DEV Community: Scaler Academy

Experience with Scaler Academy : Review for Freshers

Scaler Academy Team — Thu, 04 Jun 2020 07:40:12 +0000

From the first image of “doubt” to now taking the mission of “GivingBack” ahead in full spirit, The journey of Scaler Kumar Saurav has been anything, but Ordinary.

Based on the journey shared with us, Read the inspiring journey of Kumar Saurav in his own words:

“Disclaimer :

To be honest, When I got to know about them through friends, my immediate reaction was “Scaler is betting on limp horses”.

Taking the responsibility to become that “bridge’ and fill the dearth of quality engineers is too humongous a task and honestly unbelievable in the first instance.

So my journey with Scaler Academy (Previously Interviewbit Academy) is not just around a dream job but so much around self-worth realisation and my ever enhancing interest towards Computers.

My first memory of computers goes back to my childhood when a new teacher from an ITI college taught us HTML. Super fascinated, I remember filling my notebooks with all possible tags I could learn through the internet. Computers instantly became my subject of interest.

But life was never easy. Coming from a lower-middle-class family in Patna, I have seen my father work really hard to provide us with a good education. He owns a departmental store and my mother is a homemaker.

Cycling 12-15 km every single day to attend my IIT Jee coaching in the school uniform, and then rush directly to the school, to save every penny on commute.

I wanted to study in a college in Dehradun, but the fees were such that I could complete my engineering four times in that structure! I decided to join Burdhwan University which had lower fees.

That being said, I have always been positive about life.

Talking about college, there was no coding culture in our college nor any alumni with great past records. Few of our seniors introduced us to competitive programming and we all decided to create a coding club. We used to organise small development contests for juniors, some brought OS contributors from their networks, built small projects, college websites etc.

I found that there is a lot of material available in the market around HLD, LLD, Data Structures, but 90% of it is quite vague. I had to research a lot to find the CRUX and in all this complication, it was easy to lose motivation.

So for somebody like me, Scaler Academy came as a blessing in disguise.

"They were willing to take a risk on me in a way that I hadn't felt in a long time”.

The entire structure was promising and reliable that I immediately decided to apply for the first batch. When I informed my father, even he was quite relieved that I had to pay only once I got a job. Till date, he is super grateful to Scaler.

One of my eureka moments was during a System design class by Anshuman Sir, where he taught us how to build Intuition to prove a solution correct. This is a trait missing even in top coders. Problems like finding the bicycle or Sword passing taught us how to build a program from scratch. This has honestly been such a gamechanger on how I approach a problem even if I don't know all the data structures.

When I had to join a service-based company I got through campus, I immediately reached out to Anshuman sir and his guidance that knowing your capability, we do not recommend that. He immediately initiated my referrals the next day.

One of the opportunities provided to me was with Lido Learning, one of the top ed-tech startups in the country. I get to learn and experiment with so much every day. You realise that salary is one part of the job, but what keeps you going is the responsibility and learning.

Even when they fulfil their promise of referrals, they are available to provide you with the best guidance on how to be the best at your workplace too.

Talking about my personal favourite part of Scaler, it was Celeb talks and networking. I have not missed a single celebrity talk to date. Learning the lifestyle habits of highly effective people goes a long way. I have recently developed habits of reading books through them, (Zero to One being my favourite). Also, I have made so many new friends. One common quality in all these highly talented achievers is the belief and courage to Push hard and keep trying. They are smart and progress-driven, which we usually miss during college.

I visited my college and so many of my juniors asked about my review. There are around 15-20 people who are a part of Scaler now and I feel proud to have started this chain of “#Givingback” to the community. “Clearing the scaler entrance feels more like a goal”
All top coders from my college are part of Scaler academy now.

For someone like me, Scaler Academy has been an absolutely worthy Investment. I credit them for helping me in my Self-worth realization, developing knowledge and giving me some lifelong friends during the journey.

I am proud in every sense to be associated with Scaler Academy!”

Scaler Academy Review: How Scaler Academy Helped me grab my Dream Job At Google!

Scaler Academy Team — Sun, 17 May 2020 09:06:35 +0000

Disclaimer:
Despite being a 6 star coder on codechef, a candidate master on codeforces, and an ICPC regionalist, my story is as imperfect as it can get!
I had no internship in college. I faced rejections in Microsoft, Codenation, Directi. In Fact I even considered CAT as an option. So trust me, it’s not clarity but the Not-giving-up attitude and passion that paves the way to big things in life.Clarity isn’t Everything, Trust me, I am Googler!

