Mentor Graphics On-Campus Interview Experience 2019
Interview Experience
Round 1 First round was an online test which consisted of three sections:Aptitude- 20 MCQs had to be solved in 20 minutes. The questions were pretty easy and covered your...
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Round 1 First round was an online test which consisted of three sections: Aptitude- 20 MCQs had to be solved in 20 minutes. The questions were pretty easy and covered your basic logical and reasoning skills. Technical- 20 MCQs had to be solved in 25 minutes. An option was given to solve questions of either JAVA or C++ language. I chose Java. The questions were from basic core java.
Coding A total of 4 questions were asked to be solved in 50 minutes. We only needed to type the code for the function,
input and output code was already defined. Convert the given tree into its mirror tree. (15 Marks) Link: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dsa/write-an-efficient-c-function-to-convert-a-tree-into-its-mirror-tree/ Reverse a linked list in groups of given size, k. (18 Marks) Link: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dsa/reverse-a-linked-list-in-groups-of-given-size/ Modify a bit at a given position. (15 Marks) Link: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dsa/modify-bit-given-position/ The question was quite similar to removing duplicates from a string. (12 Marks) Link: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dsa/remove-duplicates-from-a-given-string/ A total of 226 students appeared for the 1st round out of which 24 were shortlisted for the Interview round. All the interview rounds were one-to-one.
Round 2 This was a Technical Interview round. I was first asked to introduce myself. Then the interviewer asked me about my projects in brief. This part of the interview lasted only for 2 minutes. Then, I was then asked to write code for the following questions: A string consisting of all types of characters is given. I was asked to swap all the alphabet characters from beginning of the string with alphabet characters from the end of the string. The code should be optimized. Example,
Input: Abcdef1234ghij$%
Output: jihgef1234dcbA$% I wrote a solution with time complexity O(n). The interviewer was satisfied with my solution. Print Breadth First Traversal for a given tree. I wrote a code using queue which was accepted. Link: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dsa/level-order-tree-traversal/ Previous question was further modified to printing the level number along with the node data. Link: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dsa/get-level-of-a-node-in-a-binary-tree/ This interview round lasted for 30 minutes. The interviewer was very friendly and polite. The interviewer asked me if I had wanted to ask him any question. I asked him to tell me about his experience as an employee at Mentor Graphics. He was surprised as no other candidate had asked him that question.
Round 3 This round was a technical round as well. I was asked to write codes for the given questions: Search for a given node in the given binary tree. Link: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dsa/search-a-node-in-binary-tree/ The above question was modified to printing the parent node and sibling node (if exists) for a given node. Link: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dsa/find-right-sibling-binary-tree-parent-pointers/ Link: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dsa/print-cousins-of-a-given-node-in-binary-tree/ Given two strings, find if the second string is a subsequence of the first string. A subsequence is a sequence that can be derived from another sequence by deleting some elements without changing the order of the remaining elements. Link: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dsa/given-two-strings-find-first-string-subsequence-second/ The above question was modified to accept those sequences too as a subsequence in which maximum of 2 elements could be out of order. Example, if "abcdefgh" is the first string then, "afed" will also be considered as a subsequence since in one swap (interchanging f with d) the correct order can be obtained. This round lasted for around 25 to 30 minutes.
Round 4 This was an HR round. I was asked the following questions: How did you like the interview process? Did you face any problem? Tell me about yourself. What is your definition of "Success"? Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now? Why did you decide to study at your college and not any other college? Why did you choose CSE? Do you wish to go for higher education in the future? If not, why? There are so many more interesting fields to work in like AI, IOT, Blockchain, etc. and Mentor Graphics mostly uses Java technologies so why do you want to work with us instead of companies that are exploring new technologies? After this, the interviewer gave me a puzzle to solve: A weighing scale balance is given. Four objects of known weight are given- 1 kg, 2 kg, 3 kg, 5 kg. Another object of unknown weight is given. Let its weight be x where x can be a decimal value too. Find the value of x by using only left side of the balance. The right side of the balance shouldn't be used at all. I presented a solution where we measure the height displacement of the left side of the balance by putting all the 5 objects on the left plate, one at a time and plotting these values against their weight on a graph. This way, we can find the value of x using the graph. Similar approach could be applied by measuring the angle change of the fulcrum and plotting it against weight. The interviewer seemed satisfied with my solution. This round lasted for about 20 to 30 minutes.
