A Little Backdrop

I applied for the role around January through their career portal and received a call from HR for an interview in April. It was a drive held for various developer positions of different calibers (I learned this after joining Oracle from the hiring manager). I was interviewed for the Software Developer cum Data Scientist position, as my background is in Data Science.

Interview Process

The interview process consisted of a total of 5 rounds. The first two rounds took place in OTH (Oracle Tech Hub), Bangalore, on April 13th, 2019.

Round 1: One-on-one interview with the Architect (Technical)

This round evaluated my high-level knowledge and logical understanding of Data Science. The interviewer asked logical questions about the end-to-end process of a Data Science workflow and about some of my projects. The interviewer was very helpful in providing pointers when I stumbled upon certain things. The main focus of this interview was to assess my hands-on experience in the field (which I have), so I was selected for the next round.

Round 2: Two-on-one round with MTS and Senior SD (Technical)

This round evaluated both programming and Machine Learning aspects, from the MTS and SD-3 respectively. The programming questions were of medium difficulty in Python (my language of choice), and I was able to provide answers to 90% of them. The Machine Learning questions did not delve in-depth into the concepts but were standard questions to evaluate a candidate's ML skills. As I received a positive response from the interviewers, the hiring manager scheduled a video conference round with the ML lead of the hiring team on April 15th, 2019.

Round 3: One-on-one video call with the ML lead (Technical)

This was a roller coaster round for over an hour, delving deep into all the areas I had mentioned on my resume. The questions ranged from machine learning, Python, projects, Linux, and Git, to name a few. I answered about 80% of the questions and thought I wouldn't crack it. About an hour later, I received a call from the hiring manager stating I had cleared the round and could have the managerial round right away if I was available. Yes, you guessed it right. The hiring manager and the reporting manager were the same person.

Round 4: One-on-one call with the reporting manager (Non-Technical)

This was a standard behavioral round evaluating my opinions on pressure situations, collaboration with teams, individual contribution, etc. This round concluded after I asked some questions, and the manager informed me there would be another round with the Director, who was in the US. The next round was scheduled for April 16th.

Round 5: One-on-one with the Director (Non-Technical)

This round seemed more like a formality from their end, focusing on me and my questions about Oracle, the team, primary work location, work timings, etc. It lasted for about 10 minutes, and I received an official job offer from Oracle on April 26th, 2019.

Find the maximum repeated element in an array.