Getting started with SDE preparation (For college students)
Hello everyone, hope you all are doing great!
I’ve been planning to come up with this blog after many a students who are getting themselves ready for their careers in software technology contacted me in order to know the course of preparation required for the same.
Before moving ahead, I wish to let you all know that this entire blog is a first hand experience and that each one of us has something distinct in our stories. Hence, its a humble request to everyone that please don’t compare this with any online reviews etc., as this blog is entirely written on my perspective and how I have prepared for my placement season.
Also, there is no right or wrong path, what I am mentioning here is about the the path that worked for me.
Level — 1 (Absolute beginner)
- Choose a language.
- Learn basics of the language.
- Solve questions to improve, for loop and if-else concepts. Ex — pattern printing, menu driven problem. Many problems aren’t required.
Level — 2 (Has basic idea about languages, but no idea about CP)
- Start giving short contests like codeforces online and its virtual contests, can also try leetcode or geeksforgeeks. Try solving at least first 3 questions.
- Up-solve A-C of every contest you give. Gradually with practice you will be able to decode what the questions have to say, i.e. you can now solve normal ad hoc questions.
Level — 3 (Has conceptual knowledge, can code but no idea about DSA)
- Start learning basic Data Structures like: arrays, strings, linked list, trees, stack queues, heap, and so on from hackerearth, codemonk, etc. Also if c++ is your preferred language, learn STL. Try to solve questions from leetcode, geeksforgeeks, etc for these topics.
Level — 4 (Advanced knowledge about DSA)
- After you’ve completed level 3, time to level up your DSA game. Dive into Greedy, DP, Graphs and little in Segment tree. The questions asked in the interviews are not very high level questions (not talking about the likes of google). There are only basic questions from some of these topics.
Level — 5 (Ready to solve)
- Now you’re ready. Set a path and solve as many questions as you can. Set a daily target and solve them. Also, give short contests now as they help in time management, accuracy and exam temperament.
Level -6 (Knows DSA, but no project)
- So, DSA is important to crack the coding rounds and without it, you cannot showcase the projects you’ve made. Now, this depends entirely on the time left excluding the time for revision and also learning the core subjects. If you have 20 days, you can literally make a good project if you give all your time and heart in it. If not, there are many project you can make by learning the tutorial on how to make it. Many projects are available on internet, in GitHub. Although, I do not recommend doing the second option because the interviewer was once a candidate and he/she knows the difference.
Level — 7 (Core subjects)
- If you haven’t studied it beforehand, I would recommend going through YouTube tutorials because you will get a thorough knowledge about the topic.
Level — 8 (Solve questions company wise)
- Now that you’re ready for the companies and you can see the schedule of the companies, try solving the questions which have previously come in the coding round of the specific company before.
- Mock interviews will also help immensely in gaining interview experience. Give 2–3 mock interviews to check your attitude (very important) and how well you know.
I sincerely hope that this proves out to be helpful for you.
In case of any doubts, suggestions or reviews please do let me know in the comment section below.
Thank You! Have a great learning ahead.
P.S: you can contact me on LinkedIn too … (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sh1v4mr4j/)
