I applied through university. The process took 4 days. I interviewed at Cognizant (Pune) in Sep 2013
Interview
It was a campus placement event by Cognizant. I had cleared the aptitude test and was thoroughly prepared for the interview. I was made to first appear for a technical interview. The interviewer was very casual and made me feel at ease. One thing I would like to note is that the process and the people were extremely professional and there wasn't a hint of carelessness. Coming back to the technical round, I was first asked to introduce myself. He then asked me about my final year project which I narrated briefly. He seemed satisfied. After this, I was then asked to draw an ER diagram depicting the project scope which I drew correctly. He then asked me to briefly discuss normalization. It seems that after the interview, the staff had a brief discussion and I was selected for the HR interview.
The HR interview was something extremely interesting. A senior manager was the one who interviewed me. He asked me to introduce myself as well. Afterwards, he asked me to briefly describe my hobbies. Incidentally, one of my hobbies was reading about pre-World War II Germany which it seems he was himself extremely aware of himself! He asked me about the various important dates, battles, treaties, political system and so on. I did say a few incorrect things which was negligible. He then asked to see all my certificates and mark sheets. Consequently, he asked me about my backlogs. Luckily, I did not have a live backlog which was an advantage. Finally, he asked me whether I had any queries. I took this opportunity to say a few things about Cognizant which I guess impressed him. That was all, and I am waiting for the short list to come out so fingers crossed!
I would like to take the chance to say that the process was very professional and Cognizant did not display the slightest hint of intimidation and I would also recommend this company to all interested freshers!
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The most unexpected question which was also difficult was the one about the difference between a primary key and a unique key related to Database Management. I answered it well but could not hit the bulls eye. This may have lowered my technical score but fortunately I was selected for the next round i.e. HR interview.
The interview was primarily technical, concentrating on C#, .NET, SQL, and API concepts. Questions tested understanding of core principles and practical application. The process was straightforward, professional, and focused on technical depth.
I applied online and got a calll back, had 4 rounds in total. first was a behavioral phone call just casual talks about your skills and when can you start working and general questions, then two coding rounds in hackerrank - was asked to code in java although the job was for python and finally HR.
3 rounds of interviews with a technical interview. The technical interview involved questions on Java and sql. They were mildly difficult. The first 2 rounds were not so difficult, lots of situational judgement questions