Ukg Interviews

Hello! I'm Ayush Keshari, a final-year CSE student at IIIT Jabalpur. I've consistently practiced DSA, achieving 'Knight' on LeetCode with over 600 problems solved and 'Specialist' on Codeforces. When UKG visited our campus for an SDE Intern position, I met the 7+ CGPA criteria and am thrilled to share that I successfully cracked the interview process!

The selection process began with an Online Assessment Round. This round featured 21 questions, comprising 20 MCQs that spanned OOPs, DBMS, Operating Systems, and Aptitude, alongside a single DSA coding problem which I found to be of LeetCode Medium difficulty. After this, 29 students, including myself, were shortlisted for the interview rounds.

My first interaction was Round 1 – Technical Interview, lasting approximately 45 minutes. We covered a range of topics. In DSA, I was presented with a Sliding Window problem: to find the length of the longest substring with all unique characters, and then a follow-up to print the substring itself. For SQL, I had to write a query to find the Second Highest Salary. We also discussed DBMS concepts, specifically methods to implement Atomicity and Durability in transactions, and Operating Systems concepts like deadlock and its prevention methods. The interviewer also posed an easy-level puzzle.

Round 2 – Technical Interview was a more in-depth session, around an hour long. The DSA question involved implementing an LRU Cache. In SQL, I encountered a complex query that required JOIN operations across three tables and filtering, though I don't recall the exact problem. OOPs was discussed thoroughly, covering all four pillars with several tricky follow-up questions. For Low-Level Design (LLD), I was asked to orally explain the structure for a Parking Lot system and also elaborate on SOLID principles. Another puzzle was also presented.

The Round 3 – Managerial Interview blended technical and HR aspects, lasting about 45 minutes. I was asked for my perspective on whether AI is good or bad. Since I had mentioned using Docker and Kubernetes in my projects, the interviewer delved into practical commands and workflow related to both. A significant task was to design the database schema of LinkedIn, focusing on identifying tables, relationships, and scalability considerations. This round also included standard HR-style questions about teamwork, handling pressure, my strengths/weaknesses, and how I approach project decision-making.

Finally, I proceeded to the Round 4 – HR Interview, which was about 30 minutes. This round focused on my family background, general HR questions like my strengths, weaknesses, and 'Why UKG?'. I was also asked for my preferred job location, and I chose Noida.

The entire interview process was very smooth and well-organized. I am incredibly happy to have been one of the three students selected for the 6-month SDE internship at UKG.

I recently took the Online Assessment for a Software Development Engineer role at UKG. The coding section presented me with a problem directly from LeetCode, specifically 'Maximize Greatness of an Array'. In addition to this, there were 19 multiple-choice questions covering Computer Science Fundamentals, including SQL, time complexities, and various data structures. I found the assessment to be crackable. Interestingly, one of my friends received a different coding problem, 'Minimum Length of Anagram Concatenation', which also appears to be a LeetCode problem. This suggests that questions can indeed repeat if you identify common patterns.

I had a very challenging interview experience, particularly in the 4th round. The interviewer was unprofessional throughout.

1st round

• HackerRank test

2nd round

• Started with 1 DSA question: Next Permutation
• Discussion on design patterns I've used in projects and a deep dive into them
• Questions on CAP and SOLID principles
• Java basics

3rd round

• Contained 2 DSA questions: 1. Valid Parentheses 2. Find Peak Element
• Further basic Java questions
• Spring Boot annotations
• Discussion on my current project architecture

4th round

The interview started off with a quick introduction (though she didn't introduce herself), and then the interviewer jumped into some basic technical questions — things like time and space complexity, immutable classes, and a few Java fundamentals.

The experience wasn’t great. The interviewer had her camera off the whole time. On top of that, she kept picking up phone calls in the middle of the interview, which really broke the flow. Also, when I gave a wrong answer, she started laughing and kept making those awkward breathing noises — which just felt really unprofessional and distracting.

It was hard to stay focused with all that going on. I tried to keep calm and answer as best I could, but the way the interview was handled made it tough to stay confident.

She also asked about rate limiting, so I explained the definition along with different algorithms like token bucket and sliding window. Then she asked, "That's how you implement it, using this?"—so I explained a possible implementation using Spring Boot. However, throughout my answer, she kept making awkward breathing noises (like sehhhhhhh, huuuuuuh), which felt quite awkward.

Also, something seems off with UKG lately—there have been a lot of layoffs happening.

