Date – 06-July-2020, Duration 43-45 minutes (2:45pm to 3:30) (online using Google meet platform)
There was one seminar before the actual interview to familiarize the candidates with the process and area. We have to write our preferences in Google doc shared 5-6 days before.
Background Subject – Computer Organization, Operating System.
Research Sub-areas – Database, Operating System
Started with presenting my application profile, then asking basic question related to year gap, and Gate Score.
Asked about preference between Database and Operating System. (I said I like both)
Prof. Deepak D Souza was coordinating between faculty - Prof. Vinod Ganapathy (asked question for OS), Prof. R.C. Hansdah (Database), Prof. Matthew Jacob (computer architecture).
(I will try to frame questions as exactly as they said, and will give gist of answers I told, as thinking and presentation skills are different for different persons)
---------------------------------------------Started with Matthew Jacob Sir.
- Can we represent any real number in computer?
[Told about floating point IEEE 754, or rounding techniques involved, range involved and if some are number are not able to represent then we have to round them.] [ that is not any but within range]
- What is the format for IEEE single precision format with subparts?
[Told with proper explanation and showed the picture also.]
- How do we do floating point addition in computer.
[Told about normalizing result and adjusting exponent.]
- Can we pipeline the floating-point addition?
[Yes, initially i didn’t understand then he asked about pipelining]
He got disconnected midway and couldn’t join. (may be network problem)
-----------------------------------------------And Vinod Sir took the command.
He showed slide pictures and asked basic question on it.
- Showed the slides, Picture was like
int p = 1234; // (some number)
printf(“%d”, &p);
- How
printf works.
- What is the role of OS?
- What is system call. What does it do? we have library file where
printf code will be there, so how does system call work
[ I started with explaining system call behind the printf() function, then he asked question mentioned above ]
((he asked if have printf working code in library file then why we need system call, since printf code will do the work))
- Showed next slide
printf(……)
{
// implementation of printf
}
- How system call is different from normal function call. (again told about OS, security and system call)
- What exactly it will differ in hypothetical OS.
(told about user mode, at that point I understand what I have to say in previous question, he immediately asked me about how user mode will be converted to kernel mode. I said there is bit. He said who change it. I said OS. He said How. I was not knowing at that time)
- Showed one more
running the both code in uni-processor system.
//code 1
[p1] int *p;
[p2] p = 12345566h ; // some address
[p3] *p = 1;
[p4] printf(“%d”, &p);
|
//code 2
[q1] int *q;
[q2] q = 12345566h; // same address
[q3] *q = 2;
|
- What will be the output when it runs parallel in the uniprocessor system? (told about race around condition)
- Which line would require the OS help? (confused about p3, told about p1, p2, p4)
---------------------Jayant Sir was not present so, database question was asked by RC Hansdah sir.
- What is the definition of relation in Relational DBMS? (told)
- What is mathematical definition of Relation? ( I got confused I said I don’t know, I haven’t read. But after interview I think I could have said relation definition I studied in Discrete Mathematics)
- What is candidate key, Foreign key, Primary Key? (told)
- Difference between Primary Key and Foreign Key? (told)
- What is transaction? (told)
- What are the properties of transaction? (told about ACID property)
- What is 2pl locking protocol? (told about its two phase and working)
- How does It maintain the serializability? (told how 2pl block transaction requesting for conflict resource)
- What is 2PL commit protocol? (I haven’t read about it, so told doesn’t know. this protocol is related to distributed system)
In the last they asked about if I am having question and It ended.
Result: declared shortlist on 14-July-2020. Not selected.
Score: 807, EWS
Takeaway:
- I think I should have clear priority of subject I have chosen. It gives them idea on my research interest.
- Apart from OS, I have been asked basic question. But for OS, I think if I have taken a deep breath and then answered the question, it would have helped me to present my answers beautifully.
- System Call, BIOS working, some topics required reading books apart from Gate preparation.
I have read “Principles of Operating Systems” book by Naresh Chauhan. I liked the book as it has all the basic content.
