HCL Interview Questions

Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL) is an active recruiter and it conducts the recruitment every year to hire new talented candidates for multiple job roles. The selection process of the company generally comprises these 4 rounds.

• Written/Aptitude Assessment Round
• Group Discussion
• Technical Interview Round
• HR Round

• Written/Aptitude Assessment Round: In the first round, the questions are around verbal reasoning and quantitative ability. These are in the form of multiple-choice questions, conducted online. This round is usually for freshers, and not for experienced candidates.
• Group Discussion: Group Discussion is an important part of the selection process where the recruiters assess whether a candidate has certain personality traits that an organization wishes to see in its employees. In this round, teams are formed and given a common topic of discussion/argument. One could select whether they wish to talk about points for the topic or against the said topic. It could also be a general discussion about a recent happening. A few traits observed in this round are Team spirit, ability to come up with answers on the spot, how to resolve conflicts, knowledge on recent topics, and so on.
• Technical Interview Round: For the technical round, questions can be asked from topics like C, C++, JAVA, UNIX, LINUX, etc. A good practice for being able to crack this round would be to be thorough with your fundamentals. We have listed some questions for the technical round below. The interviewers might also ask questions on your current year projects. For an experienced candidate, most of the questions will be from the resume and also previous work experience.
• HR Round: This is the final round of the HCL interview process. In this round, the recruiters ask general questions. Among these, they also evaluate parameters like your interest in joining the organization. They ask questions ranging from your personal goals and ambitions, to why you would like to work in their organization. 

The finalize () method in java is a special method similar to the main method in java. Before the garbage collector reclaims the object, finalize () method is called as its last chance for any object to perform a clean up activity. This means releasing any fixed order resources held, terminating a connection if open, and so on.

For instance:

protected void finalize throws Throwable{}

A reason why polymorphism is needed in Java is that the concept is extensively used in implementing inheritance. It plays a crucial role in allowing the object having a different internal structure to share the same external interface. 

Example:

 class Vehicle{  
  void run(){System.out.println("running");}  
}  
class Bike extends Vehicle{  
  void run(){System.out.println("running safely with 60km");}  
  
  public static void main(String args[]){  
    Vehicle b = new Bike();
    b.run();  
  }  
}  

In the above example, “class Bike extends Vehicle” means that the class Bike is inherited within the class Vehicle. With this, new internal structures can be created within the same external class. 

In C++, the input stream is used to get inputs from the console i.e. the user. The output stream is used to display the results of the operations to the console, or to the output device. iostream represents the standard input-output stream in C++. It contains different methods like cin, cout etc.

Constant variables have a fixed value that cannot be modified throughout the program. Global variables can be changed and are accessible by all the functions in a program. 

For example:

#include<stdio.h>
int m = 20, n = 40; //global variable
int a = 50, b = 80;//global variable
int main()
{
printf("These are variables are accessed from main function");
a=24;
void sample()
{
int t=20; // Local variable
}
}

Nested classes mean that we can define a class inside another class in an Object-oriented programming language (OOP). The enclosed class is called a nested class. A nested class has the same access rights as other members of the class and is like another member of the outer class.

For example:

class Outer_class{  
 //code  
 class Inner_class{  
  //code  
 }  
}  

In the above example, the Inner class is nested within the Outer class. The inner class will have the same access rights as the outer class. Nested classes help to group classes in one group.

The different Cloud computing service models can be categorized as follows:

• IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): It is a computing infrastructure managed over the internet.
• PaaS (Platform as a Service): PaaS cloud computing platform is created for programmers to develop, test, run, as well as manage applications.
• SaaS (Software as a Service): In this, applications are hosted by a cloud service provider.
• FaaS (Function as a service): This provides a platform that allows customers to develop, run, and manage app functionalities without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure that is associated with the process of launching an app.

Big data, as the name suggests, means large volumes of data. The data available to us from multiple online platforms today is complex and huge. For traditional systems to analyze and process, and to interpret something meaningful from the data is quite challenging. Here is where big data comes into the picture. Big data is helpful to solve a large number of business problems right from predictive maintenance, machine learning, customer experience, and so on.

