u/Aggravating_Ice8404

My team recently cleared the first round of the Adobe University Hackathon. The first round was an OA with around 17 MCQs covering various CS fundamentals, 1 SQL question based on joins, and a DSA question.

For the second round, Adobe has mentioned a 45-minute live proctored case study on Brand Visibility, with 4 questions. The recommended response length is around 400–800 words per question.

I wanted to ask people who have participated in the Adobe University Hackathon before:

• What was the second round like?
• What kind of case-study questions can we expect?
• How is the Brand Visibility case study structured?
• Are the questions more analytical/business-oriented, or do they require technical knowledge as well?
• Most importantly, how do you manage writing 4 answers of 400–800 words each within 45 minutes?
• Is the 400–800 word recommendation strict, or is it okay to write shorter but well-structured answers?
• Any tips/resources for preparing for this round?

Would really appreciate insights from anyone who has appeared for this hackathon or a similar Adobe case-study round. Thanks!

I'm currently preparing for placements and want to improve my CS fundamentals, especially DBMS, OS, Computer Networks, OOPs, and SQL.

I’m looking for good resources/platforms where I can:

Practice CS fundamentals MCQs

Take timed quizzes/tests

Practice OA-style mock tests that include aptitude + CS fundamentals + coding

Get a feel for the difficulty and pattern of actual placement OAs

I’ve found a lot of random MCQ websites, but I’m not sure which ones are actually worth spending time on.

What resources/platforms do you guys use for this? Any recommendations would be really helpful.

I'm helping someone from a Tier-2/Tier-3 college in India plan for a Master's in the US. Their profile is:

• CGPA: 9.44/10
• Intermediate: 97.5%
• 10th: 10 CGPA
• GRE: 310
• Projects: Decent projects in CS/AI-ML
• Branch: CSE / Data Science

They are considering MS in Computer Science, AI/ML, or Data Science.

Rather than asking for specific admit predictions, I'd like to understand how someone with this profile should approach the application process.

• How important is the Tier-2 / Tier-3 college background for MS admissions?
• Is a 310 GRE considered sufficient, or should they retake it?
• How much weight should be given to CGPA vs projects vs internships/research?
• What factors should they prioritize when building their university shortlist?
• Should they focus more on CS, AI/ML, or DS programs given this profile?

Would appreciate advice from people who have gone through the US MS application process, especially those who had a similar academic background.

I’m currently in my 3rd year of CSE and I’m trying to seriously improve my skills before placements. My main goal is to become really good at DSA by December, but I also don’t want to neglect Web Development and CS Fundamentals like OS, DBMS, CN, and OOP.

My college timings are from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM, and I’m trying to figure out how to effectively manage my time after college.

I wanted to know how experienced people manage these things together:

• How much time do you dedicate daily to DSA?
• How do you balance DSA with development and core CS subjects?
• Do you follow any specific schedule or strategy?
• How do you decide what to learn and what to prioritize?
• What would you recommend focusing on during 3rd year for better placement preparation?

Would love to hear how you guys planned your 3rd year, your daily routine, and what worked (or didn’t work) for you.

Start doing DSA right now, from today itself.

The earlier you start, the better. You know, people will start valuing your skills when you genuinely build your DSA knowledge.

There will be people posting on LinkedIn about doing this or that, learning different technologies, etc. But don't get distracted by that in the beginning. First, focus on building your DSA skills.

At first, it might feel overwhelming, but trust me, it is very similar to mathematics in intermediate. Once you start practicing, you will slowly get comfortable with the ideas and patterns of DSA. The only thing you need is to solve a variety of questions.

Just pick any programming language, understand the basics, and start solving problems. Follow any good sheet. I would personally suggest Striver's A2Z DSA Sheet or NeetCode.

While solving problems, NEVER USE AI!!!!!!!!!!

Just try solving it yourself. Put whatever you know into the solution and give your best attempt. That's how you actually improve.

There will always be people posting fancy things and showing that they are doing this or that. Don't fall for that. Build your DSA skills genuinely.

In the end, your actual skills are what matter.

I’m currently in my 3rd year of CSE and I’m trying to seriously improve my skills before placements. My main goal is to become really good at DSA by December, but I also don’t want to neglect Web Development and CS Fundamentals like OS, DBMS, CN, and OOP.

My college timings are from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM, and I’m trying to figure out how to effectively manage my time after college.

