SAP Labs consists of four rounds of interviews: two technical, one managerial, and one HR round.

Technical interviews are very easy to crack. Questions are asked from simple C, storage classes, OOPS concepts, simple array questions, linked lists, DBMS (especially from normalization and joins), and most importantly, puzzles.

Each round was a knockout.

1st Round: Technical

1. Explain storage classes in C.
2. Given an array of n integers from 1 to n, one value is missing. Find the missing value (optimal solution).
3. Explain the waterfall model and answer some basic questions.

// Cleared this round.

2nd Round: Technical

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Explain normalization and its forms with examples.
3. Given three empty tables where the first table's column references the second, and the second references the third. Which normal form is violated?
4. With data filled into the same tables, write a query to retrieve data using joins. An inner join worked well and was easy.
5. Given the following code, explain what it does:

c void x(struct node* head) { if (head->next == NULL) return; x(head->next); printf("%d ", head->data); }

// This code prints the linked list in reverse order. I explained it well, and the interviewer said, "Very good."

1. Puzzle: You are given 7 full, 7 half-full, and 7 empty bottles of beer. Divide them into three groups such that each group has an equal number of bottles and beers.

// Cleared this round too.

3rd Round: Managerial Round

// An older gentleman, likely a manager. Greeted me well. // Only puzzles and a few questions from my resume and courses taken.

1. Given a cube dipped in color and cut into 5x5 smaller cubes, how many total cubes will have color? // I calculated correctly but stated the wrong answer.
2. You have 26 similar balls (same color and weight) and 1 ball that is identical except it's slightly heavier. How many comparisons are required to find the faulty ball using a weighing scale? // I knew the answer was controlled by powers of 3 and should be 3. However, I thought 3^4 = 27 and said 4. I even proved it in 4 steps. The interviewer asked me to optimize it, but I didn't.

Unfortunately, after this round, they said I was not qualified for the HR round. :(

Hope this review helps others get a job at SAP Labs! :)