Following are some of the features of big data:

• Velocity
• Volume
• Value
• Variety.
• Veracity.
• Validity.
• Volatility.
• Visualization.

Some of the most important software analysis and designing tools are:

• Data Flow Diagrams
• Structured Charts
• Structured English
• Data Dictionary
• Hierarchical Input Process Output diagrams
• Entity Relationship Diagrams and Decision tables

Structured English is used to write the structure of a program module. It is a native English language. It uses the keywords of programming language. On the other hand, Pseudo Code is more like a programming language without the syntax of any specific language.

The following are some of the important uses of pointers in C:

• To access array elements: Pointers are used in traversing through an array of integers and strings. The string is an array of characters that is terminated by a null character '\0'.
• For dynamic memory allocation: Pointers are used in the allocation and deallocation of memory while the program is being executed.
• Call by Reference: The pointers are used to pass the reference of a variable to another function.
• Data Structures like a graph, tree, linked list, etc.: The pointers are used to construct a number of data structures like graph, tree, linked list, and so on.

Following are some of the differences between C & C++:

• C does not support inheritance. Whereas, C++ supports inheritance.
• C focuses on method or process, instead of focusing on data. On the other hand, C++ focuses on data instead of focusing on method or procedure.
• In C, scanf() and printf() functions are used for input / output. In C++, cin and cout are used for input / output.
• Reference variables are not supported by C but are supported by C++.
• Exception handling is not supported by C, whereas     Exception handling is supported by C++.
• C structures don’t have access modifiers, while C ++ structures have access modifiers.

The 4 pillars of Object-oriented programming systems (OOPs) are as follows:

• Inheritance: Using this property, one object can acquire some/all properties of another object.
• Abstraction: Abstraction is the process of selecting data from a larger pool to only show the relevant details to the object.
• Encapsulation:  Encapsulation is accomplished when each object inside a class maintains a private state.
• Polymorphism:   Polymorphism provides a way to use a class exactly like its parent so there is no confusion with mixing types.

A function is a unit of code that is used for the purpose of reusability of a part of a program. An SQL aggregate function calculates on a set of values and returns a single value. The function should return a value. Some SQL aggregate functions are as follows:

• AVG() - It returns the average of a set.
• COUNT() - It returns the number of items in a set.
• MAX() - It returns the maximum value in a set.
• MIN() - It returns the minimum value in a set.
• SUM() - It returns the sum of all or distinct values in a set.

Constraints in SQL are the limits or rules that we can apply to the different types of data in a given table. Constraints are used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data in the table.

The constraints in SQL are as follows:

• NOT NULL: This particular constraint informs us that one cannot store a null value within a column.
• UNIQUE: When specified with a column, this constraint informs that all the values in a given column must be unique.
• PRIMARY KEY: A primary key is a field that can uniquely identify each row in a table. This is typically used to specify a field in a table as the primary key.
• FOREIGN KEY: A Foreign key is a field that can uniquely identify each row in another table.
• CHECK: This constraint helps us to validate the values of a column to attain a particular condition.
• DEFAULT: This constraint gives a default value for the column when the user does not specify a value.

The Database management system (DBMS), is software or a tool that helps in managing the data of the entire organization. Large amounts of data can be stored properly and can be presented as information whenever required to take business decisions. 

Following are some of the features of a Database management system (DBMS):

• Database Customization.
• Easiness in Data Management.
• Data Availability.
• Minimized Redundancy.
• Data Accuracy, Consistency and Relevance.
• File Consistency.
• Improved Data Security.
• Data Structuring.

Some DBMS examples are MySQL, PostgreSQL, FileMaker, Oracle, Microsoft Access.

The only way to implement multiple inheritances is to implement multiple interfaces in a class. In Java, one class can implement two or more interfaces. As all methods declared in interfaces are implemented in the class, this does not cause any ambiguity.

