Polaris Interview Questions
& Process

So after I did the online assessment, there were three rounds of interviews. First was a full technical one, then we talked in detail about my projects, and the last one was an HR round. They were all checking different things like skills, experience, how I communicate, and if I'd be a good fit for the role.

So first there was an online assessment that I could take from home. I don't recall the exact questions, but they differed for AIML students compared to CSE/ISE. For AIML, it was 3 SQL, 2 DSA, and 3 ML questions, plus some MCQs, totaling around 35 questions. After passing that, I had an on-campus interview two days later. It started with a pre-placement talk, then the interview itself. The panels were different for CSE/ISE and AIML. I waited from 11 am to 5 pm, being called in later. They introduced themselves and talked about work-life at Polaris. Then they asked about my projects, followed by SQL queries, which seemed to be common for everyone. The SQL wasn't too tough, covering basics like ORDER BY and GROUP BY, but no joins for me. I got rejected in this first round because it was my first interview, and I was nervous and underprepared, especially lacking detailed knowledge of my project. I only knew the overview. My friend, who got selected, went through more rounds. In their first round, they asked ML/DL terms like one-hot encoding with code, label encoding, and how some ML algorithms work. The second round was a deep dive into projects on the resume, questioning why certain algorithms were chosen. The third round was more relaxed, with casual conversation about family. So, advice for Polaris on-campus interviews: some students faced the same SQL questions as the OA in rounds 1 or 2. My friend got asked the ML code from the OA. So, review those questions. Also, have deep, detailed knowledge of your resume projects. Basic Python DSA knowledge is also needed, as some were asked to write code like reversing an array or checking for a palindrome. The Polaris staff were very nice and encouraging, even cheering me up after my rejection and telling me there are many more opportunities. It seems like a great team and company to work and learn with.

The interview was 1 hour long. The first 30 minutes were spent discussing my experience and asking general questions. The second half involved a coding exercise in Google Docs. The question was about the Russian doll envelope problem, which you can look up. I presented a brute-force solution, but the interviewer was looking for an optimized approach, which I couldn't figure out in the given time. The interview ended 5 minutes early.

Started with a recruiter chat, pretty standard stuff about the company and the gig. Then I talked to the team supervisor, which was really direct and conversational. The last part was an in-office interview with four different people from the department plus HR. This was also very conversational, with not many typical interview questions.