After interning at HackerRank for the past year and a half, writing a blog now seems strange, doesn't it?

I KNOW!!

So stay tuned for this series, in which I will be releasing the seasons of my J.O.U.R.N.E.Y at HackerRank. And a series without a climax at the end is all a moo point, so hang tight for the final season, y'all!

I hope you get all the F.R.I.E.N.D.S references and if you don't 😳 ... well then I guess you need to go on a BREAK and binge-watch it. Thank me later!😌

"So no one told you life was gonna be this way....."

Well, the day I received this mail from Vassavi, no one could have told me my life was gonna change this way!

One hot April afternoon, freshly heartbroken (found out my lobster🦞 wasn’t my lobster at all 💔), I was cocooned in my bubble when I got this mail from one of the most fun and passionate HR ever.

This wasn’t just a mail, it practically rescued me 🥹! I was pumped and started figuring out how to go ahead with this. I approached one of my seniors, Muskan Khedia who was then an intern at HackerRank. Being the Monica she is, she helped me with the referral and thus, I answered the mail with my resume and the necessary documents.

It was all going smoothly. A bit too smooth. And of course, life had to mess up. Yes guys folks you guessed it right, I got down with Covid 😷 . That day, "it was like there’s rock bottom, 50 feet of crap, then me."

So I got admitted to the hospital, bedridden for two days straight. And as if the universe was testing me, I received a call from Vassavi regarding the interview process. The interview got scheduled while I was still admitted 🤦🏻‍♀️ !

The only thought in my mind? If not now, then never. I buckled up my mind and started getting ready for the interview that changed my life.

Okay, enough about the pre-interview overthinking. Let’s talk about the real deal. So after I got enough information regarding the test, my preparation started with exploring what HackerRank is all about. Its core values, qualities that they look for in their folks, and what exactly was I expected to present to crack it. I went through all the past projects that I was going to showcase, thoroughly understood my role in all my past internships and polished my React skills by going through a bunch of articles, quizzes, and blogs.

But then my brain asked, Bro what about DSA?! 🤷🏻‍♀️ To disclose the fact, I was quite reluctant for the interview as I felt, HackerRank being synonymous with Data Structures and Algorithms, they might focus a bit more on my DSA knowledge instead of my dev skills.

But oh boy, could I BE any more wrong! I got to know, the core requirements for SDE interns at HackerRank were development skills.

And now, with some newly gained confidence, I furnished my dev skills and awaited the interview.

Well now moving on to the interview….
Should I go on? 🤔 Oh, I wish I could, but I don’t want to.

To read the whole season go check my blog!

Feel free to connect on Twitter :)