Summary
I recently interviewed at Nagarro for about 20 minutes, covering a range of technical topics. Despite correctly answering most rapid-fire questions and receiving positive feedback from the interviewer, I was ultimately rejected from the position.
Full Experience
I had a rapid-fire interview round at Nagarro that lasted approximately 20 minutes. The questions spanned various technical areas, including core programming concepts like polymorphism, data structures (stacks, queues, graphs, trees, linked lists), database concepts (joins, ACID properties), and algorithms (BFS, DFS, 'implement stack using queue', 'reverse LL', 'frog jump puzzle'). While I felt confident in most of my answers, I admit to mixing up balanced binary trees with complete binary trees and struggling with a specific part of the joins question. Throughout the interview, I had the impression the interviewer wasn't fully attentive, as I frequently had to confirm his presence. Despite this, he provided positive feedback, stating the interview was good. However, two days later, I received an email from HR informing me that I had not cleared the round, which came as a surprise given the initial feedback.
Interview Questions (11)
Explain polymorphism and describe various ways to achieve it.
Differentiate between a stack and a queue data structure.
Explain the differences between a graph and a tree data structure.
Compare and contrast a balanced binary tree and a binary search tree.
Explain SQL joins, list different types of joins, and compare inner join with outer join (potentially referring to full outer or right/left outer).
Describe or implement how to create a stack data structure using two queues.
Describe or implement an algorithm to reverse a singly linked list.
The interviewer presented a 'frog jump puzzle'.
Explain the ACID properties in the context of database transactions.
Differentiate between Breadth-First Search (BFS) and Depth-First Search (DFS) algorithms.
Provide examples of scenarios or problems where BFS and DFS would be applied.
Summary
I participated in the Nagarro Online Assessment for a Java Developer role, which included DSA coding, SQL, Java, Spring Boot, Java 8 MCQs, and Aptitude questions. I solved the DSA and SQL problems, detailing my approach for the DP jumping problem.
Full Experience
🏢 Company: Nagarro 📝 Round: Online Assessment (OA) 📅 Date: [Insert the date you appeared] 📍 Platform: Mettl 👨💻 Role: Java Developer (3–5 Years Experience) 🧪 Test Pattern: Total Duration: 2 hours
Platform: Mettl
Sections Included:
✅ 4 DSA Coding Questions
✅ 2 SQL Questions
✅ 20 Java MCQs
✅ 20 Spring Boot MCQs
✅ 10 Java 8 MCQs
✅ 20 Aptitude Questions
💻 DSA Coding Questions (4): Chocolate Arrangement
Type: Implementation / Greedy
Description: Arrange chocolates in a way to avoid specific constraints (e.g., no two same adjacent types, maximize variation).
Difficulty: Medium
Find Maximum Length Subarray with Bitwise OR = 1
Type: Bit Manipulation / Sliding Window
Description: Given a binary array, find the longest subarray where the bitwise OR of all elements is exactly 1.
Difficulty: Medium
Find Numbers with Exactly 3 Set Bits < N
Type: Bit Manipulation / Combinatorics
Description: Given an integer N, count how many numbers less than N have exactly 3 set bits in their binary form.
Difficulty: Medium
DP Jumping Problem (Jump to i+1 or i+3)
Type: Dynamic Programming
Description: From index 0, you can jump to i+1 or i+3 to reach the end. Each index has a score. Maximize the total score.
Difficulty: Medium
Approach: Solved using both memoization and tabulation. Compared max score from each jump option at every index.
🗃️ SQL Questions (2): Basic SELECT Query
Difficulty: Easy
Description: Simple query using SELECT, WHERE, ORDER BY on a single table.
LEFT JOIN Query
Difficulty: Medium
Description: Join two tables and return unmatched records from the left table.
Tip: Be comfortable using LEFT JOIN and handling NULL values in filters.
☕ MCQ Sections: Java (20 MCQs): Covers OOPs, Exception Handling, Threads, Collections, and basic language fundamentals.
Spring Boot (20 MCQs): Focused on annotations, REST controllers, autowiring, dependency injection, and bean lifecycle.
Java 8 (10 MCQs): Mostly on streams, lambdas, method references, functional interfaces, and Optional.
Aptitude (20 Questions): Quantitative aptitude and logical reasoning – difficulty ranged from easy to moderate.
Interview Questions (6)
Arrange chocolates in a way to avoid specific constraints (e.g., no two same adjacent types, maximize variation).
Given a binary array, find the longest subarray where the bitwise OR of all elements is exactly 1.
Given an integer N, count how many numbers less than N have exactly 3 set bits in their binary form.
From index 0, you can jump to i+1 or i+3 to reach the end. Each index has a score. Maximize the total score.
Simple query using SELECT, WHERE, ORDER BY on a single table.
Join two tables and return unmatched records from the left table. Tip: Be comfortable using LEFT JOIN and handling NULL values in filters.
Preparation Tips
⏱️ Time management is crucial – With multiple sections, it's important not to spend too much time on one DSA problem.
💡 DSA sections were bit-heavy – Focus on practicing bit manipulation, combinatorics, and dynamic programming.
🧠 SQL was straightforward – Be confident with JOINs, filtering, grouping, and sorting operations.
☕ Java & Spring Boot MCQs covered real-world scenarios and in-depth concepts.
📘 Java 8 section leaned heavily on functional programming – make sure you're fluent with streams and lambda expressions.