Round 5 The final round was again an HR Round. I was asked kind of similar questions as in the previous round. I was also asked about my parents, my hometown, other interests besides academics, etc. The HR expected me to give elaborate answers. We also talked about the projects and internship I had done. Why did you choose this company? How can I believe you that you are in it the long haul? Is moving to Hyderabad fine by you? This round lasted for about 15 to 20 minutes. I was the last candidate to appear for all the interview rounds so they kept it shorter. For the other candidates, the technical interview round took about 35 to 45 minutes. A few candidates were eliminated after every round. They finally selected 5 students. I was lucky to be one of them. They mostly asked us technical questions from DSA. So, you must have a very good understanding of all the data structures specially Linked Lists and Trees. Best of Luck!
About This Question
This is a candidate experience report from a mentor graphics interview for a swe role (intern level) during the oa round reported in 2025.
It covers the following topics: Linked List, Strings, Trees, Binary Tree, Sql, Graph, Stack Queue, Graphs, Queue .
Difficulty rating: Easy
More Mentor Graphics Interview Questions
About Mentor Graphics Interview Reports
This question was reported by a candidate who interviewed at Mentor Graphics. LeakCode aggregates interview reports from 10+ sources, including 1Point3Acres, Glassdoor, LeetCode Discuss, Blind, Reddit, Indeed, and Nowcoder. Each report is translated where necessary, deduplicated against existing entries, and tagged by company, role, round type, and reporting date.
Use this question as one calibration data point, not a memorization target. Companies typically rotate their question pools every 2-4 months; the exact wording of a 2024 question may differ from what you encounter today. The underlying pattern, difficulty level, and follow-up depth at Mentor Graphics are the higher-signal extractions to take from this report.
For broader preparation context, the Mentor Graphics interview process typically includes a recruiter screen, one or two technical phone screens, and a 4-5 round on-site loop covering coding, system design (at L4+ levels), and behavioral. Reports tagged on LeakCode show the round-by-round distribution and typical difficulty calibration. To browse questions filtered by round type and seniority, use the company hub linked above.
How To Practice This Type of Question
Solve similar problems on LeetCode under timed conditions (25-35 minutes per medium difficulty). The goal is pattern recognition: recognize the underlying technique (sliding window, two-pointer, BFS, memoized recursion, etc.) within 60-90 seconds of reading. Strong candidates verbalize their hypothesis out loud before coding, then iterate based on feedback. Weak candidates dive into implementation immediately, lose time on the wrong approach, and run out of time for follow-ups.
Companies update their question pools every 2-4 months. The exact wording of any given question may have been retired by the time you interview. Focus your prep on the pattern, not the specific problem. The patterns that appear in Mentor Graphics reports consistently are the ones worth investing in; one-off niche problems are not.
During Your Mentor Graphics Round
Apply the standard interview round template: clarify requirements (2-3 minutes), state your approach out loud and confirm direction with the interviewer (3-5 minutes), code with narration (15-25 minutes), test with concrete examples including edge cases (5 minutes), discuss optimization or trade-offs if time permits (5 minutes). This template is universally accepted across FAANG and adjacent companies; deviating from it produces weaker interviewer feedback signal.
The single most predictive failure mode in Mentor Graphics reports tagged "no hire": not asking clarifying questions. Interviewers are explicitly trained to weight this. Strong candidates ask 3-5 clarifying questions even on problems that look obvious; weak candidates dive into code immediately. The clarifying-question check is often the first signal recorded in the interviewer's written notes.