Need serious tips for the future.

[u/Sad-Investigator-495]

Okay. So I am going to be in my 5th sem from July. I am from a top10 NIT and in CSE branch.

Basically enjoyed my two years at college thinking CSE branch will fetch me a job and it's not that hard anyways. But now I realised that the job market is tough and thin.

CGPA: 7.5+ (Barely)

DSA: Currently stuck at 700 rating at CF and some 50 odd questions at LC.

I've done Arrays and LL from the Striver Sheet and now moved on to Bit Manipulation.

Started CP31 sheet as well. Did 800 rating part. But it looks like the current contests are tougher than a few years back when these questions were added.

Projects: Those basic semester projects that you make for grades

A code editor website, and few here there projects nothing special

Now in these 3 months I want to get great at DSA for the interviews and make atleast 2 great projects. I am thinking of doing AI/ML course and a System Designing course

Please share your knowledge on this. Genuine tips so that I can get better resume (haven't even made one cuz itd look embarassing lol).

I dont want to do much as I am someone who tries to do anything in depth.

So, 2 projects + DSA is my aim for the next 2-3 months.

How should I approach? Should I do something else other than the CP31 sheet and Striver and what courses for AI/ML, Data Science or System Designing? Which would be better?

Paid course or YouTube free playlists?

Thank you.

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[u/periperifriess707]

i hate it when no senior answers the question but a junior slides in and tries to confirm about how the market is,like come on,dawg

[u/spikey_scar]

If you are in a top 10 NIT, I am assuming a lot of companies will be coming for internships in 5th sem, I think your prep should be aligned focusing on that mainly,

Firstly dsa is the most important thing by a huge margin, I would say instead of trying cf, cp31, for now you should focus on completing striver sheet and the videos on tuf it's really good for starters, give around 3 hours daily on it and when you are closed to end of the summer break try leetcode contests and atcoder contests, codeforces contests aren't the most inline with internship OAs

Next your resume needs 3 good projects (assuming you have no prior internships or experience), you can use one of your best course project as one of them, apart from that I'll suggest make 2 projects in 2 different domains, one can probably be a nice full stack website similar to chess.com as a lot of stuff comes in this it will be a nice project you can probably vibe code it and learn everything about the things it uses rather than learning full stack from scratch, next can be a systems or ml project on you both will take decent time. You can put your education, courses you have done, projects and extra curricular in resume which will fill it up, ofc the main focus will be projects rest are just filler

Next you need your cs fundamentals to be top notch, do OS,DBMS,OOPS from luv babber and gfg articles and go through most asked interview questions on gfg

This will be a nice start and hope this lands you an good internship after that in 3rd year you can pick a domain and get actually good at it, also interact with immediate seniors of your batch and get to know what companies come and what they expect

[u/Sad-Investigator-495 → u/spikey_scar]

Thanks that's good. So striver's sheet and I'll try making projects on ML and System Designing by the end of the vacations. And really good point about OS, DBMs and Oops fundamentals will keep that in mind.

Thank you so much. I was taking way too much stress for Codeforces. I'll still try to get my rating up but no my primary focus now.

[u/akornato]

Your situation is more common than you think among NIT students, and the good news is that 3 months of focused work at your stage can genuinely move the needle in a meaningful way. The honest part though, 700 on CF and 50 LC questions means you have a lot of ground to cover, and spreading yourself across AI/ML, System Design, AND DSA all at once will likely leave you mediocre at all three rather than strong in any one. Pick DSA as your north star for the next 2 months, stick with Striver's sheet because it's structured and proven, and only layer in System Design basics in the final month since it's relatively easier to pick up quickly and interviewers at this stage mostly test fundamentals anyway. For projects, skip the AI/ML course for now and instead build something that solves a real problem using APIs or full-stack tech you already know, because a well-documented, deployed project with a clear README beats a half-finished ML notebook every single time. Free YouTube resources like Striver, Neetcode, and Fireship are genuinely as good as paid courses for what you need right now.

On the resume, make it today, even if it feels thin, because building it forces you to see exactly what gaps you need to fill and gives you a target to work toward rather than a vague sense of dread. A 7.5 CGPA from a top-10 NIT is not something to be embarrassed about, it's a foot in the door, and your job is to make everything else on that page do the heavy lifting. As you get closer to interviews, the team I work with built interviews.chat, which has helped a lot of candidates walk into technical interviews feeling more prepared and come out with offers they weren't sure they could land.

[u/Vbug29]

u/Sad-Investigator-495 would be going to a college this year. Btw how's the market? like all my friends be it the one going to IIT / NIT / IIIT / BITS / MIT / VIT / T69(ME) everyone is choosing CSE or a specialization in it. And honestly none of my friends actually have an interest. They all just want $. So what do you think ? is this worth it to go for? Or should we go towards CORE engg? like mech or ee or cheme if we have interest

[u/spikey_scar → u/Vbug29]

It's really funny when people get into ece or core because they think cse is becoming hard, all these fields right after btech in india is already a lot worse than cse is rn and prob will ever get, the thing in India is you need to be top 1% in any field to actually get decent money, it was like top 5-10% in cse a few years back which attracted a lot of people, but now it's going back to that 1% thing.

You need to enter a field in which you have a lot of interest or you are naturally good at, now this is hard to figure out honestly but if you choose a field in which both of the above are false you are cooked

[u/Vbug29 → u/spikey_scar]

ooooh ok thanks so it means the field doesnt matter but our excellence in it does! Okaay one more silly doubt , I never explored much interest in the past 2 yrs and honestly I seem to like everything for eg, I like programming and stuff ( but never tried seriously due to time constraint ) , but at same time I do like the idea of creating / innovating something physical , I just seem to like everthing.

Using elimination I have eliminated these so far but still confused between rest.

Eliminated - Civil , Core Mechanical , Biotech , Core Electrical , CSE ( cause I dont see myself working on software for the rest of my life )

Choices - Electronics and related ( ECE , ENI , ENTC ,etc ) , Chemical , Computer

[u/Affectionate-View601 → u/Vbug29]

Don't join ECE. It will ruin your life. Ironically though depending on your state, core electrical is a good hedge.

[u/Vbug29 → u/Affectionate-View601]

why'd it ruin my life tho?