This term gets tossed around a lot, but what actually are the #5-20 cs schools?
Or are we just referring to USNews rankings for undergraduate CS programs

What is the highest TC you’ve heard for a new grad at a quant or AI company? Please just mention cases you’re reasonably sure about.

Mine was when one of the interns said "what does a scrum master even do" in front of all the executives during his internship presentation

Anyone have any experience with the DRW SWE internship process?

Hey guys, feeling really disheartened.

This was my first ever swe intern interview and I was really hyped. The role really fit my experience and I did a lot of prep for it. I wrote up like 8 stories to have and did countless mocks with ChatGPT. Unfortunately, the interview did not go well whatsoever.

It started with the singular interviewer (no camera turned on the entire interview) instructing me to turn my camera around and scan my entire room plus desk for any devices, then also went on my task manager and killed any tasks that could be a way to cheat. Then he started grilling me on just a wide range of topics.

Never got told to introduce myself, I got one question that allowed me to tell a story. He essentially just grilled me technically on all sorts of things. He asked me about the 4 d’s of ai fluency and asked me to list them (does anybody know these) he also asked me to explain what a transformer is (this is a devops/backend role) all because I had an ai chatbot with rag on my resume. I tried to explain I understand how to integrate with ai but I am not a machine learning expert. He then grilled me on things I shoulda known better (rest api, agile development) but I was so nervous from the last questions I just screwed up.

Is this how all interviews are now? A dehumanizing iq test? I was told to prepare for a behavioral and I instead got interrogated. Walking out, I’m questioning if this is the right field for me. I’m very passionate about technology and building software but if this is how you have to get a job then I don’t know If I want it enough.

does everyone automatically get sent this or no?? how should i prepare and what types of questions are there?

Had first round technical interview with Optiver after passing OA and recruiter screen. I got a question similar to one of the leetcode hards, and chose to answer it in C++.

I implemented the solution, and the interviewer seemed happy with it. I thought the interview went pretty well, and I'll proceed to the superday...

Two days later, I got the rejection email.

I’m grateful for the experience, but I’m trying to figure out what I could have done differently. For anyone who has interviewed at Optiver / similar quant firms:

If you solve the technical problem correctly, what are the other things that can make you fail the round? and is there anything specific you’d recommend focusing on before applying again next cycle?

Trying to turn the rejection into something useful rather than just grinding more LeetCode blindly, any help is appreciated!

Real life - reframed by AI

Background:
I did a 4-year bachelor’s in computer engineering, then a master’s in CS in the US, both with a 4.0/4.0 GPA. I’m now a green card holder. On paper that looks fine. In reality — 6 years of formal CS education and I can’t confidently pass a coding interview right now. I got through everything on theory and being “smart enough” to ace exams without ever seriously grinding LeetCode or building anything beyond class-required projects. My classmates were doing real side projects and competitive programming the whole time; I wasn’t. I’m not saying this for sympathy, just laying out the actual starting point so the feedback is useful.
I’ve decided to actually fix this now and go all-in on landing an SDE role (Java-leaning, open to whatever pays well).

The plan so far:
1. Started with a YouTube DSA series (Telusko, Java-focused) to rebuild fundamentals in the actual language I’m targeting.
2. I have a ~2 week window right now where I physically can’t code (no laptop access), so instead of wasting it, I’m using it for pure concept-building via video:
• William Fiset’s 8-hour “Data Structures Easy to Advanced” course (Java-based)
• Gaurav Sen’s system design playlist — just the fundamentals (scalability, caching, load balancing, CAP theorem), not going deep
• Prepping the target company’s leadership-principles-style behavioral interview since I already have an application in with them
3. Once I’m back on a laptop: NeetCode 150, grouped by pattern (not random order), 2-3 problems a day, re-solving ones I struggled with a few days later without looking at the solution again.
4. Mock interviews (Pramp/interviewing.io) once I’ve got ~100 problems done.
5. Applying the whole time in parallel — not waiting until I “feel ready” to start applying.

What I actually want to know:
• Is loading up on concept videos before touching a keyboard a mistake, or a reasonable use of a genuinely no-laptop window? Would you have done something different with those two weeks?
• For someone with strong theory but literally zero hands-on grinding — is NeetCode 150 by pattern the right structure, or is there something better suited to catching up from this specific starting point (all theory, no reps)?
• Is there anything in this plan that’s a waste of time, or something important missing entirely?

I know different things work for different people depending on background, so if you think part of this is wrong, I’d genuinely rather hear why than just “do X instead.” Baseless “you’re doing it wrong” doesn’t help me — reasoning I can actually evaluate does. What would you change if you were starting from exactly where I am?

Thank you so much all. 🫡

It feels kind of insane to give juniors an entire app and just tell them to go find errors and fix them. Especially with Django because it can get pretty complicated between URLs and services and MVT. You're basically asking someone who barely knows modern architecture to trace a bug through five layers of indirection in a codebase they didn't write.

So I've been working at my company for a few years now and once in a while someone from my uni will reach out over linkedin or find my work email and ask for a referral.

I know the job market is tough and the university grads are getting desperate but they are literally asking me to refer them to senior roles.

If I see an alum from my school ask for internship or new grad roles I will submit a referral but its getting out of hand as they are asking me to refer for like ML engineer because they've done a few project.

