SAP Labs held an on-campus interview for their SAP Scholar (2024) Program for the BCA and B.sc students. SAP Scholar is a Work Integrated Learning Programme in which they provide an M. Tech degree from BITS Pilani and along with that one gets to work at SAP Labs. During the weekdays you will have to work and on Saturdays, you will have to attend the classes which will happen at the SAP Campus itself, along with that you’ll get another benefit. The second year is followed by a 10% appraisal, and from the third year if you maintain good grades in your academics you are gone through a review process and if the manager approves that, you are assigned a Full-time Engineer role at SAP Labs.

So this is how the interview happened, there were a total of 4 rounds.

• Online Assessment
• Technical Round 1
• Technical Round 2
• VT/HR Round

Online Assessment

At first, we got an email from our University’s placement cell about the Scholar@SAP Programme. Around 15 students applied for it. The round consisted of two questions one was easy and the second one was medium. I don’t remember the second question, though the first was, given an array place all the odd numbers first and the even numbers after that in a sorted order I was able to complete both questions along with all the test cases. After 2 days of the first round, we got the result and only I was selected from our college. You have to complete both questions to qualify for the next round, as a few of the other candidates only solved one question. So, I was called to another University for the later rounds which were going to happen 2 weeks later, and all the rounds were to be conducted on that day only.

Technical Round 1

We were asked to come at 9:30 A.M. There were around 65 students from different colleges there. The interviewers were from SAP. There were around 15 people from SAP Labs. Then they started with a presentation about the company and how it works they asked a few general questions from the students too. After that, the process began, I prepared all the questions that are generally asked in SAP Scholar interviews.
Firstly he asked me to give me introduction then proceeded with the questions. The majority of the questions that the interviewer asked were from the resume only, from the projects, academic projects, and past internships. Apart from that he asked me about the time complexity of sorting algorithms.
Then he asked about what is collections in Java. I told him about that then he asked me what the different data structures it provides. I told him that I am more comfortable with Python and then he asked just to explain the different types of data structures. He also asked about dynamic programming, I was nervous as I haven’t done much of the dynamic programming questions but he just asked me to explain what it is. I explained it well along with an example and he was satisfied with that. After that, he asked me about what is a hashmap. Then he asked me if I had any questions for him, I asked a few questions about the different domains in the company. After that, he told me to wait. I waited for around 30-45 minutes and got to know I was selected for the next round.

Technical Round 2

After 2-3 hours the Technical Round 2 round began, and the interviewer started with the introduction part. He was also looking at the resume and asking most of the questions from there only. I would highly suggest whatever you write in the resume prepare it well. After asking about the internships and projects he asked me what would rate myself in data structures out of 10, I told him 7. Then he asked why 7, and we had a brief discussion about the same that why people chose 7.
There are a few articles on the same (I knew about it) and told him about the same, he was impressed. Then he asked me to write the algorithm to perform a binary search on a linked list. I asked him about edge cases and other things, and once I understood it completely, I proceed with the approach. I got stuck while writing the algorithm, but the interviewer helped me, and before I wrote it he gave me another question, to reverse a linked list. I wrote the algorithm but I wasn’t satisfied and while explaining it to him, I knew it was wrong, maybe due to nervousness I messed up.
Then he switched the topic and asked about the projects and internship projects. Then he asked a SQL question to get the 2nd highest salary from an Employee table. I solved and explained it by using ORDER BY and LIMIT and he was satisfied with the solution. Then he asked me about what are your hobbies. I told him I like to play cricket and chess, and then he asked me about what is streak of India against Pakistan in the World Cup, I knew about it and told him 7-0. We had a brief discussion about cricket. Then I asked him if I could give another try to the linked list question and was able to solve it this time, and he was satisfied with the approach.

Tip: Keep explaining what you are writing while you are solving the question.

HR Round

After 30 mins I came to know I was selected for the next round, there were a total of 18-20 students among the 65 who were for the last round. It began and the interviewer asked me to give an introduction, then he asked me about my academics and why there is a growth in the percentage. Then he asked me questions from the presentation which they showed us in the morning. He asked me to name one company that was shown in the presentation and how different products of SAP Labs can help to grow their business. I was well prepared for the question and answered it, and it went smoothly. Then he asked in which domain or product you want to work in SAP Labs. Later he asked what will be the challenges if you were selected and asked to relocate to Banglore. I answered it all and the interviewer also seemed satisfied with the answers, after that he told me to wait till tomorrow for the results.

Result

After a whole tiring day I came home and slept, The next morning I checked the emails and there was an email from SAP Labs unfortunately I wasn’t selected, they didn’t state the reason. Though the result the day before around 10 P.M.

If you are sitting for the Scholar@SAP interview make sure you have a pretty good grip on data structures. Also, make sure to solve puzzles. I wasn’t asked questions from puzzles but they generally ask. Apart from that solve a few SQL questions which are generally asked and make sure you can explain each and everything from your resume. Also, analyze the company, its clients, the products, the CEO, and other things related to it. Good Luck.