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

4 points by aswinmprabhu 6y ago ↗ HN

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

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mkagenius 6y ago ↗

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.

diegogoncalves 6y ago ↗

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