FORESIGHT(2023): Summer Internship at Quadeye| Suryam Arnav Kalra |

1) Brief Introduction

I am Suryam Arnav Kalra, 4th year Undergraduate student in the department of Computer Science and Engineering enrolled in its dual degree programme. I have a knack for solving mathematical puzzles and love doing competitive programming whenever I get time. Apart from this, I am an avid lover of mountains and love exploring nature’s beauty.

2) How did you get into Quadeye? What was the selection procedure?

The selection procedure has the following steps:

1. CV shortlisting wherein a few students are shortlisted based on their resume and the details it encompasses.
2. Once you are shortlisted, there are around 3 interview rounds. The interviews cover a vast variety of topics ranging from Computer Networks, Object Oriented Programming, Operating Systems, Computer Architecture and Organization, Compilers, Competitive Programming and last but not the least mathematical puzzles.
3. The first round mainly focuses on the core CS concepts which tests the thorough and in-depth understanding of the student in them. The main things they ask revolve around OOP and Operating Systems and if you are able to answer all, they expand their range of topics.
4. The second round focuses entirely on your competitive programming skills wherein you need to provide a pseudo code for the questions as quickly as you can and solve interesting mathematical puzzles.
5. The last HR round focuses on your CV where they ask questions related to the projects that you have mentioned and some generic questions related to your personality.

3) How to prepare for them?

1. OOP: Professor Partha Pratim Das’s slides are the go to material for this topic.
2. Operating Systems: Dinosaur book is a must.
3. COAA, Computer networks and Compilers: The slides taught in class are enough for these topics.
4. Competitive Programming: If you are starting early, codeforces and atcoder are the places to enhance your overall problem solving approach. Otherwise, you could resort to Leetcode Medium and Interview bit.
5. Puzzles: 50 challenging problems in probability and heard on the street are the main books to prepare for this topic. Along with it, puzzles available on gurmeet.net are a good mashup.

4) What difficulties did you face while preparing for this Company/Profile? How did you overcome this problem?

One of the major difficulties I faced while preparing was actually finding the clever and short method to solve the puzzles they ask. One is you go the long way to solve the problem and other is finding the critical observation which converts the daunting problem into an easy one. To overcome this, I mostly sat with my friend Kunal Singh and he helped me with taking lots of mock interviews where he would ask me a random puzzle and helped me reach the most optimal solution through well thought out hints by him.

5) According to you, who should ideally apply for this job?

An ideal student for this role is the one who is not afraid of new problems thrown at him and loves to tackle challenges. The candidate should be quick in arriving at solutions mostly intuitively. He/she should have a very deep understanding of the concepts as the questions get more and more tricky and conceptual.

6) Any specific advice you want to give to the junta sitting for internships this year?

Prepare Object Oriented Programming as a first step along with the fundamentals of Operating Systems. These are the main areas where candidates get stuck as they are not able to answer the factual questions asked in these topics.

Competitive Programming questions of around 1600 to 1800 codeforces rating should be practised daily and each and every contest should be given.

Try and solve as many probability questions along with puzzles to develop an innate mindset of how to target them.

7) What are some of the major points you think would be valid to mention in your CV while targeting this profile? (any specific suggestions you would like to make?)

1. Mention 3 to 4 projects which should highlight your understanding of the core CS concepts that you know.
2. Mention your competitive programming achievements and any scholarships that you have received.
3. Extracurricular activities should be kept at a minimum and can be replaced with more projects or achievements.