UberShe++ to UberSTAR Intern

A blog by Lavisha Bhambri

Hello readers, I am Lavisha Bhambri, a pre-final year Computer Science and engineering undergraduate student pursuing my B.Tech at International Institute of Information technology, Hyderabad (IIIT Hyderabad). I am an UberShe++ 2022 winner and an UberSTAR Summer 2022 intern and an upcoming Software Engineer intern at Uber for the summer of 2023.

If you are someone who also wants to understand how to grab these opportunities, then you are the ideal place. In this blog, I will be sharing my experience about UberShe++ program and UberSTAR internship and how you can also prepare for them?

About UberShe++

UberShe++ is an event that the Uber India University Talent Acquisition Team hosts as part of the International Women’s month celebrations, aimed at providing young aspiring Women In Technology an opportunity to virtually meet and network with some of the Uber’s prominent leaders in the field, and discover more about how Uber aims to make tech for girls an inclusive and empowering space.

I got to know about the UberShe++ opportunity through my seniors in college. It is to be noted that this program is limited to students of a few universities/colleges.

Application Process:

The application process for UberShe++ program 2022 began in mid February, 2022. 2nd year Single and 3rd year Dual UG Degree females were eligible to apply. There was no restriction on major/branch :)

To apply, the applicants were supposed to fill a short form consisting of basic details like name, email, college, current GPA, etc… The applicants were then screened and eligible ones were sent an OA link.

Online Screening Test:

After filling the application, I got the the invite for the online screening test. Below are the details of the coding assessment.

1. Platform : CodeSignal
2. Duration : 1 hour 30 minutes
3. Topics : General CS fundamentals + Back End competencies
4. Pattern : 4 coding questions
5. Level of questions : 1 easy + 1 medium + 1 (medium-hard) + 1 hard

My preparation : I was preparing for upcoming internship assessments and interviews by practising coding questions on LeetCode. So, I just revised all data structures and famous algorithms along their time & space complexities. To stay on a safer side, I also skimmed through the CS fundamentals like Operating systems, DBMS, OOPS concepts, etc.

The Selection Mail:

After a week, I got the mail that I was selected. I was on top of world, screaming loudly!! 🤩

UberShe++ Event

Out of 2500+ applicants amongst 19 colleges, top 75 girls were given the chance to be a part of UberShe++ program. We also received amazing goodies from Uber. The UberShe++ event was organized virtually on 28th and 29th March, 2022.

Day 1 :

Day 1 was particularly enlightening because we got the opportunity to hear from leaders about the work at Uber, the difficulties they encounter, and the company culture. Then the event was followed by an amazing Fireside Chat with Women Leaders who shared their experiences and explained what it’s like to be a woman who breaks through boundaries & makes an impact.

Day 2 :

Day 2 was filled with enjoyable activities and conversations with alumni, primarily new full time employees who had been interns at Uber and had joined the company as software engineers the previous year.

We participated in Breakout Room meetings with them, which helped us to clarify our doubts on how to solve challenges and know their inspiring journeys. They also gave us guidance on what qualities Uber looks for in a candidate for a Software Engineer position at their company.

During the event we were also informed that Uber is looking forward to conduct UberSTAR internship program and will hire interns among the UberShe++ winners.

Application process for UberSTAR internship

Around late April, we were again contacted by the Uber’s Talent Acquisition team, regarding the UberSTAR internship details. This program offered an early-in-career internship opportunity to select candidates, before their third year of engineering. The purpose was to provide foundational experience and company values to the UberSTAR interns.

Eligibility : Only the UberShe++ winners were eligible for this opportunity.

Steps : We had to register personal details along with our resumes. After filling the form, the talent acquisition team reviewed our resumes along with the She++ coding test scores & the selected candidates got invites for the follow-up interview.

PS: I got the interview invite 😄.

UberSTAR internship interview details

Type : Hiring Manager Interview Round

Timeline : 2nd to 6th May, 2022

Duration : Approximately of 30–35 minutes. For me the interview stretched to 50 minutes.

Experience : The interview started with the introduction of the interviewer and he asked me to introduce myself. Later, he asked me about my general interests in technology, my motivations, and my dreams. He also asked me to explain a few projects, tech-stack used and why I used that particular tech-stack. (I always try to explain a project in 4 steps — Motivation, Implementation & Tech-stack, Impact & Challenges).

He also asked me about my experience and learnings in hackathons because I mentioned them in my resume. Then he asked me about my motivation to join Uber and if given a chance, what new feature I would like to implement. He also asked me if I want to change any feature in the existing Uber’s app.

We also talked about my contributions in few clubs/societies and other programs or scholarships which were present on my resume. Later on, we ended the interview and I got the chance to ask few questions from the interviewer. Overall, the interview was pretty well & I was satisfied with my answers.

Results :

After 3 days of my interview round, I got an email from the HR mentioning that I got selected as an UberSTAR 2022 intern. I was cloud nine and thanked her for making my day!

Since you read till the end, here’s a surprise for you 😁

Important tips!

• Be confident, think out loud!
• Try to answer each and every question.
• Maintain a proper balance between DSA and Development.
• Practicing DSA will help you think better and quickly during the online assessments and try to mention 2–3 projects in your resume.
• Prepare short notes for core CS fundamentals to save time.

• Know each and every minute detail of your resume.
• Relate the questions to whatever work/projects/internships/community work/achievements/scholarship experiences you get.

For ex: Instead of directly saying that you have XYZ quality, you can give examples of your work or any contribution to depict that you possess the quality.

• Give mock interviews for practice.
• Think about the motivation, impact, outcomes, your learning, mistakes, challenges, etc. of your projects/internship/work, etc.
• Try to use STAR methodology while answering any situation based questions.
• In the end of interview, try to ask atleast 1 question!!! It shows that the candidate is interested in the applied position & company.
• Have a good peer group/community to know about opportunities, discuss your ideas, approaches, and feedback on your work. I am glad to be a part of Codess.cafe community, it helped me with proper guidance and resources to follow.

Resources I used during my prep

Here are a few resources that I followed during preparation:

• DSA : https://leetcode.com/
• OS : Three Easy Pieces book by Remzi Arpaci
• Company-wise DSA questions and experience articles on GFG.
• YouTube channels for CS fundamentals : Gatesmashers, Neso Academy.

You are all set to go. Good luck with your interviews!! In case of queries, you can reach out to me via LinkedIn :)

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