It was all like a joke or a dream but the company invited us for an interview. We got a mail on 1st April about it. what a day to be serious. But then w had had a talk earlier and then had an interview on 5th. It was a tough long day as the second time in two years i was out of station, the Sunday before my second mid sems in the month of April. Last time had been a successful IIT paper and this time it was an interview. I'll be really looking for something the next time around as well. Mayank and Abhishek had done some preparation and it was really up for the time to tell whether hat would fruit. We were there on time. The college had been helpful.
But it seemed that we were pulled as a part of the regular interviews. And indeed we were. Truly, now it was tough. There were seniors I don't care but they had prepared for it and were ta say formally dressed, prepared and all. And we were simple. The day had long waits as we were called. We were given two questions to do which I came here and came to know that were among the standard questions. I don't even remember as well what the questions were but we were to interact with the examiner to get in and that I should say was the main point. People from all the places were there, but indeed I felt that good. The question was basic and I gave two possible solutions to the examiner. Maybe that was watch they were judging, the number of parallel solutions that we could find out.
So in the end of it i qualified to the second round while both of them were out. They went leaving me alone. This was I think the real test- to pass out 6-8 hours a that silly place with nothing to do alone. People had friends to talk to and I was a junior to them. More so they were strange and too formal to talk to. Finally I got a chance to get the interview. This was the best part of the set. I had long one but indeed it was good, after a little struggle, I figured out almost everything. The questions for me were new but people say they were standard. One was to check out rows and column that had a zero in a binary matrix. One was a discussion of my previous problem (the written round). One was a logical one where the word phrasing was the key. There were numbered doors and serially they were toggled as the tables of one, two, three till hundred were read. Basically initially all were open. Then all multiples of 1 were toggled. Then 2 and so on. There were 100 doors and I had to figure out how many will be open. I figured that out and after that started to feel i was through this round. The answer was simple. for say 16, 8x2 and 2x8 so the toggling cancelled. But 4x4 it doesn't the perfect squares don't toggle twice to cancel.
I had a paper and so was allowed to after that and my third round was left for that time. I did not whether that was to take place. I went through the midsems, the news as started to spread. The third round then came. A sudden telephonic round.
It was a Saturday and luckily I was in my room, alone with no classes. i knew there was an interview to come but did not know when. But got that good enough. The people did consider the second year and asked me only data-structures and OS. A few logical questions and then a test whether I knew OOPs was enough and he hung up. Of the non bookish questions, one was to design an algo for the lift system, maybe because when i came here, I saw that this was the one they wanted to changed all the time.
All right this was in short how I was through. Details summary personally hi milegi, some day if I feel like to.
Okay so I am writing all the details in advance. I know I would be discussing a lot about the environment and culture once I return but I don't want my blog to miss it- so that I can redirect people when I am not willing to speak(Got it that's why I gave you the link - Also to popularize the blog) Any way here I start - I had been good at programming right from the start(even though I left computers for biology in class XI and XII). I had a safe lead in VIII & IX of over 10 marks when the subject was introduced. But I had a shock at the boards where I managed 88, while was expecting 98. I tried my best but my school was interested in only toppers - I was not. More so,you rarely get your marks corrected at ICSE, the teachers are careless at those issues. Many said it was not an error at my side but my programs had always been on the non-traditional side, those which are less understood by the people that are used to mugging up the book. All right time had passed and I had landed into Thapar.
I had computers in my first semester and I think it was there that I realized that what I considered as nothing actually was a lot and the basic programming that I used to love was indeed the problem of many. I then had to get my branch changed. I did not take that as seriously towards the going semester but took a week off before AIEEE( strange rule - you need a rank to get your branch changed and hat too better than the closing of the branch this year). I had missed CS by just one seat and this time this was not going to be repeated. Despite a marriage before that which I attended and partying it all over the week, I managed to gt my formulae revised and everyone knows that they ask nothing else at AIEEE. I got my branch changed to computers. i had meanwhile in my first year won quite a few contests and was starting to feel the contest level of the college too low. Sourabh, with an intention to do robotics invited me to join his team for IITKGP fest Kshitij. You know how I am. I don't deny till of course I know I won't do it in all cases.
We somehow go a working model made and decided to go to KGP. But I had always taken overnight there seriously and he had also seen that. Meanwhile I had a serious fever before the fest and couldn't come up in the train. But maybe luck wanted me to go and I was thee the next day, morning flight.
Robotics came out too tough. But then that opened gates for programming. I had a good four hour sleep before the contest and started there afresh. I will talk in details about the IITKGP overnight some other day. Right now what I can say is that, out of sheer luck and co-incidence we ended up sixth and in the consolation list. I had no experience to professional contest programming. Neither were we a match to the fourth year guys. And we had managed only one correct question in seven hours of the eight in the contest. but the last hour had been fruitful as i had found bugs in one of my code - a missing test case and also sourabh had come up with brute force ideas that were looking cheap but came up good.
That was my introduction to contest programming. We finalized IIT Roorkee fest for another try at robotics and more importantly one more standard contest. I meanwhile learned about the ICPC and what it takes to program there. I started a few basic learning - plan do some intermediate to advance now.
We reached IITR and as usual our robot crashed in the trial run to a state that we could not even plan to give it a proper demo on the actual course. Meanwhile IDC was one of the associate sponsors and over half the CS contests were being organized by it. We were spending time there. Mayank and all had also come for gaming and more so time pass. I had been to one more final before this where I had crashed out. But indeed all seemed preparation for this. I was sitting with Mayank and Abhishek here anybody. But this time the brain was working. We were fast and good. In the lead right from the start. Happens someday when everthing falls to place. I was guessing the algos and solving them. Mayank was coming out with strange un-makable algos while sourabh - his team did not have a single person worth while to code. In the end we finished second, after somewhat struggles as the teams suddenly came out with submissions. We were first 10 minutes before the closure. Ok this much short intro must be enough. Lets go to the interview and the trip.... Next posts plz....