We are proud to share the journey of our Scaler Swapnil Mahajan, who is a perfect example of Hard work meets Not-giving up attitude.
Read his complete journey from scratch, his motivation behind Not-giving up attitude and how Scaler Academy helped grab his dream job at Google:

Background:

I am Swapnil Mahajan, a 2020 grad from a middle-class family in Kanpur. Engineering was always on my cards, not because I loved computers, but because I loved Maths and Physics.
So when given the option between chemical branch in BITS Goa and CSE in HBTI , I decided to go for CSE.

My journey in coding is credited to my brother, college seniors and competitive friends, who introduced me to codechef early in college.
You know how one achievement of someone, you look up to, gives you your personal goal, a 6 star codechef rated college senior was that inspiration. I decided that if he could do that, I can too.

I joined a course for DSA offered by NPTEL and with a lot of practice in my second and third sem,I became the first student in my batch to reach 4* rating in the second year. But not everything was a cakewalk.

The real eye-opener was during an off campus coding test for internship in Flock, a directi subsidiary, when 2 questions were asked from Dynamic programming(DP) and I had very little clue. Since my college did not provide any internships, off-campus applications was a struggle.
At this point, I decided to even join a coaching for CAT preparation. I used to prepare for CAT entrance in coaching and college free time, while at home, all my time was for competitive programming. I’d agree I was not clear, but I promised myself not to compromise on learning coding.

I was just enjoying the process of coding. There is no other way to put it.

But then came a phase when I confronted a series of rejections and failures. I applied for a Microsoft internship, got rejected because of problems on the binary tree and linked list. Applied for Codechef internship, but screwed in the project round, where I could not implement REST API properly.

I came across a news that one of the college seniors was referred to UBER through IB based on CodersBit, that spread like wildfire. I was very impressed and started solving puzzles on IB . When I got to know about Scaler Academy, I immediately decided to apply for the First batch in April 2019.

I was already coding for sometime, but honestly, it was easy to lose motivation without a proper structure. Here’s where Scaler Academy pitched in. I really enjoyed the entire structure where in 45-50 days, you were trained well for Data structures and algorithms for your interviews. The mentor sessions played a very crucial role in my success today. Having an expert to personally monitor your growth and guide you is priceless for somebody who is striving to learn.

I clearly remember Abhimanyu sir’s words ” Be Audacious, Swapnil. Think of a bigger picture” when I refused to join a hackathon event due to campus placements. His guidance played a vital role in my project.

Now came the most decisive time, I had to choose between CAT and Engineering as a career. Note that by now, I had an offer from OYO through on-campus placements, had become a candidate master on codeforces, 6* coder on codechef, been selected for ACM ICPC regionals, scored an International rank of 51 in Google Kickstart, cleared CCDSAP advanced level, BUT I had a 99.2 percentile in CAT. It was my moment of truth. I knew I have enjoyed coding and decided to go for it.

I got my first referral through Scaler Academy in GOOGLE. Utkarsh Sir and my mentor Kishan Sir guided me all through this while. I cleared all my rounds and I will be a Googler Soon.

Scaler Academy is an amazing platform for those who really want to learn and upgrade their skills. Don’t believe those who say that only DSA will sail you through.System design, projects, HLD,LLD, every topic is important.

One word of advice from my journey would be - Don’t give up. I had my fair share of rejections.
My mother is a literature teacher and this Not-giving-up attitude comes from her. So as a kid, whenever I left like giving up, she always used to make me repeat the following lines from a famous poem:

“Woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have Promises to keep
And Miles to go before I sleep”

I am a Proud Scaler!

From Scaler Academy to Cyware Labs - Scaler Academy Review by Saurav Gupta, SDE @Cyware

Sumeet M — Sat, 09 May 2020 14:15:43 +0000

It's very rightly said , "The universe loves a Stubborn heart."

