crosslinks facebook'd

7/30/2019 Crosslinks Facebook'd

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Compiled by : Akanksha Dangi (2ndyear)

Anshay Deshwar (3rdyear)

Harveen Oberoi (3rdyear)

Nilanjana Goel (3rdyear)

Veeresh Goswami (4th year)

Videt Jaiswal (2ndyear)

Designed by : Gaurav Gupta (2

nd

year)

CROSSLINKS


2/11

As the placement season connues, every student has his or her

eyes set on the seniors and the companies that they are being se-

lected in. Each student draws inspiraon from the seniors who over-

come their phases of stress and apprehension to nally land their

dream job(s).

Amongst all, the one company which is the most ancipated and

leaves everyone agape is Facebook. So, it seemed only plausible

that we bring to you an exclusive issue of interviews covering stu-

dents and alumni who overcame all obstacles to realize the Face-book dream.

CROSSLINKSCROSSLINKS


3/11

Mr. Mahesh Chandra Sharma is an Electronics and Communication Engineering graduate from the Batch of 2011. He was placed in Directi via on campus placements. He applied to FacebookOff-campus after a year and is now a Software Engineer at Facebook, Ireland.

You are placed in Facebook. Please share your experience with us. How was the selection process?

How far is your college responsible in making you what you are today. What did your college give you?

Were you involved in societies in NSIT? Did that help you in any way?

In spite of being in Electronics department in NSIT, you became a Software Developer for Directi and now for Facebook. How did thistransition of elds come about? What was your inspiration?

It was a long process which comprised of 1 online test, 1 telephonic and 3 onsite interview rounds. Questions that were put forth were not very difcultbut I was being closely observed as I coded the solutions. I think they were more interested in programming skills than algorithmic skills.

I think a good college really helps in building a good career and giving you a platform. In NSIT, I met some brilliant people who have inspired me a lot.

I was not involved in any society in NSIT. So, I cant really say whether it helps or not. I did initiate a programming group on Facebook, though. Peopleuse this group as a forum for asking programming and algorithmic problems.

When I took admission I randomly made a choice between ECE and COE. Later on I realized that the choice didnt match my interest. By the end of 2ndyear I became aware of my penchant for solving mathematical and algorithmic puzzles opposed to the core electronics stuff. As the placement season approached, I realized softwarecompanies were more up my alley (not completely though). I got placed in Directi through on campus placements.

byVidetJaiswal



4/11

Ekansh Preet Singh, who is an Information Technology graduate from the 2012 Batch of NSIT, got placed in Facebook in the year 2011. His name is synonymous with competitions likeGSoC. A two time GSoC-er, he is a known stickler at his work. Crosslinks interviewed him and following is an excerpt from the same.

What was your approach while entering into the placement season? Were there certain companies that you were targeting?

What is your prole at Facebook? And at which Facebook ofce have you been posted?

According to you, what gave you an edge over others during the Facebook placement procedure?

To be honest, I was pretty nervous entering into the placement season. But then again, everyone is, I believe. Also, I remember our batch had performedpretty poorly during the internship process in 3rd year so that was another reason for anxiety. I had set pretty stiff targets for myself; what to study and from where. Everybody hashigh hopes from himself/herself and so did I. I was mainly targeting the big software rms like Adobe, Amazon, Google and the like.

I am a Software Development Engineer at Facebook at their Menlo Park campus, California.

If you have been geeky since the beginning, it does help. I did numerous things in the eld of computers and that helped increase my knowledge and depthand provided multiple facets to my resume. Also, these companies want you to not just know the theory but be able to implement it practically also. My practical knowledge plus mygenuine interest in computers gave me an edge over the others (or so I feel). Another big advantage that I believe I had was the projects I worked on during my 4 years at NSIT.



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You were selected for GSoC, twice. How was the experience? What type of projects did you work on while you were in NSIT? Do you thinkyour internships helped you during placements, especially at Facebook?

You are among the most inuential gures at NSIT. What would be your word of advice for fellow NSITians.

You were one of the most active members of NSITonline and CSI-NSIT. How was the learning experience there?

