00:00:00 So you might know that market situation is a bit bad.
I mean
it is slowly recovering but how did you crack Google in this market
situation? Did you think while joining [Link] that you'll crack Google or
Microsoft? When I got Google's offer..... just an hour before I was reading
someone's rejection post on LinkedIn that his interview went well
but.....so I was a bit hopeless. So first I got HR's call that I'm scheduling a
MEET in 10 minutes. So I thought that they're going to conduct further
rounds.
00:00:22 So I quickly setup my laptop, took my copy & pen - then they
told me. So I couldn't even feel for sometime that I cracked an
internship. Programming Language is one thing, people learn it. But
there're lot of challenges during DSA. People get stuck in between.
Initially, I would just watch lectures & skip it. Then when I slowly felt
that things were getting harder when I would watch lectures, I would
make my own notes. I would copy the same solution, I would dry run it
2-3 times. So I was a bit scared to participate in project & hackathons.
00:00:51 I had a bit of imposter syndrome that I might not be able to
do it or I was also scared to do contests that what would happen if I get
low ratings. Which sections play an important role in the resume? And
how should a fresher make a resume? Firstly, one shouldn't make a
resume on MS Word at all. For resume, we should check ATS course Use
Overleaf to make resume. Resume should be spacious. Okay! What do
you think, from a recruiter's mindset - CGPA vs Projects vs your Coding
skills What is the most important?
00:01:16 Shreya have you been rejected by any company? Have you
faced rejections? So my first interview of Amazon, I gave it in August.
Due to my own mistakes, I got rejected from there. I took 45 minutes to
solve the first question itself in a 35 minute interview. And I didn't do
any 'think out loud' thing in that interview. That was going one way - the
interviewer is watching me and I'm not explaining him anything. I'm
just writing the code. So I realized these mistakes from the first
rejection and I didn't do any of these in Google and Microsoft.
00:01:42 You've 3 years time in BCA & 4 years in [Link]. Do you
know how much time you require to crack a good company? Only 1-1.5
years of good preparation. But you should have a correct roadmap you
should know what to study, what not to study. How to apply in
companies, how to make a resume, how to be consistent because often,
college students get confused that whether they should focus on CGPA
or make projects or do web dev or do machine learning. There has to be
a defined path. You have lot of time, so basically today's podcast is based
on this. We've Shreya with us who
00:02:13 graduated from a tier 3 college. And while graduating, she
cracked 2 good companies like Microsoft & Google. Her preparation
started from 2nd year. She could not do a lot of things in the first year.
But if you're in 1st year, then you've much more time. But don't be
tensed, even if you're in 2nd or 3rd year there's no delay, you also have
sufficient time. In this podcast, we'll discuss everything. That where did
Shreya study from, how many questions of DSA did she do what did she
do in development?
00:02:39 So we've her entire journey, along with that, we'll know
how did she make her resume. Because this is very important. Because
in tier 3 colleges, you've to often crack companies off-campus. The offer
that Shreya has cracked are off-campus offers, which requires a good
resume. Then we'll also know her strategy that how did she approach
the companies So this is a very important podcast for people who're
preparing for any company. Watch the podcast till the end. Listen each
& everything carefully.
00:03:03 And implement it as well. Because you often listen to the
podcast, then leave & you don't implement those things. It is very
important that you make notes, you implement all these things. Watch
the podcast till the end & do subscribe to the channel, if you're new
here. Like these videos, if you want more such videos in future. So let's
start the podcast. Hi, Shreya! How are you? Hi, Fraz! I'm good, what
about you? I'm also doing good! So Shreya, before we start the podcast.
Shall we have your small introduction for our audience?