Irrespective of the extremely humble backgrounds, Our Scaler Saurav Gupta, honestly is the ambassador of the vision with which we started Scaler Academy. You have to believe in your goals, work towards them, Grow 1% everyday"

Presenting the journey of Scaler Saurav Gupta, in his own words:

My Background:

"I come from humble backgrounds. My parents run a vegetable/general store shop, and I have two elder brothers. But I am the only fortunate one in the family whom my parents could afford to send to college. My family has supported me a lot over the years. Almost 80% of our family income was spent on paying fees for my graduation. I studied in a government primary school until I was in 5th. Since I was a good student, I sat for an exam by Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti that was giving a scholarship. Almost ~5k students appeared for the entrance exam of the school, and only 80 were selected, and I was able to clear it. I studied with them from 6th till I passed out and that was a big-big help to my family financially. Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya hunts for talented children from rural and urban areas and offers them free education with no extra expenses irrespective of the financial condition of candidates whether rich or poor. I was awarded this opportunity at a younger age. I worked very hard in school and eventually joined Lovely Professional University to do engineering. I was in two minds at that time if I should go to Kota to study more and attempt to crack IIT or should I go to a private university and continue education without a break. My Navodaya’s computer teacher(Mr. Amit Kumar) advised that a private university would only help me if I could stay among the top students there. I decided to join LPU and have ensured that I remain at the top. I have been working hard to realize my dreams, and I am 2 times Roll of honor awarded by a worthy chancellor for my academic excellence.

Initially, I wasn’t even sure which branch would be best for me, so I ended up choosing mechanical, but I switched to Computer Science soon after. I realized that coding was something that excited me, creating something new made me happy. Which is why I decided to pursue Scaler Academy, not only were they going to help me get referrals at companies that offered much better packages but also helped me better my programming skills.

My Scaler Academy Review :

The instructors and lecturers were very knowledgeable and kept us engaged - bettering our understanding of the concepts while also motivating us to keep practicing. It was kind of an ecosystem that kept me on my toes.
In most of the colleges, the situation is not very good. The books and teaching methods have not been updated - we are just securing marks without a genuine understanding or application of the concepts. In Scaler, I was able to interact with people who like me wanted to achieve something and were genuinely interested in studying.
The team kept tabs on our performance and submissions, which helps us stay on track.
The hackathon was one of my favorite experiences. It was very nice to use all the learning I had accumulated and apply it to create something meaningful alongside fellow students who were equally motivated if not more.
Another big way that InterviewBit’s Scaler Academy was able to help me was that they don’t charge upfront for the course.

It not only built a trust about the brand in my head but also gave me confidence because they believed so strongly in my capabilities. In between, I felt I was not getting enough referrals, and I reached out to Abhimanyu and Anshuman Sir. He was very approachable and helpful; he guided me very well and made me realised we are all part of the Scaler community.

My experience has been overall, Excellent to say the least. I am very thankful to them for helping me get a job that is paying me so well. I will be able to give back to my family and support them the way they did all my life.

I am equally thankful to my family members (Bhaiya and Papa), my Navodaya pariwar and LPU for preparing me to make an impactful change in society by bringing an engineer from myself."

Review of Scaler Academy (InterviewBit Academy) by Nipun Suradkar

Sumeet M — Fri, 08 May 2020 15:18:21 +0000

We are delighted to bring to you the journey of our Scaler "Nipun Suradkar" who is an amazing example of "When talent meets hard work, anything is Achievable". Presenting his journey in his own words:

My background:

"I was born in Ulhasnagar in Thane district - Maharashtra and I did school and college from the same city. In school, I was a bright student, always securing above-average marks. One of my school seniors joined IIT, and his life suddenly took a turn for the better. Which motivated me also to pursue engineering. I was always into technology and this news aligned with my dreams and aspirations. However, up until 10th, most of us can secure good marks by the rote learning techniques and the stuff we study in 11th, and 12th really can’t be learned with that. I worked on genuinely understanding each and every concept to do well. Although I tried really hard and studied a lot, I was not able to crack IIT. I didn’t get disheartened and decided to make something of myself within my current circumstances. I joined VJTI college and started working towards achieving my dreams.

In school, I found electronics interesting, and I decided to choose that as my major in college with IT and Computer Science as elective. But after the 3rd Semester, I realised that electronics was not something I would want to pursue in the long term. I was more inclined towards IT and computer science. I searched online and found some detailed posts on Quora that helped me understand that I could learn coding on my own and pursue that once I finish my college degree. So I set on to do that. I did a basic C++ course and started practicing on InterviewBit. This conflict of interest between my interest and the branch I had chosen impacted my GPA as well as the college placement process. In some companies, I wasn’t eligible because of my GPA and for some because my chosen subjects did not align with their requirements. But I was not going to give up. I took whichever job I could find from college and alongside continued to study coding.

I was still using InterviewBit to practice coding when I got an email from Anshuman Sir about Scaler Academy (previously InterviewBit Academy). It was exactly what I needed. It would help me not only learn the requisite skills but also help with the referrals to jobs that I actually wanted to do. I applied for the first batch in April 2019, I couldn’t clear it. This was the time I was studying for my semester end exams as well as preparing for the entrance exam for Scaler Academy. I worked really hard and was able to clear both. I joined in May and the next 6 months at the program were beneficial to me.

