printf is

A)     %x
B)     %d
C)     %o

10)          Output of following code snippet

float marks[10] = {53,66,36,36,53,23,64,12,53,88};
float *marksPtr = marks;
marksPtr = marksPtr + 4;
printf("%.0f", *marksPtr);

A)     0
B)     53
C)     36
D)     Garbage value

11)          Which of the following is the correct way to allocate space for an array of 15 float variables?

A)     float  *floatArray = (float *)  malloc ( 15 );
B)     float  floatArray = (float *)  malloc ( 15 );
C)     float  *floatArray = (float *)  malloc ( 15 * sizeof(float) );
D)     float  *floatArray =  15 * malloc (sizeof(float) );

12)          The following C statement causes an infinite loop (true/false):

while (1);

A)     true
B)     false

13)          Output of the following code snippet is:

int array[] = {1,2,3,4,5};
printf("%d", array[5]);

A)     0
B)      4
C)      5
D)     Garbage value

14)          Output of following statement is:

#define NUM 5
int main()
{
NUM++;
printf("%d", NUM);
return 0;
}

A)     5
B)     6
C)     Compilation error

15)          Output of the following statement is

int i = 5;
if(i = 5)
{
puts("Structured programming language");
}
else
{
puts("Object oriented programming language");
}

A)     Structured programming language
B)     Object oriented programming language
C)     Compilation error

16)          Which of the following is a true statement?

A)     Strings in C are char arrays terminated by ‘\0’
B)     Strings in C are char arrays terminated by NULL
C)     Strings in C are char arrays terminated by EOF

17)          Which of the following is a NOT a true statement?

A)     The base address of an array is same as the name of the array
B)     The base address of an array is address of the first element in the array
C)     The base address of a static array can be modified

18)          Which of the following is true about break statement in C?

A)     break statement exits out of the innermost loop nested around it
B)     break statement exits out of all the outer loops nested around it
C)     break statement skips one iteration and continues looping

19)          Output of the following program is:

int main()
{
int i =0;
modify(i);
printf("%d", i );
return 0;
}

int modify(int z)
{
return (++z);
}

A)     0
B)      1

20)          Point out at least two errors in the following code snippet

float a;
scanf("Enter number: %f", a );

Tata Technologies is looking for SAP ABAP developers with 3 to 6 years of experience.

Mandatory skills: Smart Forms, Reports, BADI, BAPI, ALE, EDI, IDOC, User Exits.

Technical Details:

• Sound knowledge in ABAP/4 programming- RICEFW (Report development,  Data interfaces,  Dialog programming, Forms, BADI, BAPI, ALE, EDI, IDOC, Change pointer, Work Flow User Exits)
• Experience in NetWeaver / XI / EP / Web Dynpro will be an added advantage.

Prerequisites:

• Good written and verbal communication skills.
• Willing to relocate anywhere in India as per the project requirement (Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai).
• Should have a valid passport.

Qualification: BE / MCA / MCS (No gaps during education and career)

Experience Level: 3 yrs to 6 yrs

Scheduled interviews on 17th, 18th and 24th September, 2011 in Kolkatta, Mumbai and Pune.

Hurry up.. Send your resume to tatatechjobs@interviewmantra.net as soon as possible!!

See Interview Mantra Job Network for more Job postings.