Example:

 // Importing input output classes
import java.io.*;
 
//  Class 1
// First Parent class
class Parent1 {
 
  // Method inside first parent class
  void fun() {
 
    // Print statement if this method is called
    System.out.println("Parent1");
  }
}
 
// Class 2
// Second Parent Class
class Parent2 {
 
  // Method inside first parent class
  void fun() {
 
    // Print statement if this method is called
    System.out.println("Parent2");
  }
}
 
// Class 3
// Trying to be child of both the classes
class Test extends Parent1, Parent2 {
 
  // Main driver method
  public static void main(String args[]) {
 
    // Creating object of class in main() method
    Test t = new Test();
 
    // When we try to call above functions of class, error is thrown as this class is inheriting multiple classes
    t.fun();
  }
}

In the above example, we have defined a method inside both parent classes. When we use “class Test extends Parent1, Parent2”, an error is thrown as this class is inheriting multiple classes.

‘init’ basically stands for initialization. The role of init is to create processes from the script stored in the file which is a configuration file. This is then to be used by the initialization system. The __init__ method is similar to constructors in C++ and Java.

Example:

# init method or constructor   
 def __init__(self, name):  
     self.name = name  

In the above example, the name passed as an argument will be passed to the __init__ method to initialize the object. The keyword self represents the instance of a class and binds the attributes with the given arguments. 

The main role of the Domain Name System (DNS) is to translate domain names into IP Addresses. These IP addresses are the ones that computers can understand. It also gives a list of mail servers that accept Emails for each domain name. Every domain name in the DNS will nominate a set of name servers to be authoritative for its DNS records. For example, when a Web address (URL) is typed into a browser, a DNS query is made to learn an IP address of a Web server associated with that name.

Following are some of the differences between C and Java:

• C is more procedure-oriented, whereas Java is more data-oriented.
• C is a middle-level language as the binding of the gaps takes place between machine level language and high-level languages. On the other hand, Java is a high-level language as the translation of code takes place into machine language using either a compiler or an interpreter.
• C usually breaks down to functions, whereas Java breaks down to Objects.
• Memory allocation can be done by malloc in C, and memory allocation can be done by a new keyword in Java.
• C does not support the concept of ‘threading’. Java supports the concept of ‘threading’.
• C supports pointers, whereas Java does not support pointers.

One of the key differences between a compiler, an interpreter, and an assembler is this - The compiler converts the whole high-level language program to machine language at a time. On the other hand, an interpreter converts high-level language programs to machine language line by line. An assembler converts assembly language programs to machine language.

Useful Preparation Resources:

Coding Practice

Java Interview

C Interview

.Net Interview

Automation Testing Interview

Networking Interview

While applying for any job and preparing for an interview, you should keep these things in mind to make it easier for you to crack the interview:

• Thoroughly go through the Job Description in order to understand the requirements of the company better. Optimize your Resume accordingly, covering all points that you have accomplished and learned.
• Practice for the Aptitude test beforehand. Take a few tests online to get used to the types of questions expected from you.
• For the Group Discussion round, be confident while it's your turn to speak. Have proper knowledge on the latest happening and in the tech space, as some topics of discussion are around these.
• It’s good to practice communication skills before the interview.
• For the technical round, go through the topics that are commonly asked and prepare your answers.
• Try different problem-solving methods to improve your skills.
• Prepare from your previous interview experiences.

The HCL Interview process is easy if you’re well prepared. The whole process for hiring in HCL takes about a week generally; however, sometimes the process may go on for longer. The first round is an aptitude test which is easy. The shortlisted candidates are then selected for a group discussion round. If you have proper knowledge about general happenings and are confident, then this part of the interview is easy too. For the interview and technical questions round, be well prepared as it is slightly different from other companies. 

HCL is a company where innovation and culture are at the core. As an individual, I would like to expand my horizons along with contribute to the growth of the company. Moreover, the concept of ‘Ideapreneurship’ that the company believes in, truly inspires me. Having an opportunity to present ideas to achieve the company goals interests me. 

HCL Technologies conducts campus recruitment drives to recruit fresh graduates from colleges across India for various job roles in their company. There are also off-campus drives. They typically have 4 rounds to get selected - Aptitude, GD, Technical and HR. With proper preparation in these rounds, you can get placed in HCL.

The average salary of freshers at HCL Technologies ranges between ₹ 1.6 Lakhs to ₹ 4 Lakhs PA in India.