00:03:29 Sure! So Hi, I'm Shreya Shree. I'm pursuing [Link] in
Computer Science & Engineering from Graphic Era University,
Dehradun. I'm in my 8th semester & last year, I've done internship in
Google & Microsoft. And this year, I'll be joining as a full time software
engineer at Microsoft. Great! So Shreya, you might know that lot of
college students of 3rd year, 4th year they're a bit nervous that market
scenario isn't good, jobs aren't being given. But you cracked such good
offers so definitely, this podcast will be useful for everyone. So I would
like to ask you a bit about your college journey.
00:04:02 How was your college? Was there coding culture? How did
you start coding? So there are different groups of people in college, so
we've to choose according to us that which group are we in. So I was
lucky enough that my peer group was very good. All of us are placed at
good MNCs. So we used to have a healthy competition among us. If we
used to give contest, then let's say if the contest is at 8 in the morning
then everyone would call each other at 7:45 am and remind about the
contest. So because of this healthy environment, I was motivated to
prepare for these companies.
00:04:33 Okay! Tell us a bit bout your group. Who is placed and
where? So one of my friend is placed at Microsoft itself & two of them
are in Morgan Stanley and Atlassian as well, so yeah! Great! And all
these offers might be off-campus, right! Because I think your college is a
tier 3 college. So were there campus placements? So Morgan Stanley
was on-campus, Myntra was on-camous. Rest, Atlassian was off-campus.
Okay! And Google, Microsoft which you cracked? Were they off-campus?
Yes, they were off-campus. Yeah!
00:05:03 Alright! So tell me about your journey from the starting. As
you entered in 1st year [Link]. Okay, before that, did give the exam of
JEE-Mains? Yeah! Okay! How much rank did you get in it? My percentile
wasn't that good that I would get a government college. So that's why I
took private college. Actually, I was not very sure if I want to do [Link]
or not. That's why I didn't prepare in 11th, 12th for JEE-Mains specific.
Okay! Okay! Then I chose [Link] because I *Okay! So....* had done
coding during schools in Java & Python, so due to that [Link], Computer
Science
00:05:37 seemed to be a better option for me. So Shreya, tell us about
your coding journey. How did you start coding, did you start from a
programming language or you started development first? So in 1st year,
I focused on Array, Strings & Recursion which are the basics of C. So we
were taught C in 1st year. So, I cleared the basics of C. And from 3rd
semester onwards, I switched to C++, then I started DSA from there. And
for development as in, whatever tech stack we're interested in - so
AI/ML was my core tech stack.
00:06:08 So, I started making projects from 3rd sem. Okay! Great!
And when you started data structures & algorithms, you might've faced
lot of challenges, right! Yes! *In the beginning* Programming Language
is one thing, people learn it but they face lot of challenges during DSA.
People get stuck in between. *Yeah* So please tell us about your
challenges & how did you overcome that? So initially, I would just
lectures & skip it. But as I felt that I couldn't do it. These things felt hard,
then when I watched lectures I would make my own notes.
00:06:40 I would copy the same solution & dry run it 2-3 times. And
as soon as I watched that lecture I would code it at the same time. So
with that my basic concepts were built very nicely. If we watch the
lectures & code at the same time. Okay! Okay! Great! Approx how many
questions have you solved in DSA? In LeetCode, it would be around 850
but when I got the internship, I had done 700 questions on LeetCode
and I also solved questions on GfG. So it is there. *Okay* That's a very
good number. So how much time did it take you to fully prepare for DSA
like, you cracked Google & Microsoft?
00:07:15 My core preparation, I would say, started after 1st year i.e.
from 3rd semester only then I had started taking LeetCode seriously. I
would do 1-2 questions daily consistently on LeetCode. So in 3rd
semester, I completed two topic - Linked List & Trees. And in 4th
semester, I completed DP & Graph. So when companies came in 5th
semester, I had time in my summer break to revise my concepts. And I
utilized my summer break, I revised and then from 5th semester, I
started giving interviews. Alright! We'll talk a bit more on DSA & then
we'll discuss projects and more.
00:07:49 So let's say you're doing a question & you're stuck at a point.
