Telstra for Associate Software Engineer Interview Experience

Around 400+ students registered for this OA and there was cgpa cutoff of 8.

Round 1 Online Assessment (OA)The first round was conducted on Incruiter and consisted of two p...

Around 400+ students registered for this OA and there was cgpa cutoff of 8.

Round 1 Online Assessment (OA) The first round was conducted on Incruiter and consisted of two parts - an AI Interview followed by an Aptitude Section Part 1: AI Interview The AI interview began with a few project-based and technical questions , followed by HR and scenario-based questions. and all answers should be finished in 2 mins max time and 10 seconds given to think The system recorded my video and audio responses automatically. Some of the questions I remember: Explain about your projects. What is an algorithm? Give a real-world example. What do you know about Microservices? give real world example About CI/CD pipeline? Scenario-based: How would you handle a problem in a web application if the API suddenly stops working? What is term Software Engineering? Explain what happens when you type www.google.com in your browser. Overall, this section tested communication, clarity of thought, and conceptual understanding Part 2: Aptitude Test After the AI interview, I moved to the next section. a 17.5-minute aptitude test with 10 questions. The topics included: Logical reasoning Analytical ability Basic mathematics Direction and distance problems Scenario-based puzzles Shortlisting Results After about 5 days, the results were announced. 48 students were shortlisted for the virtual interview rounds. They mentioned there would be two rounds of interviews followed by ppt:

Round 1 Technical Round 2: Technical + Behavioral (HR-related questions were mostly covered in the AI interview itself.)

Round 2 Technical Interview 1 Date: October 9, 2025 Mode: Virtual (2 Interviewers) Duration: ~1 hour The interview started with a quick introduction and questions about hackathons I had participated in. Then, it moved into core technical and resume-based questions. Topics Covered: Computer Networks What is a network? Types of network threats What is encryption? Explain types of encryption. DevOps and Tools Since I had mentioned Docker, Git, GitHub, and Linux in my resume, I was asked: What is an image in Docker? Difference between Git and GitHub. Common Linux commands: explain about chmod, chown, ping Port numbers of HTTPS and SSH How to check CPU and memory utilization in Windows and Linux Software Engineering What does the term Software Engineering mean to you? Database Management (DBMS) Difference between DELETE and TRUNCATE Difference between WHERE and HAVING Types of SQL statements What is indexing? What is normalization? Types of joins Create and use a database in MySQL (I had to write SQL queries live via screen sharing). Python and Other Tech What is self in Python? How do you connect MongoDB with Python? What is Jira Work Management? (I had this certification on my resume.) What is Cloud Computing? DSA (Coding Question) They gave a string-based problem: “Given a string, print the most occurring character and its count.” I had to write and explain the code in VS Code via screen sharing. After the interview (about 1 hour later), I received a mail saying I was selected for Round 2.

Round 3 Technical + Behavioral Interview Same Day: October 9, 2025 (After 4 hours) Candidates Selected: 22 students (≈ 50% male and 50% female) Interviewer: 1 (very friendly and calm) This round was quite conversational and project-focused. Questions Asked: Tell me about yourself. What hackathons have you participated in? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them? What is Jira Work Management (again)? Tell me something that’s not in your resume. Explain the certifications/achievements you’ve mentioned. Discussion about my projects - purpose, tech stack, and impact. A few simple scenario-based questions related to projects. Where do you live? Questions about extra-curricular activities. Finally, he gave me a logical coding problem: There are multiple JSON documents like { code: "400", label: "hello" } (about 1000+). Write a pseudo-code to search for the word “hello”. If found →

return “Found”, else → “No”. He said I could use any language and didn’t need to run it. I wrote the pseudo-code using JavaScript. The interview ended on a positive and friendly note. Final Results After 4 days (on October 13, 2025), we received the final results. Out of 22 candidates, 14 were selected . 8 girls and 6 boys. I’m happy to share that I was one of the selected candidates! 🎉 Key Takeaways: Focus on your basics. especially DBMS, CN, OS, OOPS, SQL and DSA. Be ready for resume-based questions (whatever you mention can be asked). AI Interview might seem simple but is used heavily for shortlisting, so speak clearly and confidently. For technical rounds, they check both concept clarity and practical understanding. Stay calm and be genuine during behavioral questions . it really helps.