I filled a form for UKG, after which I received an OA that included one coding question, a SQL query, and around 20 MCQs. Almost two months later, I got an exciting opportunity to proceed further. There were 4 online interview rounds after the OA — 2 technical, 1 director, and 1 HR — all elimination rounds.

🧑‍💻 Self-Introduction

• B.Tech in CSE from IIIT Ranchi
• Strong in DSA & CP (solved 3000+ problems)
• LeetCode Guardian, ICPC Regionalist
• Taught DSA to 1000+ students (shows communication)
• Hobby: Story writing (shows creativity)

✅ Technical Round 1 - 30 mins

• Scenario-Based :
  • Browser navigation using doubly linked list.
  • Jump to a previous tab using map + DLL (LRU-style).
  • No coding, only explanation.
• Resume + Project:
  • JWT, bcrypt, and use of MongoDB over RDBMS.
• SQL: Join employee and department, show “No Department” if unassigned.
• DSA: Rotate Linked List (LeetCode 61)

✅ Technical Round 2 - 30 mins

• Implemented full Linked List: create, insert, delete, search
• Explained JWT-based authentication and session flow
• Described how user roles (buyer/seller) are identified after login
• Discussed ACID properties

✅ Director Round Summary (45 mins)

• Asked if I was familiar with NP Problems and Travelling Salesman Problem (no coding, just concepts)
• Discussed approach for Dijkstra, DFS, and BFS (no implementation)
• SQL: Spoke out a simple join query
• Java: Explained what Streams are and their use
• React: Explained Stateless Components
• DBMS Discussion: Deep dive into RDBMS vs NoSQL and when to use which

✅ HR Round Summary (15 mins)

• Talked about my family background
• Asked: What does UKG do? – gave a brief answer
• Asked for preferred job location – chose Pune based on personal comfort

✨ Final Note

Overall, the interview process was very smooth and well-structured. I’m happy to share that I got selected for the UKG Pune Office! Grateful for the opportunity and excited for what lies ahead. 😊

Round 1 : OA (90 Min) - 2 Medium Leetcode style questions - Git command question

Round 2 : DSA (45 Min) - Medium Level DP problem Variation of House Rob (https://leetcode.com/problems/house-robber/description/) - Tip : Think loud & Give proper approach with TC & SC

Round 3 : Tech Specific (Java Expert + Design) - Project releated question (Design of current project) - Core and advanced Java SpringBoot (Design pattern, Spring Boot annotation,MultiThreading, etc)

Round 4 : Technical (Java + SpringBoot) - Springboot scenarios (Expection handling etc) - REST API implementation - Tip: Ask clarification question on problem then start code - Neet & Clean code with proper explaination of each steps

Round 5 : Techno-Manager (Most Important) - Managerial Question(Be prepared) - Medium DSA question(Pseudo Code only) - Project releated question

Round 6 : HR - Only Compensation discussion - Joining details

💼 UKG – SDE (College Graduate) Interview Experience

📌 Source: Shared via Reddit
📍 Type: On-site Campus Pool Interview
🗓️ Timeline: Single day – 9 AM to 12:30 AM
🎓 Eligibility: Final-year college students
💰 Offer:

• 6-month Internship – ₹50,000/month
• FTE on performance – ₹14 LPA base + ₹2 L bonus + ₹90K relocation

✨ Overview

This is my friend's interview experience with UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) for the SDE role (college graduate). It was part of a campus pool drive and turned out to be a grueling but memorable 5-round, full-day onsite interview.

Only 8 students were shortlisted from their college after a HackerRank assessment held 14 days earlier. The final interview shortlist was released just a day before.

📝 Pre-Interview

• PPT (Pre-placement talk) started at 9 AM and lasted for 1 hour.
• Interview rounds were disclosed at the end of the PPT:

✅ Rounds:

1. Technical Round 1
2. Technical Round 2
3. Director Round
4. Managerial Round
5. HR Round

More than 50+ students attended the drive, but only 12 made it to the last round.

🔹 Round 1 – Technical Interview 1 (L1)

🕒 Time: 2:50 PM
🕓 Duration: ~30 minutes

• Intro + Resume walkthrough
• Easy SQL question
• DSA question (Solved)
• 1 Puzzle
• Questions from resume

✅ Cleared the round – only 2 students from their college advanced, including my friend.