My projects, particularly GSoC, helped me a lot during placements; both in Amazon and in Facebook. During two interviews in Amazon and two interviews inFacebook, I was asked about my favourite project. It sort of set the tone of the interview for me. I had basically been a web developer in college and did projects using PHP, JavaS-cript, HTML, CSS and the like. Both my GSoC projects, ThinkUp (Expert Labs) in GSoC 2010 and StatusNet in 2011, were primarily in PHP and Javascript and were a massive learningexperience. They taught me how to write a professional code which is easy to understand and is optimized. They taught me about the various architectures being used in the indus-try. Being a Google intern does leave a good impression with the interviewer.

I have learnt a lot from the placement season.

First, one should have at least one or two good projects. These can be projects with teachers or with organizations, any open source work or anything that you wanted to work on.Just make sure you learn something from them. It is not the certicate of internship that is important, it is the knowledge gained and the learning experience. You should have

worked passionately on the project, taken it to completion and learnt a lot during the process. You should be able to present it to the person sitting in front of you. Im not sayingthat it is compulsory, but it is certainly a big help.

Second, placement season is one of the most tormenting times, mentally and emotionally. You shouldnt sit for a company thinking that Isme toh hona hi nahi hai. Main toh bas ex-perience ke liye aaya hoon. You must come with a positive frame of mind, with the intention of cracking the company, only then will you actually be able to do it.

Finally, you shouldnt think that someone who is better than you has to get placed before you can get your chance. And honestly, there is a lot of luck involved in placements. Asmuch luck as hard work, if not more.

Study well, stay positive and be strong! You shall denitely have your day!

NSITonline and CSI provided me with the start I needed. I started working actively in these societies right in my rst year. At NSITonline, I did projects whichhelped me improve my technical knowledge. I learnt PHP because I had to work on an NSITonline project. At CSI, I organized events and thereafter took seminars; things thathelped me build condence. Also, most importantly, through these societies I came into contact with seniors who guided me whenever I required their help.

by Veeresh Goswami



6/11



7/11

He is a Computer Science student of the Batch of 2013, currently in his fourth year.He describes his college life as a prodigious one and believes that NSIT gives you a lot of free time to pursue your interests. The academics dont really pose any hindrance. His word of ad-vice to his fellow juniors at NSIT is to be engaged in projects and various activities in college and gain practical knowledge via online courses and maybe even coaching institutes. His bestmoments at NSIT were those spent in Moksha11 during the pop night, which eventually gave him a headache that lasted for three days.He is placed at Facebook and is satised and happy. He shared his experience, or success mantras as you may like to call them, with us. So, read on!

What was your approach while entering the placement season? Were there certain companies that you were targeting?

Take us through the entire placement procedure of Facebook, from the written rounds till the nal online interviews.

See, I was interning at Amazon IDC, so I never really found any time to prepare for the placements. The transition into the placement season was quite sudden forme. One day I was interning in Hyderabad and the next day, I was sitting for Adobe .Since I hadnt really prepared myself for placements as such, my sole aim was to just survive

instead of trying to do extremely well.One thing that I believe paid off was the CAT coaching that I did for aptitude tests in placements. Dont get me wrong, I have no intention of doing an MBA right now, but I justjoined CAT coaching so that I could do well in the aptitude questions that most tech companies tend to ask. The unfortunate thing is that people who plan on doing an MBA tend tocrack such aptitude exams and those who want to stay in tech dont. So, CAT coaching denitely helps in general, even if you dont want to do an MBA. But this, of course, is subjec-tive. Once you clear the written exam, youre on your own again and only your technical skills help.The other thing that helped me a lot was that I have always been active on platforms like spoj and codechef. I started doing this after 3rd semester break with Mukul, a friend ofmine.To answer the last question, I wasnt really targeting any specic company. I just wanted to get into one of the good A++ companies like Amazon, MS, etc., or if possible, dreamcompanies like Facebook or Google. Frankly, I wasnt looking forward to the placement season. This is such an anxiety ridden time .Thankfully; I didnt have to face any of its re.

The placement procedure of Facebook consists of a written round and 4 interview rounds. Written round tends to be the hardest one. We had to write codes thatcould pass some test cases.

