Ask HN: Focus on projects vs. competitive coding to land a job as a fresher?

Posted by aswinmprabhu on Sunday September 01, 2019 @09:22AM
from the ask-hn dept.

I have mostly been focussing on building real-world software projects, contributing to OSS and doing internships as a CS student. But I have come to notice that all the companies that are recruiting students from my college tend to attribute more importance to competitive coding questions (DS and algorithms) and aptitude tests (English, Math and trick questions).

I have also seen stuff on the internet like https://twitter.com/mxcl/status/608682016205344768?lang=en

How important are the roles of OSS projects and competitive coding when it comes to landing a job as a fresher?

( 2 comments | 4 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Focus on projects vs. competitive coding to land ... by mkagenius on Sunday September 01, 2019 @01:06PM (#20853320)

Focus on competitive coding/problem solving. They do not expect college graduates to have projects. Also, in general it is difficult to judge someone based on the project unless the project is already a hit but in that case why do you really want a job.

Puzzle/problem solving type questions are easy to help them "filter" people. It doesn't mean anything -- do not read too much into it. Its just an easy way to select few from some people.

So, prepare those puzzles, and you are good to go. Almost all of them will ask those.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Focus on projects vs. competitive coding to land ... by diegogoncalves on Wednesday September 04, 2019 @09:09PM (#20882992)

Focus on internships, for the sake of getting a job it helps more than coding competition/side project

[ Parent | on HN ]