ION group visited my campus at the start of August, offering 3 roles - SDE, TA(Technical Analyst), and DS (Data Science). I applied for the DS role.
Eligibility Criteria was 75 % in 10th, 12th, and pursuing degree.
The selection process consisted of a total of 6 rounds, 1 online assessment, and 5 interviews.
Online Assessment Round
3500 people applied for all three roles combined and got the link for the online assessment. OA was different for different roles. I will be specifying about the DS role. There were around 20 questions - MCQ questions based on English, aptitude, SQL, and Python, 1 SQL query (medium), and 1 ML problem ( dataset was given, we had to code in Jupyter notebook and submit an output CSV file with our prediction value).
~1100 were selected for 1st interview round. The interviews were taken in groups. My interview was scheduled for the third week of August.
1st Round: Technical (1hr 30 mins)
- Some basic questions on Python, pandas, and matplotlib - codes
- Discussion on the projects and internship. I had a sudoku solver project in my resume so he asked about the algo used and asked to code it in Python.
- Some DBMS concepts and 1 puzzle mislabeled-jars
2nd Round: Case study
- happened just 15-30 mins after the tech round
- The same interviewer asked a case about whether we can open a Cafe business given certain details and what strategies would employ to ensure sales during the starting period.
- Follow up on how to increase profit once the cafe is established.
3rd Round: Stakeholder round (HM)
This round was scheduled on the next day of the case study round. 30 min asked in depth about projects, then asked why data science. What does a Data scientist do? What kind of work do you want to do and asked something like a case, but more technical, like giving consumer goods data with an overstocking issue what steps could be taken, and what data would be needed.
4th round: ION day (Noida office) culture fit
- The travel and stay was arranged by the company.
- GD with ION India head Mr. Sanjay Chikara.
- only 3 questions - intro, passion and why the role you applied.
- After that a question was asked and we needed to solve it as a group.
- Tip: For this round be confident, clear and try to be interactive.
5th round: Future fit
- 10-15 mins, online via teams 2 days after the 4th round.
- General questions -
- Intro, why data scientist
- About my specialization and subjects, what I am good at in the field of data science
- What do you know about ION , what does ION do, what does data scientist at ION do,
- Have u ever been outside India, if given a chance where would you like to go.
Got the selection mail, the next day. 88 students got selected (including all the three roles)