After that, there were 4 interview rounds in the college guest house. The interviews continued for the entire day and were based on DS/Algorithms only and not on subjects like OSand Networking. The best part was that we were allowed to code in any language we were comfortable with. The interviewers were quite friendly. They expected us to code whateversolution we could propose and preferred clean code. Fumbling on a question isnt a major issue if you can eventually produce a code that works ne.They also asked me about the project that I did at Amazon. Overall, it was a really nice experience.



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According to you, what gave you an edge over others during the Facebook placement procedure? It was a slightly long process, so how wereyou able to maintain the self-belief that you could pull this off?

Do you think your internships helped you during placements, especially at Facebook?

You are, at present, one of the most inuential gures at NSIT. What would be your word of advice for fellow NSITians.

What all societies had you joined in the college? How was the learning experience there?

What type of projects and technical activities did you work on? How did they help you?

What is the prole you are being offered and what type of tasks would you be entrusted with, at Facebook? And at which Facebook ofcewould you be posted?

Haha, it wasnt really a long process. The results of the written round were announced 3-4 days after the test and we had the interview rounds after that. All the in-terviews ended the same day and the results were announced the next morning. So, it wasnt really a long process.Again, the fact that I was able to code the solutions fast (faster than the others) was the main thing. The interview questions by themselves werent too hard. Plus, online judges dohelp a lot. Implementation/thinking skills improve drastically when youre active on such competitive platforms.

For most of the part, I am a very lazy person. The only technical intern that Ive ever done was the one I did after my 3rd year, at Amazon. It did help quite a lot inthe Facebook interview round 4. They asked a lot about the challenges that I faced and the ways in which overcame them. Thankfully, because of the intern I had a lot of stuff tosay. My mentor at Amazon, Mr Abhay Dang, is one of the best and most respectable teachers I have ever had. He understood the challenges an intern faces, and tried to make myproject as enjoyable as possible. I learnt a lot from him.

My advice to NSITians would be to do whatever they like to do, and have fun while doing it. Theres this constant rat race in almost all technical colleges, and unfor-tunately, that exists in NSIT too. Separate yourself from the rat race as soon as possible, nd your passion and pursue it. Dont do interns just because others are doing it too. Dontdo things just for adding another bullet point to CV. Dont do anything just because your friend is doing it, do it because you want to. Above all, have fun and never give up on whatyou like because it seems hard at the moment.

I had joined IEEE, CSI and Rotaract when I was a fresher. I participated in one or two drives, it was a nice experience. But then realized soon enough that my inter-est, programming on online judges and algorithms, didnt really coincide with the work these societies did. So I stopped being a part of these societies.

I did a simple chat client application project in my 2nd year with my friends Rachit Goel and Varun Sharma. It was basically a system wherein a central server existedand clients were connected to it. Message sent by any one client was broadcasted to other clients.Apart from this, I have done one intern project at Amazon.

The prole that Im being offered is that of a Software Engineer.There are a variety of teams at Facebook. Each person has to go through 6 weeks of boot-camp, wherein he/she learns a lot of things. During boot-camp a person gets to work withdifferent teams, and at the end he has to choose the team he/she is best t for. So, all in all, theres a great deal of freedom and responsibility entrusted to each engineer.Ill be posted at Menlo Park, California.

by Akanksha Dangi

CROSSLINKS CROSSLINKS


9/11

He is a Computer Engineering student of the Batch of 2013.He describes his life at NSIT as full of fun and excitement. In his words, There is so much to enjoy, from fests to boring college routine, from movie outings to copying assignments, fromovernight hostel CS to sleeping in class and many others things. This is the place where I made friends for life. Every moment spent with them is special to me and I would always cherishthose memories.

What was your approach while entering the placement season? Were there certain companies which you were targeting?

What do you think, gave you an edge over others during the Facebook placement procedure?

Take us through the entire placement procedure of Facebook, from the written rounds till the nal online interviews.

I wanted to study further so I just wanted a job at the back end. I had limited my dictionary of companies to a few, namely Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple andAdobe. It helped me focus better, rather than targeting any and every software company. It is good to decide what your target is before the placement session because it helps youstreamline your efforts towards a particular goal.

