Hello Codeforces community,

I wanted to share my recent interview experience with Nagarro for a trainee role. It was a rather short and somewhat puzzling experience, and I thought it might be helpful for others who are preparing for similar interviews.

The interview started pleasantly enough. The interviewer was very friendly and immediately asked me to introduce myself. After a brief introduction, we jumped straight into the technical round. I was surprised by how quickly we moved to the problem-solving stage, as the entire technical round lasted only about 15-30 minutes.

The problem itself was relatively straightforward. I was given two input strings: one was a seemingly random string of characters (a kind of "gibberish" as I'd describe it), and the other was a single word. My task was to determine if the second word was present as a substring within the first string.

I quickly recognized this as a basic substring search problem. I was able to write a solution that correctly identified whether the word was present or not. (For those curious, a simple 'string2 in string1' in python would solve that.)

I was confident in my solution, as it was a rather simple problem. However, a few days later, I received an email informing me that I was not selected for the position. I was quite surprised, to be honest. Given the simplicity of the technical question and the fact that I solved it correctly, I'm still unsure why I wasn't selected.

Here are a few takeaways from my experience:

Short Interviews Can Happen: Be prepared for technical rounds that might be shorter than expected. Even with limited time, you need to demonstrate your problem-solving skills efficiently. Correctness Isn't Everything: While solving the problem correctly is essential, there are other factors that influence hiring decisions. It could be anything from communication skills, cultural fit, or even other candidates' profiles. Don't Get Discouraged: Even if you feel you did well, rejections can happen. Use each interview as a learning experience and keep improving your skills. I'm sharing this experience to highlight that the interview process can be unpredictable. Even seemingly simple interviews can have unexpected outcomes.

Has anyone else experienced similar short technical rounds or unexpected rejections? I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!