You aren't able to do it, it took a whole day. So what do you do in that
case? I look at the solution. First, I'll try a lot. Then if I'm not able to do
it, I'll visit the solution corner of Leetcode & see the solutions. At that
time I looked at the solution & solved it. I would solve the same question
the next day along with its varitaions. I didn't leave that question when I
would get stuck. Okay! Okay! Great! And what about the topics like -
Segment tree which is a bit advanced topic. Fenwick tree is an advanced
topic
00:08:23 Sparse table - did you study all these or just the basic
concepts up to graphs? So when I got the internship, I knew only until
DP & I had studied how to traverse tries. But when I got the internship,
then I had completed segment trees. I completed this segment in
advance DSA. Alright! And you did data structures in C++, right? Yeah! I
had done Java as well, actually, I had Java in school so that's why I did
Java but when I gave my interview in Java in Amazon, then within a
month I switched to C++ because
00:09:00 C++ is easier to write & it is quicker. And it takes time in
Java to complete a syntax & everything. Okay! Great! So you told that
which language is more preferrable, if you want to do data structures &
algorithms although, there're lot of similarities in many languages. If
you learn Java then you'll learn C++ quickly. If you learn C++, then you'll
quickly learn Java & Python, right! It doesn't take much time to switch. I
did within a month so So Shreya, whatever has been your learning
journey of DSA - if you feel that any one thing which
00:09:30 you would like to tell, if you made a mistake - how can
others do it better - tell us about it a bit. So in DSA, I would say that I
started giving contests from 3rd semester. But we can start giving
contests from 1st year itself on GfG & LeetCode so it boosts the
confidence a lot. When I got the internship, I had given exact 20 contests
until then but if we give contests from 1st year, then it would be better
& also, some people are scared that my ratings will be bad or all these
but, these are very minor things
00:10:02 when we talk about internship or confidence. Okay! Okay!
Great! Alright! Let's move to some other things. Apart from DSA, you
might've done subjects of computer fundamentals maybe Apti. as well -
you might've made projects as well. So let us talk about those things that
apart from DSA what more did you do during your college time? I hope
you're getting lot of things to learn from this podcast. Now when a tier 3
college student, cracks companies like Google or Microsoft, then other
people feel that
00:10:26 either he is lucky or he would be a genius. Nobody asks him
where he learnt coding from which roadmap he followed & how did he
apply to companies. Everyone wants to crack companies like Google,
Microsoft but thinking along won't help. You need to have right
direction for that. You need to have right mentorship. You should know
what to study, how to study. Now theoretically, this responsibility to
provide guidance prepare you for placement - is college's responsibility.
A BCA student spends 3 years in college
00:10:53 a [Link] student spends 4 years in college which is
sufficient time to crack a good company. But often, the college syllabus
is the same 20 year old syllabus which is not up to the mark. So let me
tell you about Mirai School of Technology. India's first AI-First [Link]
Program. They've made their curriculum as per the market need. Here
you aren't just taught coding, you entire setup is coding first. Apple
powered labs Robotic Infra, Debugging Zones - you'll get to work on real
world projects from first year itself.
