akshit mishra

🚀 BNY Summer Internship Interview Experience

I am from PICT Pune, and in late August 2024, I had the opportunity to interview for a Summer Internship for BNY. It was the first company that had arrived for 3rd year summer internships, and it was definitely worth the hype. The process was challenging, confusing, and invigorating. Here's a detailed breakdown of my experience! 😍

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1. 🏢 Company & Role

• Company: Bank of New York
• Role: SDE Intern
• Batch/Year of Graduation: 2026
• Branch: IT

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2. 📅 Application Process

• How did you apply? On-Campus
• Timeline:
  • Application Date: within ~1 week before test
  • Online Assessment Date: 24th August, 2024
  • Interview Dates: 26th August (2 interviews)
  • Offer Date: upcoming (🤞)

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3. 💬 Interview Rounds

Round 1:Online Assessment

• Type: Coding

• Description: The round consisted of 4 questions, 2 easy/medium and 2 hard. The questions were mostly DSA based, but easier questions did not require much DSA knowledge, mostly basic math, stacks, etc. The hard questions used graph, DP, trees, and some advanced data structures like segment trees. The questions were selected from question bank (2 from easy category and 2 from hard). I don't remeber the exact questions but the concepts used were as follows.

  • Example Questions:
    1. A simple mod exponentiation problem. We had to calculate 2^n mod 1e9+7. However, the question was garbed as a graph question, something along the lines of 'find all possible graphs with nodes numbered 1 to n'. Elemntary knowledge of graph was needed to simplify it to mod exponentiation. 🤩
    2. Purely implementation problem. AFAIR, it required no special data strucutre, or logic, just arrays, knowledge of a programming language (Python, C++, Java, or Assembly, if that's what you know). In difficulty I would say it fell at 900-1000 level on CF rating. ☺️
    3. I don't have a clue of what this question was. But it was almost just as hard as next, if not more. I chose to skip this so I could focus on the next one. 🫥
    4. I got a question of DP on strings. Atleast, that's what I felt. Majority of my time went here. I (again) don't remember the problem. I was unable to pass all the test cases despite spending ~1hr+ here. 🥲

• Difficulty Level: a. and b. easy, c. and d. hard

• Your Experience: There were people who had soved all 4, and many who had solved 3. Even among those who had solved just 2, they had passed more cumulative test cases on the 2 hard questions than me. But who got selected? Seemingly random people. I think the company chose to focus not just on no. of test cases passed but also the approach to each problem, and code quality. Most other companies don't do this, and I have no idea how BNY did this (since there were 100s of students), so I can't be sure. Maybe they chose a hidden criteria, but I don't have conclusive evidence for anything.

Round 2: Online Technical Interview

• Type: Technical
• Description: Round divided into 2 major rounds. In first part, 3 quick fire questions were asked. In second part, 3 coding questions were asked, and we hade to type out the code for them during the meet in a shared code editor, in our preferred language.
• Example Questions:
  • 1. Quick fire questions. For example, what is time and space complexity of hash map? It wasn't very hard, and focusing on college DSA would be enough in most cases. 3 of these questions and it took barely 2 - 3 minutes. 🔍
  • 1. Coding test. First was very easy, it was something along the lines of mapping items and stores, and finding some information about them. I used arrays, hashmaps to solve it. Second was easy too but tough to understand. It was something like: I have 2 cars, and these cars are starting from different locations towards same final destination, and their paths meet somewhere in the middle. There were several stations along the route of both cars, with some (or no) people on every station. A person would board the car that arrives at his station first. We had to tell, in the end, which car would have which persons. The interview time was over before I could get the 3rd question.💡
• Difficulty Level: Easy to easy-medium
• Your Experience: If you, a person who has basic grasp on dsa/cp, encountered these problems in wild, you would have probably spat on them and moved on. The difficulty was not in the question itself, but rather doing it with an interviewer staring at you and you having to explain every step of your thinking process. The interview was cut short due to time because it is tough to explain everything AND code accurately, handling edge cases and logic. I slipped a little on edge cases and therefore took way longer on 2nd coding question that I would like to admit. Other than that, the interview was okayish.

• Round 3: Interview

• I will update this soon, thanks for the patience!!

🎉 Final Outcome: Selected!

In conclusion, my on-campus interview experience with BNY was both challenging and rewarding. The process tested my technical knowledge, problem-solving skills, and ability to communicate effectively under pressure. Engaging with the interviewers and learning about the company’s culture gave me valuable insights into the industry. Regardless of the outcome, the experience was a great learning opportunity that will help shape my future career.