Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Indian campus way of problem solving

Couple of weeks back, I had to go an engineering college campus nearby, related to recruitment in to our company.  It is a self financed private college running very well with good discipline and all. But I could see the art works of students in the desks like a government college:-). According to me the desks or tables are the initial area where students can show their drawing skills.

As usual I could see students from all the branches coming to attend the interview for Software Development job.There were 5 rounds to be passed to get the job.First the aptitude test,next round is a group discussion. Third a technical / programming test followed by a technical interview.Finally a management interview ie HR interview (Human Resource).

My part mainly started with the technical test and ended with the technical interview. When I corrected the papers, I could see that the theory questions are very well answered such as "What is the difference between while and do while loops ?","Characteristics of OOPS ?" etc.. But when the programming question is answered, I could see a struggle for students especially the non-computer science or students who are not interested in programming. Most of the students in non-computer science stream didn't attend the programming questions.Even if somebody attempted they just wrote the initial 2 lines of a C program which they might have seen in their 3rd semester.


#include <stdio.h>
void main()
{
}

The characteristics of computer science and non computer science students is not our interest .I am just about to say the problem solving attitude of 2 candidates who attended that interview process.The answers took my attentions are

Qn : What is the result of below code ? If its a compilation issue how to correct?

double number=546.4;
int newNumber=number;

Ans : Compilation error .New code
double number=546.4
double newNumber=number

Simple isn't it? No casting .No conversion etc...

Qn : Display the below using for loop ?
$1$$2$$$3$$$$4$$$$$5
Ans:
for (int i=0;i<1;i++)
 Console.WriteLine ("$1$$2$$$3$$$$4$$$$$5");

There were so many answers which accepts an input number and displays dollars using loop.Even we expected the same answer.But if we closely look at the question there is nothing specified about getting an input number and display the string in the given pattern. Smart answer .Isn't it? Not many people can think in this way. This was from a mechanical student but unfortunately we were not able to get him due to next rounds :( 

2 comments:

saiju mathew stephen said...

The problem is in the question, not the answers

Joymon said...

I totally agree.But nobody except this one student read or understood the question.