Cognizant Software Engineer interview experience

I also went through an additional hackathon-style component as part of the later stages, and after that I had a technical interview before the HR conversation.

In the early rounds, the questions leaned on fundamental problem solving and communication, and the format felt organized rather than chaotic. Once I reached the technical part, the tone shifted: I was asked to think through real scenarios and explain them, especially around data and systems. One of the most memorable parts was the focus on an ETL-style flow—how data gets fetched from a source, what transformations happen, and how