ISS Stoxx Interview Experience

About me

I am Piyush Tilokani, a final-year Information Technology student from VESIT. I am a passionate developer with an interest in development and problem-solving.

About ISS Stoxx

ISS STOXX GmbH, through its group companies, is a leading provider of comprehensive and data-centric research and technology solutions that help capital market participants identify investment opportunities, detect qualitative and quantitative portfolio company risks, and meet evolving regulatory requirements.
ISS website

Job roles

ISS came up with 4 different job roles, each had its technical requirements.

Below are the job roles along with their detailed job descriptions

Eligibility criteria

• Branches Eligible are BE (CMPN, INFT, AI&DS, ETRX and EXTC)

• No live ATKT and No Gaps

• Aggregate CGPI till current semester: 8.5 and above

Timeline

• The registration form was released on 17th July and the deadline was 18th July 2024, 2:30 pm

• The Preplacement Talk was on 22nd July online on Microsoft teams

• The aptitude test, Technical interview and HR Interview all took place on 23rd July 2024

Round 1 - Aptitude Test

This was the first round of the ISS campus placement drive, where 190+ students appeared.

Additional details about the test:-

• Platform: Google form

• Venue: College labs

• We were allowed to use the system calculator

• Reporting time: 8:20 am

• Test timings: 9:00 am - 10: 30 am (Duration: 90 minutes)

• Marking scheme: +1 for each correct answer and -0.25 for each wrong answer

No. of questions: 70 (Divided into 4 sections)

1. Java - 18 Questions

   OOPs, Guess the output, Core Java, Collections framework, design pattern, etc

2. Python - 17 Questions

   Guess the output, Python shortcuts, List comprehension, etc.

3. SQL - 5 Questions

   Select the correct query for a given task

4. Aptitude - 30 Questions

   Quants(Speed, distance, time, PnC, Probability, Series, AP, GP, etc) had more weightage but logical(Directions, seating arrangement, questions on clock) questions were also asked

After the 1st round, only 57 out of 190 candidates were selected for technical interview.

Tips for Aptitude round:

• First of all, check the PC allocated to you, check the internet connection and the calculator in it

• Be thorough with the fundamentals of Java and Python. These are the sections that save you time and gain maximum marks

• SQL was the easiest part. You can eliminate a few options if you have a basic knowledge of SQL syntax

• Aptitude was the lengthiest part. Try saving extra time(preferably 45 minutes or more) for it and try to eliminate options wherever possible

Round 2 - Technical Interview

Around 60 minutes after the aptitude test, selected candidates were called for technical interviews. We were expected to carry a hard copy of our resume.
I was the last candidate to be interviewed in my panel and had 4 others going before me so I had ample time to revise some important topics.

My preferred roles were:

1. Junior Analyst Software Engineer

2. Junior Analyst Analytical Verification

My technical interview began at around 5:00 pm and lasted till around 6:30 pm

As I entered the interview room, the interviewer asked me how I was and how the test went.

I answered this in detail explaining how each section of the test went for me.

The interviewer started looking at my resume and asked me a few questions based on it.

Questions:

• What is AWS and what services does it provide?

• What do you know about AWS EC2 and S3?

• Have you learned C programming?

To which, I replied yes and told her that we were taught DSA in C during our 3rd semester. I explained how creating custom data types in C(using struct) was tedious as it did not follow DRY principles.

This directed the interview toward the need for Object-Oriented Programming and its features. The next few questions were as follows:

• What is a class?

• What is an object?

• What is inheritance?

• What are the 4 pillars of OOPs?

• I was asked to implement a class Complex for complex numbers and implement a method to find and return the product of 2 complex numbers

After a good QnA on Java, I was asked the leet code problem maximum subarray

Then I was asked a few questions on SQL:

• What is unique constraint?

• What is indexing?

• Why is indexing used? What are its benefits?

• A few queries related to aggregate functions, GROUP BY and nested subqueries were asked

At the end, I was asked a puzzle

Then the interviewer asked me if I had any questions for her. I asked a couple of questions after which my interview was over.

After the technical interview, only 21 out of 57 candidates were selected for HR interview.

Tips for technical interview:

• Explain each step and every line of code/logic you think

• Even if you don't write any code, just speak out about what you are thinking and how are you approaching the problem

• This shows that you're trying to solve the problem as well as explain to them your thought process behind it

• The interviewer may also nudge you in the right direction if you're going wrong

• Always research about the company and have some questions ready for them

Round 3 - HR Interview

• What is your family background?

• Tell me about your internship experiences

• Do you prefer frontend development more than backend? (As most of my work was frontend oriented)

• Why ISS?

• What are your hobbies? (Apart from tech and work)

• Which language do you prefer more? Java/Python?

• How would you travel to the office daily?

• Are you comfortable with relocation?

• Are you more comfortable with React or Angular?

• Do you have any questions for us?

The HR interviews ended at 10 pm. The results were out by 11:26 pm and, 15 out of the 21 candidates were selected for a full-time role at ISS.

Tips

1. Make sure to have a good intro as it sets the tone for the interview. Try to mention your strengths with concrete examples/experiences

2. Before starting to write anything on paper/computer, try to explain your thought process behind it

3. Make sure you are loud and confident with your answers

Resources

1. DSA and OOPs in Java : Kunal Kushwaha

2. Core Java : Telusko

3. Database Management System : CodeHelp

4. Operating System : CodeHelp

5. Computer Network : CN cheatsheet

6. Aptitude Learning (CareerRide) : Quantitative, Logical Reasoning

7. Aptitude Solving : Indiabix

8. Output based MCQs : Java, Python

Connect with me

• LinkedIn

• Github

• Leetcode

• Resume