You’ve aced the phone interview, cracked the second round, and think you may be a shoo-in for the job at Accenture. But not before you clear the Accenture technical interview round.
Why a technical interview?
Hiring managers look at the technical interview as a chance to evaluate how potential hires approach and solve real-world problems. They use the problems – and the solutions proffered by you – to benchmark the depth and breadth of your knowledge and skill set.
Tigran Sloyan, CEO and co-founder of coding challenge platform CodeFights, believes that bringing in someone who might not be good at their job can be expensive and a waste of everyone’s time. “Providing an objective platform to measure skills can help calibrate talent,” he says.
But that’s no reason to equate the technical interview with the bogeyman.
Gayle Laakmann McDowell, the author of Cracking the Coding Interview, says: “Non-traditional candidates are really intimidated by technical screenings, coding interviews, because they’ve been made to feel they’re not qualified without that CS degree. But I don’t think that’s true.”
McDowell believes that more important than the degree is the ability to prove that you have what it takes and can excel in the role.
Here’s how you can ace the Accenture technical interview questions:
1. Practice, practice, practice
Practice all that you can so that it doesn’t seem a tough ask at the interview. Use the plentiful online resources such as HackerRank and CodeFights to build and develop your skills. Ed Nathanson, director of talent acquisition with Rapid7, in an interview said: “Practicing on the whiteboard and being prepared ahead of the interview can often make a big difference, especially to those for whom this kind of interaction does not come naturally.”
2. Get your fundamentals in place
Vivek Ravisankar, CEO and co-founder of HackerRank, believes the fundamentals of “algorithms and data structures tend to be the focus of many technical screenings”. You may think you know these concepts well and may focus on the more tough questions, but brushing up on the fundamentals is imperative. Keep in mind that your interview may cover everything – be it fundamentals, higher-level concepts, logic problems or brain teasers.
3. Tote along a portfolio of your work
Your resume may give an outline of your skills and achievements, but to give the interviewer a clearer picture consider carrying along a portfolio of your work. It could be a physical notebook, an online blog, a link to where you store all your samples, or project details that showcase your skills and experience. Take the advice of Rick Endres, president of The Washington Network: “Bring in your code; bring in your network design diagrams. You could include proposals you’ve written, or the parts you’ve contributed to larger projects.”
4. Ask a few questions
You are being interviewed, but that’s no reason to shy away from asking questions of your own. If you don’t understand the question, ask for it to be repeated. If you don’t know the answer, know this: companies like Accenture aren’t looking for that one right answer. They look at how you would go about solving the problem, your decision making skills, and general attitude.
5. Communicate effectively
Communication is key in every interview, but nowhere more so than in the technical interview. Resolve any doubts that by following up. Asking “Did I answer the question?” or “Would you like me to add to that?” will ensure that you and the interviewer are on the same page. The company wants to see how you operate and think in real time; the interview is your 15 minutes when you can give them your best. But only if you communicate effectively.
Prepare yourself with these common tech interview questions:
• What does the C program include?
• What are the differences between C and C++?
• What is OOP?
• What is Dynamic Memory Allocation?
• What are the differences between C/C++ and Java?
• Explain encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism and abstraction.
• What is Runtime Polymorphism?
• What is a non-static member function?
• What are the similarities and differences between class and structure?
• Can you write a program to compare two strings without using the strcmp() function?
• Give us a program to concatenate two strings.
• Can you write a program to interchange two variables without using the third one?
• Write programs for String Reversal & Palindrome check.
• Explain what is BCNF?
• Can you give us a program to generate the Fibonacci Series?
• What is the rule of optimality in routing algorithms?
• Write a structure specification that includes 4 float variables called length, breadth, height and volume.
• How would you search and sort algorithms with complexities?
• What is the difference between call by value and call by reference for functions?
• Do you a know a language other than C, C++ and Java?
• Explain the three basic concepts/features of OOPS.
• Do you know about recursive functions? Give us three examples.
• What are semaphores? What are the different types of semaphores?
• Do you know the various On-Delete options in a DB table? Which is the default option?
• Give us a function to reverse a linked list.
To find a job at Accenture, click here.
This article has been compiled from various sources including company websites, corporate review sites, online discussion forums and knowledge sharing platforms.
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