Accenture coding assessment practice

The coding section usually gives you one or two problems within a fixed window, at easy-to-medium difficulty:

• String problems reversal, palindrome checks, character or word counts.
• Array logic sums, maximum/minimum, second largest, simple rearrangements.
• Number problems prime checks, factorial, digit sums, Armstrong or Fibonacci-style series.
• Basic pattern printing in some drives.

The emphasis is on producing a correct, working program with the exact output format, not on cracking a hard algorithm. Reading the input and output specification precisely is often the difference between full and zero marks on a problem.

You typically pick from common languages such as C, C++, Java or Python. Choose the one you write fastest, since the round tests logic, not language mastery. Fluency with reading input and formatting output matters more than clever syntax.

Submissions are graded on hidden test cases with partial credit usually available, so the winning approach is: write a correct brute-force solution, test it against the sample, and submit to bank marks before optimising. Handle obvious edge cases, empty input, single element, negatives, that graders hide in later test cases. A working simple solution beats an unfinished elegant one every time.

Count vowels in a string: a single loop with a set membership check. The only trap is case sensitivity, decide whether to count uppercase vowels and read the spec.

Check a prime number: loop to the square root of n, not to n, so larger inputs finish inside the limit.

Second largest in an array: one pass tracking largest and second-largest, with care for duplicate maximums.

Reverse words in a sentence: split on spaces, reverse the order, re-join with single spaces, watch for trailing spaces in the output, a frequent cause of failing hidden cases.

Solve one complete problem daily for a couple of weeks, rotating strings, arrays and number logic, and always write your own input parsing rather than copying boilerplate. Time each solve so an easy problem takes well under the section limit, leaving room for a harder second one.

Rehearse the full workflow, compile, run on the sample, check output character-for-character, submit, so the format discipline that decides pass or fail becomes automatic. Log any problem that stumped you and re-solve it unaided later.

After the online rounds, Accenture conducts technical and HR interviews. InterviewPrep's free AI voice mock interview builds a technical session from your CV and an Accenture role and scores your spoken answers, pace and filler words, so you can explain your code and projects confidently in the human rounds.

Many lost coding marks trace back to misreading the problem, not to weak logic, so slow down on the statement before you write code. Identify exactly what output is required, in what format, and under what constraints. Note whether the problem wants the value or the index, whether it is case sensitive, whether the result should be printed on one line or several, and whether ties or duplicates need special handling. These details decide whether hidden test cases pass.

Underline the input structure mentally: how many lines, what each contains, and the size or range of values, which also hints at whether a brute-force approach will fit inside the time limit. If constraints are small, a simple solution is perfectly acceptable; if they are large, you will need an efficient one, and reading the constraints tells you which.

Work through the provided sample by hand to confirm you understand the transformation from input to output. If your understanding of the sample and the expected output disagree, you have misread the problem, resolve that before coding, not after a failed submission.

Finally, keep your solution simple and correct rather than clever. A readable brute-force solution that handles the stated cases and edge cases banks marks reliably. After the online rounds, Accenture's interviews ask you to explain your code, so InterviewPrep's free AI voice mock interview, which scores your spoken answers, pace and filler words from your CV and target role, is a useful next step before the human stage.

A cleared coding round on Accenture's assessment is often the decisive lift into their Freshers Jobs Off Campus Drive rounds, since strong logic and clean formatting keep the interview stage in reach.