Specialist Programmer Interview Experience (Sep 2025)
Summary
I successfully navigated the interview process for the Infosys Specialist Programmer role through HackWithInfy, which involved an online assessment, an offline coding round, a basic DSA/CS concepts discussion, and a final HR/technical interview. The overall experience was focused on Data Structures & Algorithms and fundamental computer science principles.
Full Experience
I wanted to share my entire journey for the Infosys Specialist Programmer role through HackWithInfy, detailing the assessment to interview process.
Registration
I registered for HackWithInfy through the placement cell at my university.
Online Assessment (OA)
The OA consisted of 3 coding questions. I was able to solve 2 questions completely and partially solve 1. A few weeks later, I received the shortlist email for the interview round.
Round 1 – Problem Solving (Offline Coding)
After about a month, the interview process began. The first round was an offline coding test conducted physically in front of interviewers. We were divided into groups of 5 and given 2 coding problems on the Wingspan portal. The requirement was to solve at least one problem completely. Common topics included Greedy, Knapsack, Dynamic Programming, Trees, Graphs, Segment Trees, and Fenwick Trees. I managed to pass 14 out of 15 test cases (3 sample + 12 hidden).
Round 2 – Basic DSA / CS Concepts
This was a short DSA round to check my basic problem-solving skills. I was asked questions on Climbing Stairs, swapping two numbers without using a third variable, and Merge Sort. I also learned that other candidates were asked variations of Fibonacci, Longest Increasing Subsequence (LIS), Longest Common Subsequence (LCS), and other standard DSA problems. Having cleared the OA, I found this round to be straightforward.
Round 3 – HR + Technical Discussion (1:1)
This was a one-on-one interview, mostly focused on my resume and fundamental concepts. The interviewer asked me to rate myself out of 5 on each skill mentioned in my resume. Then, basic questions were asked from OOPs, SQL, and HTML/CSS. This round lasted around 20 minutes and was quite relaxed.
Conclusion
That was the end of my interview process. Overall, the experience was smooth and focused mainly on DSA + basics of CS.
Interview Questions (6)
The standard LeetCode problem asking to find the number of distinct ways to climb to the top of n stairs if you can climb either 1 or 2 steps at a time.
Swap the values of two integer variables without using a temporary third variable. This can typically be done using arithmetic operations (addition/subtraction) or bitwise XOR operations.
Explain and possibly implement the Merge Sort algorithm, a divide-and-conquer sorting algorithm. It divides an unsorted list into n sublists, each containing one element, then repeatedly merges sublists to produce new sorted sublists until there is only one sorted list remaining.
Basic questions related to Object-Oriented Programming concepts such as Encapsulation, Inheritance, Polymorphism, and Abstraction. This includes defining them and providing real-world examples.
Fundamental questions about SQL, including common commands (SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE), different types of joins (INNER, LEFT, RIGHT, FULL), and database normalization forms.
Questions on foundational web technologies like HTML structure, common tags, CSS selectors, box model, and how to style web pages.
Preparation Tips
My preparation for the HackWithInfy and Infosys Specialist Programmer role involved a strong focus on Data Structures and Algorithms. For the coding assessments, I practiced various problem types including Greedy algorithms, Knapsack problems, Dynamic Programming, and problems related to Trees, Graphs, Segment Trees, and Fenwick Trees. For the technical discussion rounds, I ensured my understanding of basic DSA concepts was solid, and I reviewed core Computer Science fundamentals such as Object-Oriented Programming (OOPs), SQL, and HTML/CSS, which were topics I covered during my university coursework.