00:11:20 Your Github will be filled with actual work & actual projects
instead of college assignments. And the biggest thing, you won't do
these alone. You'll get one-on-one mentorship from people who have
worked in companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon. And the most
interesting thing, here you'll not learn AI just as a concept, you'll
actually learn to use AI. You'll be doing prompt engineering using AI of
course. You'll be automating a lot of tasks using AI, you'll use AI to do
research and product development
00:11:46 as well. All these techniques are required today from
startups to big companies like Google, Microsoft - everywhere. All the
companies are including AI in their infra. So if you're preparing with this
curriculum, you're not only ready for the current job market, you'll be
ready for the future as well. By the time you graduate from here you're
gonna have Github repos, Tech Blogs, Polished LinkedIn & of course,
Confidence to crack job offers they've also got a pretty good team. Varun
Kohli & Kartik Mathur, who trained 50,000+ students for
00:12:11 companies like Google, META. And Aprit Sarda who is an ex-
JP Morgan & a graduate from BITS, Pilani. Overall, they've a good
updated curriculum which can make you industry ready. To take
admission here the process is very simple. You've to give a test which is
Mirai mains. Last date of registration is 20th June which is approaching
very fast. And I'll give the link of the form in the description. You can go
& fill out the form. In test, basically AI Learnability test will be
conducted, Aptitude & Reasoning test will be conducted
00:12:35 you can also give the test from home. Again, the last date is
20th June. The link of the form is in the description. Right! All the best to
you guys! Now let's proceed with the podcast. So for internship point of
view, some companies asks questions on fundamentals like Microsoft,
OOPs & DBMS, OS concepts were asked from us in our interviews. But I
had only coding rounds in Google. So this was company specific that,
which company is asking fundamentals and which company is
conducting only coding rounds.
00:13:05 So I studied OOPs & DSA, from the lectures in my semesters.
So via that, I cracked my interviews. OOPs & DBMS, right! OOPs, DBMS &
OS. Alright! So basically, we've these 4 subjects - DBMS, OOPs, Computer
Networks & Operating System, right! So questions are asked around
these & I also advise students that - when it is taught in your semester
study properly then itself. Later on, why to give extra time? Focus on
DSA, Projects. Yes! So Shreya, when did you start development? I started
development in 3rd sem, as in, my projects were based on AI/ML, so I
started them from 3rd sem
00:13:46 when I started making resume, I felt that 3 projects are
needed in a resume. So I completed all my 3 projects in 3rd & 4th sem,
for resume purpose. Okay! Firstly, you would've studied, you would've
learnt in 3rd semester, right! Yes! For that, in our college we've to make
a project in every semester, so I used to choose projects of AI/ML and
until now, I hadn't got a good online resource for AI, so I used to
complete those projects under my college professors. And then I added
it in my resume. Okay! So, basically those projects were under one of the
college professors like,
00:14:19 you made projects under them like an intern, right! Yes! A
guide was assigned to us every semester, so I learnt those concepts
under him - algorithms & these things. Okay! What are the other
possibilities like, if someone wants to make a project in web dev or in
android, then what are companies preferring more these days? So this is
according to the job description. This is a very diverse role for that we
can choose web dev or AI/ML according to our interest. I didn't explore
many fields. I only did AI/ML but when I went to Microsoft, I explored
web development and
00:14:55 I was interested more in it, so students should explore every
field. And they should choose their interest according to it, then make
projects in it. Okay! Great! So I would say, your major preparation i.e.
3rd semester & 4th semester. There you've done more DSA and made
projects in it, correct! I did projects, yes! Alright! What do you think, like
from a recruiter's mindset CGPA vs Projects vs your coding skills - what
is more important? Firstly, CGPA is to do basic shortlist. It is mostly 6.5 -
7.5 depending on companies.
00:15:30 So if the CGPA is more than 7.5, then it's fine. Then we move
to projects. Firstly, recruiters look at our projects. So we've to make
sure that our projects should be very good, normal but unique let's say,
take an example, if there's a movie recommendation system then it is
present in all the resumes, what different have you done, you've to add
that in your resume so with that recruiter will move to coding link. He'll
check your coding profiles. So it happens this way. They shortlist firstly
from CGPA, then he'll look at your projects. If he finds your project good
00:16:03 then he'll move to your coding profile. Okay! Okay! Nice! So
Shreya, students don't often know to manage time like, lot of students
get stuck in the curriculum that should they focus on college CGPA or
coding, if exams are near then, all the flow breaks how did you balance
this, how did you manage your time that you've to do development, DSA,
you've to learn fundamentals as well, there're lot of things. So first year,
is a bit easy. We should maintain good CGPA in the first year because
when companies arrive
00:16:30 then we'll focus more on placements, we can't focus that
much on CGPA. So same thing happened with me as well. I got 9.5 CGPA
in the first year. But when companies started to arrive, then my CGPA
became 8.7 - 8.5 but my overall CGPA balance was good. And whatever
college stuff I had to do, I would complete it in college itself. If there
were any assignments or anything, I would finish it in college itself and
when I would come back to my room, I made sure that I would focus
only on coding lectures & coding.
