Coding questions
CGI Online Assessment
Overview
The CGI online assessment (OA) is the first round of fresher hiring, and clearing it shortlists you for interviews, not an offer. Format (candidate-reported): Aptitude + tech MCQ/SQL/coding (counts vary). Full process: Online test → Technical → HR. Eligibility: Often 60% / 6.0 (some notes 6.5 in grad); no active backlogs.
Here is how public prep guides and student write-ups describe the CGI online assessment. This is not an official company brochure.
Limited detailed public fresher OA write-ups; pattern notes synthesised carefully from listed sources only.
Usual selection rounds
Rounds students usually mention: Aptitude/technical online test (typical IT-services) → Technical interview → HR
| Item | From student reports |
|---|---|
| Platform | Varies by drive |
| Online test summary | India fresher drives commonly follow services-company aptitude + tech MCQ/coding then interviews; exact counts not stably published - confirm college placement email. |
| Eligibility notes | Drive-specific - confirm notification |
| Branches (reported) | Confirm notification |
Online test sections
Section-level detail not verified in our source set yet - use the placement email / official PDF.
Extra notes from sources
- Public fresher sectional counts are sparse; check your college placement email or official notification for exact section counts.
Sample practice question styles
These are practice questions for speed - not claimed to be from a real CGI live paper.
Coding Q1: First unique character
Problem: Find the first non-repeating character in a string and return its index, or -1 if none exists.
Approach: Count frequencies in one pass (hash map or array of 26 for lowercase). Second pass returns the first index with count 1.
Complexity: O(n) time
CGI tip: Restate the problem, sketch a brute-force idea, then tighten it. Call out edge cases (empty input, single element, overflow) before you write code.
Coding Q2: Stack with min
Problem: Design a stack that supports push, pop, top, and getMin in average O(1) time.
Approach: Keep a parallel min-stack (or store pairs). When pushing, also push the new minimum. When popping, pop both stacks.
Complexity: O(1) per operation amortized
CGI tip: Restate the problem, sketch a brute-force idea, then tighten it. Call out edge cases (empty input, single element, overflow) before you write code.
Coding Q3: Maximum subarray sum (Kadane)
Problem: Given an integer array, find the contiguous subarray with the largest sum and return that sum. Example: [-2,1,-3,4,-1,2,1,-5,4] → 6 (from [4,-1,2,1]).
Approach: Keep a running sum. If the running sum drops below 0, reset it to 0 before taking the next element (or track the best ending-here value). Track the global maximum as you scan once from left to right.
Complexity: O(n) time, O(1) extra space
CGI tip: Restate the problem, sketch a brute-force idea, then tighten it. Call out edge cases (empty input, single element, overflow) before you write code.
Coding Q4: Reverse a string in place
Problem: Given a mutable character array representing a string, reverse it in place without allocating another array of the same size.
Approach: Use two pointers at the start and end. Swap characters, then move inward until the pointers meet. Watch empty and single-character inputs.
Complexity: O(n) time, O(1) extra space
CGI tip: Restate the problem, sketch a brute-force idea, then tighten it. Call out edge cases (empty input, single element, overflow) before you write code.
Prep tips from those student reports
- Aptitude speed
- Core CS + one language
Sources
- CGI careers India (other)
These notes come from public reports and can differ by campus, year, and role. If your college placement email or the official careers/notification PDF says something different, follow that.