The recruitment process for Brane Enterprises began with an online assessment. This assessment had four sections: Aptitude, Analytics, English, and Technical, each with 10 multiple-choice questions. Additionally, there was one coding question. While the MCQ part was relatively easy, the coding problem was a hard DP-based challenge, comparable to a 1700-rated problem on Codeforces. Only those who successfully solved the coding question moved to the interview rounds. Out of 110 initial students, 17 were selected to proceed.

1st Technical Interview:
My first technical interview started with my introduction, after which the interviewer quickly shifted to Data Structures and Algorithms problems, asking me to open LeetCode. I was first asked to solve the Trapping Rainwater problem. I initially presented a brute-force solution, and then, as prompted, optimized it. Following this, I was asked to provide a proof for the time complexity of merge sort. The interviewer then delved into CS fundamentals, questioning me on Transactions, Object-Oriented Programming (OOPs) concepts, and the advantages of OOPs. Afterward, I was tasked with solving Largest Rectangle in Histogram, again starting with a brute-force approach and then optimizing it. Finally, I was asked to solve Reverse Integer. This interview lasted approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. I managed to answer all questions and solve the problems using optimized approaches. After this round, 11 students were selected for the next stage.

2nd Technical Interview:
The second technical interview also began with my introduction. The interviewer asked me to find the length of an array without using any built-in functions. After confirming my knowledge of Linked Lists, I was asked to find the length of a linked list. The problem was then modified, requiring me to find the length of a linked list if it contained a cycle. Following the coding challenges, the interviewer asked me basic theoretical questions about Trees, Binary Trees, Binary Search Trees, and Depth-First Search (DFS). I then proceeded to solve the Number of Islands problem. Towards the end, we discussed my projects in detail. This round also lasted about 1 hour and 15 minutes, and I successfully solved all the problems. The interviewer seemed content with my performance and even suggested that I consider adding one more project, as I already had two on my resume. After this round, 10 students advanced to the final round.

3rd Technical Interview:
The third and final technical interview started with my introduction. We then moved on to a discussion about my projects, focusing on the tech stack I utilized. Subsequently, I was asked to solve the Sliding Window Maximum problem. I first presented a brute-force approach, then optimized it, and finally wrote the code on a local or online compiler. The next question was a custom problem: 'Given a set of movie dataset given the genre of movies also and you are given the input as set of genre you need to tell which movies come under this genre'. I first explained a brute-force solution. The interviewer then asked me to optimize it, which I did using a map and some precomputation, achieving a time complexity of O(K*NlogN). However, the interviewer pressed for further optimization, which I was unable to achieve at that time. I've even tried to approach this problem using Trie data structures since, but still haven't found a fully optimized solution. This interview lasted approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes. After this round, 4 students were finally selected, and my final verdict was rejection.

Brane Enterprises visited my college for on-campus placements, initiating the process with an online test. This first round had four sections: Aptitude, Analytics, English, and a Coding question, which for me, was a bit manipulation problem. The questions were manageable, but the time limits were strict (5 minutes per section, 15 minutes for coding). I was proud to solve the coding question fastest in my college and successfully qualified for the next stage.

My first technical interview was with a friendly interviewer who started with my introduction and inquired about my coding skills and language preference. As I was comfortable with C++, we proceeded with that. He asked fundamental questions about DSA and OOPS in detail, alongside CS Fundamentals, specifically Computer Networks. For coding, I was tasked with building a Linked List from scratch using struct/class, then implementing cycle detection within it. Additionally, I had to code a solution to find the 2nd largest element in a Binary Search Tree. This 50-minute round felt smooth, as the interviewer was interactive and attentive to every detail of my explanation and code. I qualified this round as well.

The second technical interview began with a discussion about my tech stack. I had a Flutter project, so he delved deep into it, probing my backend knowledge, which I successfully explained. This project discussion lasted about 25 minutes. We then covered OOPS concepts and the Insertion Sort algorithm, specifically how it works and its time/space complexity. Next, I faced a coding question related to character frequency, where the goal was to delete repeated characters, which I solved using an unordered_map. Finally, I was asked an SQL query: to sort a table by First_name, with capital letters appearing before lowercase letters. I managed to solve that as well. This 50-minute interview concluded with my qualification for the next round.

In my third technical interview, the interviewer noticed my competitive programming experience on my resume. He asked about my preferred language and my reasons for choosing C++. The main challenge he presented was to convert a number (with a constraint of up to 10^6) into its English word representation (e.g., 1000 = 'one Thousand', 543 = 'five hundred forty Three'). I took some time to explain my approach thoroughly, and after he was convinced, I proceeded to code it. During testing, it initially failed for two specific cases, but I was able to debug and handle those edge cases, completing it within 35-40 minutes. He seemed satisfied and happy with my solution. A few days later, I received the verdict: I got selected! Ganpati Bappa Morya!