00:16:58 Okay! Nice! Nice! Didn't you have FOMO that, other students
are enjoying, going out for a trip they're having fun, everyone is busy for
FEST in the 1st year so didn't you ever feel that? I've also enjoyed. In
fact, I had a routine, I would say that when I completed graph, I would
go for a trip because my college is located at a very good place, so
locations were near. So when I completed a topic, we would go for a trip.
Then if I completed something....I would.. Got it! Alright! Did you do
competitive programming in college?
00:17:26 When I gave 2-3 OA, I gave an OA of Flipkart, then I looked
through questions that they ask story type questions, but LeetCode &
GfG had direct questions so I did around 50 questions on Codeforces.
But overall, for interview purpose LeetCode is more than sufficient, if
you're able to do hard & medium questions of LeetCode so I had cleared
my interview through Leetcode. So I had done very less competitive
programming, just to understand OA questions. Nice! Alright! Now let's
come to resume. Resume is something very important. So, what do you
think
00:18:00 which sections of the resume play very important role? And
how should a fresher make a resume? So lot of people make resume in
MS Word. Firstly, never make resume on MS Word we should check ATS
course for resume, use Overleaf to make resume. Resume should be
spacious. Like, in my resume I added 3 projects. So, there 3 bullet points
of all 3 projects first bullet point was - what had I done in that project.
Like, what is that project explaining. In second bullet point, I wrote that
what did I use extra, in the
00:18:32 basic work - what did I add extra due to which my project is
unique and in third bullet point, if it is of machine learning, I had added
algorithms. Otherwise, I added tech stacks in my web development
project. So with these 3 bullet points, my project would be summarized
in the resume. And then other columns, like I won some hackathons &
some coding competitions. I added them in my experiences and I also
added my skills, whatever tech stacks I knew. Okay! Cool! Shreya, which
tool did you use to check ATS?
00:19:01 And how is ATS score checked? So to check ATS score in a
resume, I used resume verdict. So when we apply for internship
purpose in resume, there we don't have experience column because
when we apply for internship then we're a fresher. Even then our ATS
score was low. Like, when I checked my resume - it would range only
55-60. Then I got a bit worried that why my ATS score was low. But then
I added experience column, then the ATS score of my resume had
increased so doesn't matter, if your ATS is low - that is because you're a
fresher & in your resume
00:19:38 experience column isn't added. Alright, Shreya! So you
might know that market situation is a bit bad, I mean, it is slowly
recovering but how did you crack Google in this market situation? So
there was an opening in Google, in June on career portal. So, I directly
applied from there by visiting career portal. So I applied around June
and I got a mail from HR at around the end of September that we've to
conduct further rounds. So, there wasn't any OA. Direct 15 minute
phone call was there, in which they asked me about my resume,
00:20:07 my coding profiles, my skills. And on that basis, they
scheduled my round 1. Then Round 1 was scheduled just two days later.
In Round 1, they asked me 2 coding questions. First coding question was
of - it was easy - Topological sort. Second coding question was of
AnarucTree. That was pretty difficult. Coding round was of 45 minutes.
Then I had completed both of those codes. Then, on the same day I
found out that my next round is scheduled. My next round was two days
later. And even there, 2 coding questions of DSA were asked from me.