My Review of Scaler Academy (InterviewBit Academy) :

My experience with them has been great, they helped me a lot to understand the different concepts and the application of them. In fact, although I have only been working for 6 months in the company that I got placed with from college, I got a job as a Web Developer 2 in Media.net.

They were quite happy with my performance during the recruitment process. They considered me on par with someone with 1.5 years of experience. I was able to build this kind of knowledge and understanding with help from the team at InterviewBit’s Scaler Academy. During my recruitment process with Media.net, Abhimanyu Sir guided me and helped me make the decision to join them. I am delighted with my experience here and have already recommended it to some of my friends who are currently preparing for their entrance exam. "

What do top tech companies (Google - Amazon - Facebook) seek when hiring?

Sumeet M — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 07:52:58 +0000

Data Structure and Data Algorithm are two of the most common topics that hiring experts in the domain of software engineering tend to focus on. Despite their popularity in varied recruitment processes, both these topics are quite misunderstood and usually come with many complexities in the application, especially in a tense set up of a job interview.

What can make the lives of aspiring software professionals easy is an insight into the minds of the interviewer sitting opposite to them. While this may differ from person to person depending on their personalities, backgrounds and work experience, one can create and follow some basic guidelines while approaching the problems posed around these two themes by the interviewer.

Measure Twice cut once - Most technology companies are looking for people who have the patience and intellect to analyse the problem at hand thoroughly before jumping into providing a solution. Many times, especially in the interview, the candidate ends up either solving the wrong problem or creating a half baked solution without actually understanding the problem at hand. Therefore, one must converse with the interviewer and get a full understanding of the corner cases of the question posed. The vital thing to note here is that several organisations have training sessions for interviewers as well in which they are specifically instructed not to offer all the boundary conditions of the problem shared upfront. The question is purposely left a little vague, and the interviewer expects the candidate to ask clarifying questions. Be mindful of this. Ask as many questions as required and only then suggest a well thought over solution.
Think loudly and collaborate - One of the most common mistakes that most young professionals do is that once they have heard a question/problem from the interviewer, they tend to become silent. Maybe even stare at the wall or ceiling, understandably lost in thought - analysing the problem. It seems like the right approach, but it is not. What we tend to forget is that the interviewer wants to understand the thought process behind the solution suggested. They want to understand how the person approaches a given situation or issue. The ideal way is to discuss the process with the interviewer. Share the different approaches that could be used, what could be the pitfalls of each of them, how would one go about handling those, and so on. When one is silently thinking about a problem, the interviewer could deduce that the candidate is stuck or lacks clarity. It is therefore essential to engage with the interviewer through the entire problem-solving process.
Do not jump into writing the code directly - The quality of the code written during the interview is very critical. There is no point in writing something basic and then adding patches to it as one gets a better understanding of the corner cases of the problem. This method is rudimentary and does not reflect well on the candidate resulting in eventual rejection. Systematic structuring of the code is essential. The ideal approach should be first to figure the solution and then write the code corresponding to that. In this step also, collaborating with the interviewer is critical. Get his or her buy in on the solution suggested by getting requisite clarity and then proceed to write the code.
Dry run and identify corner cases - Dry running the code is imperative. There are no two ways around it. Every single technology organisation only wants to work with engineers whose codes do not fail on deployment or production. So before one goes ahead and submits the code, test it extensively on all the corner cases that one can think off. Being thorough is the key here.
Ask sensible and smart questions - Most interviewers towards the end of the interaction tend to ask if the candidates have any questions for them. The worst response for such a query is - no questions. Thoroughly research on the company and the work they do, to ensure that such a situation does not arise. This is an excellent opportunity for the candidate to build a rapport with the interviewer, ask them questions on what kind of tech or protocol they use for a particular feature or product. The candidate can also ask questions on work culture within the team - how they brainstorm and come up with new ideas, will he or she get the chance to take product decisions or be part of the discussion where such decisions are made. It is important to note that asking questions around working hours or salary should be avoided in technical interviews.

These tips and tricks are simple and easy to implement. In hindsight, they may even seem obvious, but a lot of aspiring software professionals tend to overlook them. Almost 90% of rejections in the technical round happen because the candidate is lacking in one (if not more) of these aspects. They go a long way in creating a favorable impression of the candidate in the mind of the interviewer.