Cibi Chakravarthy Bachelors in Computer Science and Engineering, Final year, College of Engineering Guindy
Kamalnath Bachelors in Electronics and Communication Engineering, Final year, College of Engineering Guindy
Interns
Samsung Research and Development Institute, Banglore (SRI-B).
Interviewer: Deva Dharshini (GT)
Interviewee: Cibi Chakravarthy, Kamalnath
GT: How did you prepare yourself academically for this internship?
Cibi Chakravarthy: As my seniors used to say, “GeeksForGeeks” is The Bible to crack the selection process. And I usually practice on Leetcode too. My advice would be to get the fundamentals under your belt (not to be misunderstood as chit cheating). Keep your elementals in good shape, say, for Data Structures, Operating Systems, DBMS, etc.
GT: What is your strategy to learn and understand information effectively?
Cibi Chakravarthy: During my preparation phase, I had targets, like the number of problems to complete solving in a week. A trait that remains as a significant predictor of success is grit. I was determined enough to commit myself to programming.
GT: Have you been in any internship before Samsung R&D?
Cibi Chakravarthy: Yes. During my second year, I did one in Expanion on web development. In CEG, you will learn more from Clubs and seniors. Even though I hadn’t done any courses related to web development before that, my senior guided me in building the madhavam website, which added pixels to the picture of my future.
Kamalnath: No. But I have done a project on controlling bots using Image Processing in the Robotics club.
GT: Which quality of yours helped you in the selection process ?
Cibi Chakravarthy & Kamalnath: Even though it’s an old saying, our motto is ‘perseverance pays”.The firmness of your purpose is quite essential, when you try to pursue something new and competitive. During the selection process, even if you have less knowledge about the task assigned to you, you should try, with all the might, to complete it. The key element is not to achieve the solution of the problem but the willingness to try that out, the enthusiasm to find an optimal solution, the grit not to give up and giving your one hundred percent.
GT: How many levels were there on the selection process and what were they?
Kamalnath: Primarily, the coding round is to assess your technical knowledge, which is followed by group discussion to evaluate your openness to others’ opinions. And the finale is a face-to-face interview.
GT: Being an ECE student, how did you manage to crack the coding round?
Kamalnath: I belonged to computer science stream in my twelfth grade, and I am pretty good at the basic level. I prepared well for few course papers like Computing Techniques, those had my back during the coding round.
GT: What was the project you are carrying out in your current internship period?
Cibi Chakravarthy: Currently working on Voice Intelligence, specifically Natural Language Understanding (NLU).
Kamalnath: I am working at Networks department which involves 4G protocols.
GT:What have you learnt from this internship experience?
Cibi Chakravarthy: To find an optimal solution, rather than some random solution, be clear at what you are dealing with. I learnt this from my mentor, who used to note down “How to solve” on his board, before actually solving the problem.
Kamalnath: The virtual circle I had drawn around me has widened a lot. I have realized the potential job opportunities that an ECE student has in software firms despite the fact we have only few subjects related to software and this has catalyzed my coding interests more.
GT: And lastly, what is your opinion about GT Intern Diaries?
Kamalnath: It is a productive initiative from The Guindy Times Club. In our times, we barely knew about the internship opportunities. But a series of articles ,meant just for internships ,is really appreciable.
The Guindy Times thanks Kamalnath and Cibi Chakravarthy for their valuable time and wishes the best for their future endeavours.