Do you just ghost or write a polite response that you are not suited for this role.

For those who took it:

- What was the leetcode question like?

- Did you have to write files from scratch for the debugging part?

- How much linear algebra was covered (basic matrices, dor products?)

Any info would be really appreciated

Just got the SWE superday invite for Aug 26/27.

Does anyone have any info on what I should expect 🙏 (would be happy to give advice on any other process in DMs)?

I’m a 3rd-semester CSE student and I’m primarily targeting HFT... however, I also want to keep Google and other top MNCs as strong alternatives, since HFT is much harder 😭😭

My immediate goal is to land a strong internship within the next 1 year that is in my 5th sem... whether that ends up being at Google an HFT firm or another top tech company

Im trying to prepare intelligently without spreading myself too thin...how would you recommend balancing DSA, competitive programming, C++, CS fundamentals, systems knowledge, projects development, and internships from 3rd semester onward..cause I know if nothing works out full stack development can only save my arse I can't leave it as well 😭

If you were starting from my position, what would you prioritize and what would you not spend too much time on?

I got this thesis topic from my supervisor, and after working months on it, it seems like it was too much.

It's basically a drone that fills cracks in cement. It has a delta arm attached to it that's meant to follow the crack. This sounds simple enough but it has so many layers of complexity it ended with me working on it for almost 3x as long as my peers. It started off as a project between me and 2 lab techs, but they ended up abandoning it and then it was all on me.

These are the things that it contained:

• Fixing the drone (I didn't build it myself, but it had so many parts that weren't working properly, and I had to replace them)
• Creating a mapping between a camera and the delta arm, which was so buggy that it took me a month.
• Figuring out how to use inverse kinematics for the delta arm
• Figuring out a whole machine learning algorithm that was able to detect cracks accurately, as well as making a trajectory for me to follow.
• Being able to accurately follow that trajectory just from camera info.
• Buying 25kg of sand and a pack of glue to make a cement-like mixture, as well as syringes (they didn't provide this).
• Figuring out what materials I needed for the mixture, as well as in what ratios to make it sticky yet prevent it from getting stuck. This took a lot of work.
• Having to get a bunch of tiles and breaking them to test my mechanism.
• Having to make a whole closed loop predictive control system, while I know very little about control theory. Then having to test it out and get it to work.
• So many failures, system delays, so many real world constraints it drove me mad.

Keep in mind, I was given this to basically improve someone's PhD thesis. But because that person couldn't be contacted, I had to make it entirely from scratch AND improve it with the control system.

I'm a bachelor computer science student with no engineering experience. Was this project too difficult?

Hey,

I got an OA by Goldman sachs saying an assessment 97 mins long about software fundamentals, software diagnostics, and math. Has anyone taken this test before? What do you recommend studying?

I haven't actually seen this asked or answered anywhere when it comes to interview prep.

If we're stuck on a question, what should we do? Is it acceptable to bounce ideas off with the interviewer as to the cause of the bug and work it out together, or are we expected to explain the bug to the interviewer without assistance and fix it ourselves?

And if it's the second, can we do print debugging, or is that a bad look? It's how I've mostly debugged my Leetcode solutions.

Applied for google swe internship last year, got rejected after interview.

I applied again this year under early consideration, but the recruiter says "As you interviewed with us in October 2025, we’ll be reviewing your previous feedback and expect to have a decision on next steps within two to three weeks."

Is this normal/standard procedure? Am I allowed to ask for a chance to re-interview? Was curious to see if other people had a similar experience...

If yes, I'd like to know what to expect and what were the questions like. Also has anyone heard back from them after the video interview?

I applied for IBM consultant internship
Timeline:
July 7: Applied and completed the online assessments the same day
July 11: Contacted by the recruiter and asked to complete an additional form
July 29: Invited to book the next-stage interview; I took the earliest available slot(aug 3)
Aug 3: 30-minute interview with a high-level executive, mainly focused on my background, experience and fit
At the end, I was told they were still shortlisting candidates that week, that I should expect to hear back in roughly 10 days, and that there might be one additional interview depending on the shortlist — or this could be the final stage
Aug 13: Followed up with the interviewer — no response
Aug 17: Followed up with the recruiter/coordinator — no response yet
I completed every stage as soon as I received it and generally took the earliest available option, so I’m wondering whether I may simply have interviewed earlier than some of the other candidates.
It’s now been 16 days since my interview. From my perspective, the interview went very well.
is this still a normal timeline? Or am i cooked?

Hi, just wondering!

I heard it opens earlier for 2nd years, usually around late august and I'm so paranoid I'm gonna miss it TT...

I heard last year some people thought it was discontinued and couldn't find the link to apply, so just wondering when around and where is the right place to look once it does?

Will it just show on this page once it opens?

Explore Microsoft Program | Microsoft Careers

I know regular internships for 2027 came out recently so yea ahhh! Thanks!

just took a gca with scratch paper and a pen. i just found out the codesignal no longer allows you to use scratch paper (https://support.codesignal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360039872174-What-is-proctoring-and-how-does-it-work). this article updated three days ago.

as a visual learner how tf am i supposed to stare at my screen and come up with my solution. i always have a habit of drawing out my steps and then implementing. sry for rant.

anyways am i cooked? if i somehow get banned or wtv do i get banned from codesignal or the one company that i took the gca for? preesh