I am from Dhanbad, Jharkhand. I am currently working at Udaan as an application developer.
During my schooling, I was introduced to programming languages like C++ and Java. While learning their basic fundamentals, I was confident that this is the only field that I feel gravitating towards in my professional life.
After successfully completing my graduation in 2018, I took up my first job at National Stock Exchange in Mumbai. While working at NSE, I was often challenged with problems that I had less significant solutions for. It wasn’t easy to admit, but I could see that my inputs regarding designing were average at best. I wasn’t even able to contribute much in the development of codes and their deployment in production. I knew if I wanted to be content in professional domains, I would have to ensure significant contributions from my end. For the same, I started looking out for learning platforms to improve my skills.
While looking for online learning opportunities, I came across Scaler. I had dual goals in my mind when I joined Scaler: cracking at least 90% interviews and working on my existing skill set.
Mostly asked questions in interviews revolved around DS Algo, High-level design etc. I feel that these are some topics that are difficult to prepare independently. I don’t mean to discourage anyone, but the problem with learning on your own is that the motivation stays high during the initial few weeks but eventually wears off. Therefore, I joined Scaler to ensure that I don’t end up getting caught in this loop. The curriculum appealed to me as it was structured in a way that won’t allow repetitiveness or monotony to obstruct the learning.
During my CSE, binary search trees were something that I could never grasp the complete understanding of. My instructor at Scaler, Mr. Naman Bhalla, ensured 100% comprehension of the topic. I recall this particular concept because BST related questions were a major highlight of many interviews (even for Amazon) and I remember feeling elated when I was able to solve those problems easily.
One of the most challenging parts during my journey was achieving a balance between working and giving absolute commitment to Scaler. Time management was of essence but I found it hard to prioritise. Especially, towards the end of my programme, I found it difficult to maintain the balance as the company workload got heavier. Subsequently, I had to pause my course for a while. I took a break because I could see the need to relax for a while.
I am not complaining at all though. For me, the DSA part seemed to be very difficult and I was able to hone it with my hours of practicing the questions and assignments. Approaching DSA problems was a task for me. That’s exactly what I learnt at Scaler- multiple ways of discerning patterns and solving the problems efficiently.
From my experience, I would recommend the current students to sit for interviews after being done with the DSA part at least. Also, during interview rounds, try to come up with efficient solutions gauging the time complexity accurately. Of course, these few details are addressed and practised during the course of the programme properly. Following this pattern can help anyone in cracking top 10 companies coming for placements pretty easily.
Additionally, I would like to stress the importance of taking breaks. When you reach your saturation point, take a break to regain your mental energy. Especially for working professionals, it might get difficult to juggle between jobs and Scaler and might even lead to burnout. At such a time, my advice would be to pause the course for a short while and continue it when you have the mental space to do so. This, for me, is the best way to go about learning anything. Couple your learning with adequate breaks and then you will definitely make the most out of it.
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