From Tier-3 College & Non-CS Branch To SWE at Cisco
Hi, Tushar here. Recently I got an offer from Cisco for Software Engineer role and Infosys for Specialist Programmer or Power Programmer role. I have some other offers as well.
My Coding Journey In A Nutshell
Currently I’m in my final year pursing B. Tech in Electrical Engineering. I became aware about Product Based Companies in 2019 and started DSA in March 2020.
I had 0 friends or seniors who were into coding back then. In fact, I’m first from my college to get into big tech company.
So, instead of giving excuses about college, branch, or 0 coding culture, I focused on doing the real work (which was solving DSA and doing projects and some more stuff) because I knew for sure that one day it will all be worth it.
2019
I became aware about product based companies when I watched Aman Dhattarwal’s video on “How to get into Product based companies”. In the video he told that:
No matter from which college or branch you are, you can crack big tech companies.
And I took his word for it. The simple reason was, I had nothing to lose. So I started with Apni Kaksha’s Java Videos which was taught by Anuj Bhaiya, who is an incredible mentor by the way.
So by the end of 2019, I was good enough at basic Java. I knew basic pattern printing and some basics of array, strings, and sorting algorithms. I used to practice problems on Hackerrank, and GFG at that point of time.
2020
So, in March 2020 I decided to start Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) which is one of the most important game when it comes to cracking product based companies. Yes, Game.
And I was learning literally everything from YouTube.
By the end of 2020, I was good at DSA. I knew how to implement some data structures. I knew some commonly used algorithms. I used to do lots of coding on Hackerrank, Leetcode and GFG at that point of time.
Watching videos is not effective, you have to solve problems on coding platforms.
I also started preparing for computer fundamentals like OS, DBMS from Gate Smashers (which is an Amazing YouTube Channel). And I was doing some projects too at that point of time.
2021
In the beginning of 2021, I started competitive programming and decided to give major time to competitive programming.
For competitive programming, I used Codeforces with some teaspoon of Codechef, Atcoder, CSES, and sometimes SPOJ.
So talking about Codeforces, in the beginning phase I was able to solve A and B mostly. But with time I started solving C also. The major mistake which I made in the beginning was focusing on ratings. But later I came to the conclusion that ratings are not the right way to judge someone’s problem solving skills.
You’ll see people who never did competitive programming or who are 3-star but working at big tech companies.
The way you approach and solve a problem with proper explanation matters a lot.
May be I’m wrong or right. It’s just my opinion.
After dedicating the entire 2021 to CP and after solving tons of contest, I was Specialist on Codeforces and 4 star on Codechef. Also I used to do Leetcode too.
I solved around 1600+ problems majorly on Codeforces, Leetcode, and GFG.
I got 2 job offers from service based companies.
2022
When 2022 started I decided to quit CP and instead I started solving DSA problems on Leetcode.
One key resource which I followed was Striver’s SDE sheet (best for revising DSA). I had also solved this sheet in 2021. Now it may look like the problems are easy but believe me finding out the optimal solutions to some of those problems is very hard.
And in March I got an offer from Cisco and later in April I got an offer from Infosys for Power Programmer Role.
So, this was my coding journey. I consistently leveraged the power of YouTube and Google.
Best Luck For Your Journey :)
