Video summary

I participated in 18+ Hackathons | Complete Journey from Civil Branch to Software Engineer

Main summary

Key takeaways

Business

Business / Placement Strategy & Execution Themes

Self-driven preparation beats “college dependence”

  • Don’t rely on placement portals or college guidance—continuous personal preparation is required.
  • “Make your own base,” especially when using AI tools—don’t submit work you don’t understand.

Build a durable pipeline: DSA + Dev + CS fundamentals + proof + communication

  • Emphasis on equal focus on DSA and development.
  • Communication can become the deciding factor, directly affecting interview outcomes.

Use a “multi-track” plan based on strengths

  • For non-CS / civil backgrounds, multiple paths can work:
    • DS/CP, web development, open source, hackathons, AI/ML, etc.
  • Start early, iterate, and keep multiple concurrent plans rather than betting everything on one track.

Frameworks / Playbooks Mentioned (or Implied)

100 Days of Code (content / visibility playbook)

  • Daily public posting on LinkedIn and X to build consistency and accountability.
  • Demonstrate progress across:
    • DSA
    • development
    • CS fundamentals (e.g., OS / DBMS / CN)

Project-driven proof-of-skill (resume shortlisting lever)

  • Use hackathons + open source + polished projects to stand out during resume screening and interviews.

Company-specific prep sprint (operational readiness)

  • After a company arrives on campus, do company-specific preparation 5–10 days before interviews.
  • Also prepare for different company types (e.g., backend vs. full-stack).

Concrete Examples / Case Studies

SIS Smart India Hackathon (breakthrough)

  • Role: team lead
  • Project theme: AI-based identification and categorization of postal office economic activity by PIN code, plus campaign-related work.
  • Outcomes:
    • Learned teamwork and how to run hackathons.
    • Became motivated to participate in many more.

Hackathon volume as learning + selection strategy

  • Participation: 17–18 hackathons plus 7 community / other categories (e.g., company-sponsored, hiring challenges, etc.).
  • Examples to search for:
    • Smart India Hackathon
    • Hack Osa (college beginner-friendly)
    • Company / hiring challenges such as Grid (Just Pay) hiring challenge / AOB’s (as named in subtitles)

Internship acquisition via cold outreach (execution tactic)

  • A previous hackathon-based internship offer was revoked (impacting teammates too).
  • Response playbook:
    • Cold emails/calls on LinkedIn
    • One reply led to a startup: BanQ
  • BanQ internship process:
    • They liked the resume even though the skill mismatch existed (“didn’t do blockchain”).
    • Quick meeting: ~1 hour
    • Assignment: recreate a landing page and deploy it (AWS / “Vercel free version” mentioned in subtitles).

Projects used for interview performance

AI Grading Platform

  • Role-based access: students, professors, TAs
  • Includes AI plagiarism checker
  • Described as a major hackathon-first build; speaker contributed frontend + backend.

Automated Legal Tech Platform

  • AI-assisted document/suggestion system for legal disputes
  • Goal: reduce workflow from “upload details → AI suggests documents/steps”

Confluent Hiring Process (Process + Q/A Specifics)

Target company

  • Confluent (acquired by IBM)

Timeline

  • Process started: October (previous year)

Screening & eligibility

  • Minimum CGPA criterion: 6.5
  • Resume shortlisting: about 80 shortlisted
  • OA (online assessment): DSA-based, 3 questions:
    • 1 graph question
    • 1 DP question
    • 1 set (easy/medium-hard/hard levels; described as 3 levels)
  • After OA: about 10 selected for interviews
  • Final selections: 2 total (speaker included)

Interview rounds (day-of structure)

  • Round 1 (Technical - DSA / linked list)
    • Linked list manipulation: “reverse words in string” variant using a linked list
    • Speaker attempted an in-place version; issue noted: spacing between words not handled correctly.
  • Round 2 (Technical - “concurrency round”)
    • Build a thread-safe account engine with concurrent operations:
      • get balance
      • create account
      • close account
      • transfer money between account IDs
    • Duration: stated as ~1 hour
  • Round 3 (Managerial / HM round)

GPA reported at application

  • Speaker indicates around 7 to 9 for GPA, and advises aiming for 8.5+ for better odds.

Key Metrics / KPIs and Targets

CGPA targets

  • Minimum criterion mentioned: 6.5
  • Practical advice: aim 8.5+
    • Speaker mentions cases where they had about ~8 CGPA but still failed selection criteria.

Hackathon count

  • 17–18 hackathons, plus 7 community
  • Multiple categories included (hiring challenges, company-sponsored, etc.)

Placement compensation

  • Confluent offer: 16 LPA

Interview / attempt volume

  • 8–9 interviews mentioned to get shortlisted/selected after posting and CS fundamentals preparation
  • 5–6 mock interviews mentioned explicitly (even before Google)

OA / rounds counts

  • OA: 3 questions
  • Interview rounds in a day: 3 rounds

Cold outreach throughput

  • Not quantified as a number, but described as daily constant effort

Actionable Recommendations (What to Do)

Early years (especially for non-CS)

  • Keep CGPA high—don’t assume CGPA “doesn’t matter.”
  • Start with one core track, then evolve:
    • Year 1: C/C++ basics + web basics (HTML/CSS/JS mentioned)
    • Year 2: keep building dev + DSA foundations

Second year

  • Start open source + CP / hackathons as proof signals.

End of second year / third year

  • Start mock interviews and cover CS fundamentals early enough for OA + interviews.

Third year during campus / internship season

  • Don’t miss: mock interviews + timely contests
  • For internships and placements, communication readiness is crucial.

Before each company interview (execution sprint)

  • Do DSA + CS fundamentals + strong projects
  • Add company-specific preparation 5–10 days before.

AI Usage Guidance (Business / Execution Lens)

  • Don’t treat AI as “auto-complete.”
  • Build system understanding first; use AI for leverage only after you can explain what you built.
  • Quote/idea: “If a project was written by AI, it has no meaning” → interviewers evaluate depth and understanding.

Presenters / Sources

  • Presenter / interview subject: Swayam (placed at Confluent, 16 LPA)
  • Interviewer / host: not explicitly named in the subtitles (interviewer asks questions throughout)

Original video