Condence is what gave me an edge over others. It is important to have good communication skills, development, design and testing skills for top-end companiesbut they also test your condence, attitude and personality.

There was a written test rst, consisting of 1 coding question which we had to complete in an hour. It was a difcult graph based problem. It was followed by selec-tion of 5 students from our college for further interviews. Our interviews were scheduled with the DTU students.There were 4 technical interviews all of which had a xed pattern. First, the interviewers introduced themselves to me and proceeded by asking for my introduction. Then, they askeda couple of technical algorithms-data structures based questions, and nally, they gave me some time to ask anything about Facebook.Every aspect of interview was important. Although the questions asked were easy but the interviewers expected a bug free solution in the rst attempt.



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How did you prepare for the placement season?

What all technical events or societies were you a part of? How did they contribute in making you what you are today?

You are, at present, one of the highly commendable personalities in the campus. What would be your message for fellow NSITians.

Do you think the internships and projects you did were helpful to you? Also tell us a little about the projects and internships you were associ-ated with.

I sat for the recruitment process of two companies.I interned at Microsoft IDC and was given an opportunity to go through the interview process for the job (PPI). I started a week before my scheduled interviews. I went over theinterview questions asked in Microsoft. To refresh the knowledge of basic data structures and algorithms, I went over geeksforgeeks.org and Crack, the Interview Book. Also I didCLRS. That was it for Microsoft.Preparing for Facebook is entirely different. It is because the process followed by Facebook is more rigorous than the one at Microsoft. I had gone through the written questions gen-erally asked in various colleges in the past.After clearing the written, I just revised CLRS once.

Societies: CSITechnical Events at college: Bug the bug, Code battle, Math wrathThe thing which helped me the most was the NSIT programming group on Facebook. Under the guidance of seniors, I was able to compete with my batch mates and seniors andwork on my weaknesses.Apart from societies, coding on various online judges was the key pillar to my growth and learning process.

Guys, you are at one of the best institutions of our country for engineering. Stop thinking about placements/package, enjoy the college life. Find your passion in en-gineering and you will get the best in life.

Internships and projects help a lot, in gaining experience in your eld and also for placement season.I did my internship at the end of my third year at Microsoft IDC in Server Tools and Business Division under Developer Analytics team. It helped me get familiar with cloud computingand the software development process of an IT-giant.

Apart from the normal curriculum at NSIT, I am doing a project on E-learning systems under Dr. Shampa Chakraverty.

What is the prole you are being offered and what type of tasks would you be entrusted with, at Facebook? And at which Facebook ofcewould you be posted?

I am being offered the Software Engineer prole at Facebook, Menlo Park ofce, California.

by Akanksha Dangi



11/11

About

The Team

NSIT has umpteen number of societies, ranging from technical to cultural. But

then there are those which cannot be classified into categories, and are an in-

tegral part of the college. One such society is Crosslinks. Crosslinks is the of-

ficial media management society of NSIT, which works for promoting the brand

name of NSIT in and around Delhi.Each academic year, Crosslinks organizes the orientation of various societies

for the freshers. This is followed by The Freshers Week wherein the newbies

get to understand the functioning of various clubs and societies and can select

the ones they want to be a part of. Crosslinks brings forth various student ini-

tiatives, accomplishments and activities through frequent newsletters and the

official college magazine. It also provides NSITians with the platform to partici-

pate in talk shows conducted by NDTV and Doordarshan.

Over the years, Crosslinks has emerged as a student forum which provides the

students with comprehensive information. At the same time, it has endeav-

oured to create a niche for NSIT in the educational arena.

4th year- Sakshi Jain, Vibhor Relhan

2ndyear- Akash Malhotra, Akanksha Dangi, Akshay Pruthi, Gaurav Gupta, Jalaj chadha, Rachit

Jain, Ragini Lalit, Sahil Pruthi, Sreeka Ray Mohaptra, Sumant Arora, Videt Jaiswal

3rdyear- Abhay Pruthi, Anshay Deshwar, Harveen Oberoi, Nilanjana Goel

CROSSLINKS

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