00:20:41 First coding question was again of Graph & second coding
question was of DP. Then these two interviews were conducted & my
interview ended on Friday. And on Monday, I got to know that I - HR had
told me the result. Okay! We can say that you had 2 technical rounds &
in both the rounds, 2 questions of data structures were asked, correct~
Yes! Data structures were asked. How would you rate those questions
like, easy, medium, hard - which type of questions were they? So in
round 1, first question was medium, second question was tough.
00:21:12 It took me a lot of time to come to that approach. That was a
question of N-ary Tree, where we had to implement DFS. And in second
round, it was medium-hard question. Questions of second round were
similar to what I had done, that's why they felt familiar to me. In the first
round, I hadn't practiced those questions. Means of N-ary Tree. So that
was a bit challenging for me. Okay! So what do you think - which skills
came handy there? Like, in interviews interviewer checks how you're
communicating, how you're writing the code,
00:21:44 so what are those pointers which you feel, interviewer
would've checked. So it is easy to ask in easy questions, we ask
whatever doubts we have but when they ask a bit hard question in
interviews, so we usually panic. So we should clearly ask the
interviewer that what return type are you expecting what time
complexity are you expecting. And when you get stuck, you aren't
getting any solution - then give a brute force approach at that time. Like
in my first round of Google, I gave brute force approach of N-ary tree.
00:22:15 Then they optimised it and made me write the best time
complexity approach means while discussing that we should go with
this approach. So communication skills matter a lot. Due to
communication skills you'll be able to understand the need of
interviewer that which solution do they expect from you Okay! So I
think the strategy is like this - first listen to the question properly, then
clarify it then when you're telling the solution, speak out loud so that
just in case if you get stuck anywhere
00:22:41 or if you go towards wrong direction, then interviewer can
also help you & understand your thought process that what you want to
tell, correct! Yes! So first he would explain the question to me, then I
explained it in my terms that this is what you're expecting and then
when I would write a code, then if I'm writing a variable, let's say int a
then I would write that - I'm defining this variable for this purpose. Or I
used intime in my interview, so I told that I'll be calculating the seconds
here.
00:23:06 So I would just think them out loud like this & explain them
everything, whatever I'm writing in the code. Okay! There's one more
thing in Google interview - you write code in Google doc. So you've to
track syntax by your own. Alright! So when you got Google's offer, how
did you feel? While doing [Link] did you ever think that you'll crack
Google or Microsoft? When I got Google's offer, just an hour before I was
reading someone's rejection post on LinkedIn that his interview went
well, so I was hopeless. First, I got the call from HR that
00:23:38 I'm scheduling a MEET In 10 minutes, so I thought that they
would again take my further rounds. So I quickly set up my laptop, took
my copy & pen for coding. Then they told me, for a moment I didn't feel
anything that I cracked internship. Okay! Great! So you told about your
Google experience for cracking internship. I guess you cracked
Microsoft at the same time, so tell us about Microsoft as well that how
did you approach them. So at the same time, when I applied with the
resume in Google - after 2-3 days, I applied
00:24:09 to Microsoft in it career portal with the same resume, where
an opening was there. So on 16th September, I had Microsoft's OA.
There were 2 coding questions in it. First coding question was of DP,
basic DP - 1D DP and second coding question was topological sort -
Kahn's algorithm. So I did those 2 coding questions & there's one more
thing in Microsoft's OA that - they show only 2-3 test cases rest, they
keep it hidden. So, we've to write best approach on our own otherwise,
those test cases will fail later on
00:24:35 after submission. So I gave OA, then on 25th September, I
got a mail that I have an interview. Then on 9th October, I had got
Google's final offer, then on 12th October I has Microsoft's interview. So
at that time, I was very nervous in Google's interview but in Microsoft's
interview I had confidence that I've cracked an internship, so the 2
rounds of Microsoft which was conducted both of them were conducted
on the same day. So in the morning one round was conducted, which
was coding round. Even there, stack question was asked and
00:25:03 we discussed about the project.