🔹 Round 2 – Technical Interview 2 (L2)

🕒 Time: ~4:30 PM
🕓 Duration: ~25 minutes

• Project & Tech Stack discussion
• Experience-based questions
• 1 Puzzle
• Resume deep dive

✅ Cleared again.

🔹 Round 3 – Director Round (L3)

🕒 Start: ~6:30 PM
🕓 Duration: ~35 minutes

• Resume-focused Q&A
• Explained major project
• 4 Puzzle Questions
• Best round of the day (felt confident)

✅ Cleared – only 12 candidates were now left (6 girls + 6 boys)

🔹 Round 4 – Managerial Round (L4)

🕒 Start: 11:40 PM
🕓 Duration: ~22 minutes

• Project explanation (interviewer seemed distracted)
• DSA Questions:
  • Easy string manipulation
  • LeetCode Medium-level problem (Solved instantly)
• Exhaustion & nerves affected performance slightly

❓ Duration shorter than average (~20 min vs 40 min others). Possibly a flag.

🔹 Round 5 – HR Round (L5)

🕒 Start: 12:08 AM
🕓 Duration: ~20+ minutes

• Casual start
• HR Questions:
  • Strengths and weaknesses
  • "What does money mean to you?" → Answered: Stability
  • Family situation & financial discussion (~4 min talk)
• Advice on communication and confidence
• Asked: “What if you don’t get selected?” → Answer: “I’ll prepare for the next opportunity.”
• Ended with life advice and encouragement

❗ HR mentioned publicly: “You know what you need to work on.”
❌ Friend was the only one not selected among the final 12.

🧾 Final Result

At the end, all remaining candidates were called into a room for final announcements. The HR began announcing names and handing out goodies.

😔 My friend's name was not called.
💔 Only one among the final 12 not selected.

They quietly picked up their bag and left the premises.

💔 Reflection

"I never imagined rejection could hurt this much."
"Was it the project explanation? The stumble on a string problem? Sharing too much during HR?"

Despite the heartbreak, this was an incredible learning experience:

• 5 rounds in one day
• Over 16 hours on-site
• Cleared 4 technical interviews
• Met senior interviewers (some with 16+ years experience)

✅ TL;DR

• On-site interview from 9 AM to 12:30 AM
• Total 5 eliminatory rounds
• Final 12 candidates: 6 boys + 6 girls
• Only 1 rejection – my friend
• Performance was good in tech rounds, but likely fell short in L4 or L5

🙌 Takeaways

• Stay calm, even when tired
• Learn to pace yourself in long interview processes
• Be mindful of over-disclosing in HR rounds
• Even rejections can teach valuable life lessons
• You are more capable than you think — clearing 4/5 rounds is not a failure

"It was my lucky day. But when the day ended, my luck ran out."

Sending strength to anyone who has faced similar rejections. You'll bounce back — stronger and smarter. 💪🚀

Round 1 (Online Assessment)

This round was conducted on HackerRank and consisted of 3 questions. The first two were coding problems: one medium-level question on a 2D matrix and a hard-level graph question. The third question was a practical Git task, requiring me to create a repository, add files, perform a rebase, remove a file, and print the log.

Round 2 (Virtual Interview)

My virtual interview began with a standard introduction. Following this, the interviewer delved into basic Java questions, string-based problems, and questions related to OOPS concepts. I was also provided with code snippets and asked to predict their output. A significant portion of this round involved discussions about my past projects.

Round 3 (DSA round)

This round was focused purely on Data Structures and Algorithms. I was given several problems to solve:

• A question on Valid Parentheses.
• A problem to find the Intersection of Linked Lists.
• Finding the Lowest Common Ancestor in a Binary Tree.
• Writing an SQL query to retrieve the 5th largest row.
• Additionally, there was a basic Java question.

I recently interviewed for the SDE1 position at UKG in Noida. The interview process was structured into several stages:

1. Resume Shortlisting: This was done based on UKG's internal criteria. I'd suggest highlighting Java and OOPS concepts in your resume.
2. Online Assessment: This round consisted of MCQs across three sections: aptitude, technical questions (covering DSA & core subjects), and cloud-related questions. The difficulty level was easy to medium.
3. Technical Round 1: In this round, I was asked two DSA questions (one easy based on arrays, one medium based on strings), two puzzles, some OOPS concepts, and JavaScript questions.
4. Technical Round 2: This round focused on my projects mentioned in my resume. I also faced one normal DSA question based on strings and some basic cloud-related questions.
5. HR Round: This round began with the common "tell me about yourself" question, followed by one or two other formal questions.