Capgemini on campus interview experience

(Software Engineer || alpha_ & root_). Chances for 5.75 vs 7.5?

Didn't find many 2027 interview experiences while prepping, so posting mine. Long, sorry.

Role was Software Engineer || alpha_ & root_, bands 5.75 / 7.5 LPA, and it's one round with technical and HR mixed together.

Some backstory: I was first shortlisted for the 13 and 16 LPA role, but I didn't perform well in that test, so I got moved down to the lower-package track and started again with that test. From there I cleared the MCQs, debugging and AI-assisted coding sections and got the interview.

So I go in and the guy is already typing on his laptop. He just sat there for like 20-30 seconds doing his own work. Then he asked for my CV and ID card, checked them, and asked me to introduce myself. Easy.

Then he saw my data warehouse project, asked if I use SQL, and asked what a star schema is. Answered that properly.

Then he saw my vector DB project and asked: say you have millions of enterprise documents and you want RAG, which data structure would you use? I said KD-tree and HNSW because that's what I used in my project. He goes "are you sure?" I said yes. He just said okay and looked uninterested, still doing his thing.

Then he asked "what happens when you type a URL?" I said DNS converts it to an IP and you get redirected to the site. That's it. Missed TCP, TLS, HTTP, rendering, all of it. My bad.

Then he wrote an array of numbers on paper and asked me to put all evens on the left and all odds on the right. "Use the right data structure and write it fast." I asked if I should do it in place or if I can use extra memory. He said "do what you think". So I made two arrays, one for evens, one for odds, and merged them. He said "you're making two data structures? Are you sure this is right?" Honestly I knew it was two pointers, but he kept saying "data structure" so I thought he wanted some other data structure, and I blanked. Told him I can't think of one right now.

Then: your website isn't working for more than 1000 users, how do you fix it? I said it's a scalability issue and my answer went in the wrong direction. He said he didn't think that would fix it, and I said I can't think of an efficient solution right now. I haven't studied system design at all, so yeah.

Then an HR one: client changes the requirement 2 days before the deadline and you're the only one on it, what do you do? I said I'd check how much time the change needs, then ask the client if a partial delivery is okay or if we can set a new deadline for the full thing. This one went okay.

Then he asked if I had questions. I asked what the first 5-6 months are like for a fresher, what projects we get and how to grow early on. While answering he asked: you know C++ and Python but not Java, if you join and need to learn Java in 2 weeks, what's your reaction? I said I'd happily learn it, I did Java in 2nd year, just need a refresher. He said "oh you'd learn it, good". I asked about the next step and he said "we will communicate". Done.

Whole thing felt weird. He was busy the entire time and the "are you sure?" every time made it impossible to tell if I was right or wrong. Not asked: OOP, OS, DBMS theory, nothing like that.

What I'd do differently: say out loud what I know, like "I can do this with two pointers in O(1) space or with two extra arrays, which one do you want?" And learn basic system design and the full URL to webpage chain. Also KD-trees are bad for high-dimensional embeddings, HNSW or IVF is the usual answer.

Questions:
1. Anyone know what alpha_ and root_ mean and how they map to 5.75 vs 7.5?
2. Can the interview change your band or is it set by the online test? I already got moved down once after the first test, so I'm wondering if it can move again.
3. If someone messed up live coding or system design but did fine on HR, what happened?
4. How long did you wait for the result?

Will update when I hear back. Good luck to everyone still going through it!