I wanted to know how experienced people manage these things together:

• How much time do you dedicate daily to DSA?
• How do you balance DSA with development and core CS subjects?
• Do you follow any specific schedule or strategy?
• How do you decide what to learn and what to prioritize?
• What would you recommend focusing on during 3rd year for better placement preparation?

Would love to hear how you guys planned your 3rd year, your daily routine, and what worked (or didn’t work) for you.

I'm talking about subjects like:

• Operating Systems
• Computer Networks
• DBMS
• OOP
• System Design (basics)

Whenever I start one of these, I either end up watching hours of videos or just memorizing concepts for exams and forget everything a few weeks later.

For those of you who have a strong grasp of CS fundamentals:

• How did you study them?
• Did you use books, YouTube, courses, or documentation?
• How much time did you spend on each subject?
• Did you make notes or just solve questions?
• How did you retain everything over time?
• What mistakes should beginners avoid?

I'm looking for practical advice and study strategies that actually worked for you, not just resource recommendations.

Would love to hear how you approached learning CS fundamentals.

To all the seniors, can you please tell me about Tekworks.

Like in detail.

I know that tekworks is an AIML & Data Science batch like the coding batch (Smart Interviews).

But I need detailed clarity about that.

Enrolling into that batch is worth it?

How will they teach AIML & DS?

Till when the batch continues, 6 month, a year or what?

Is it worth it for placements?

How's the assignments and all in tekworks?

And also the placement cell, will they give first priority only to the coding batch or will they give equal treatment for everyone. Like placements enrollment for everyone, giving opportunities to everyone or will they show partiality towards only the coding batch or what?????

Please answer these....

I'm genuinely curious to hear from people who have been involved in hiring or mentoring fresh graduates.

There's so much advice online—do DSA, build projects, learn system design, contribute to open source, do internships, practice aptitude, improve communication, and the list just keeps growing. It gets overwhelming, and it's hard to know what actually matters.

So, from your experience:

• What do companies realistically expect from a fresher?
• What skills make someone stand out during placements or interviews?
• What are some common mistakes freshers make while preparing?
• If you could go back and prepare again, what would you focus on?
• Are projects, internships, DSA, communication skills, and fundamentals equally important, or do companies prioritize some over others?

I'd especially love to hear from interviewers, hiring managers, and experienced developers about what they look for in candidates with little or no industry experience.

Thanks!

I've been trying to learn DSA for quite some time, but I still can't figure out how you're supposed to think while solving problems.

I've watched tutorials, followed problem lists, and solved a decent number of questions. I usually understand the solution once I see it, but when I'm given a completely new problem—especially in contests—my mind just goes blank. I don't know where to start or what observation I'm supposed to make.

It feels like everyone else can recognize patterns so naturally, while I'm sitting there wondering, "How were you supposed to come up with that?"

For those of you who eventually became good at problem solving:

• How did you develop your intuition?
• What changed that made things finally "click"?
• Did you also go through a phase where every new problem felt impossible?
• When you're completely stuck, how do you think through the problem instead of immediately looking at the solution?

I'm not looking for shortcuts. I genuinely want to learn how experienced people think when approaching unfamiliar problems. Any advice or personal experiences would mean a lot.

Thanks!

Just wanted to know how the placement season is going for the current 4th years at CVR.

What companies have visited so far? What kind of roles are they offering, and what are they expecting from students these days? Is it mostly DSA, projects, CGPA, internships, aptitude, or something else? Also, roughly how many students are companies hiring?

I'm asking because I don't really see many placement updates from seniors, so it's hard to understand what's actually happening this year.

Would really appreciate it if any 4th years or recent graduates could share their experience or any insights. It would be really helpful for juniors like me. Thanks!

I wanted to ask experienced people here: what are the prerequisites one should be comfortable with before starting DP and other advanced DSA topics?

I am currently trying to build my DSA foundation properly, and I feel topics like DP, recursion, backtracking, graphs, trees, etc. become confusing if the basics are weak.

So I wanted to know:

1. What topics should be strong before starting DP?

2. How good should someone be at recursion before moving to DP?

3. What are the common mistakes beginners make while learning recursion/DP?

4. What are your key takeaways after learning advanced DSA topics?

5. Is there any proper order you would suggest for learning these topics?

I am not asking for shortcuts, but more about the right mindset and foundation needed so that advanced topics make sense instead of feeling like memorization.

Would love to hear from people who struggled with these topics initially and later became comfortable with them.

Hi everyone,

I wanted to ask experienced people here: what exactly is DSA in a broader sense?

I know DSA means Data Structures and Algorithms, but what kind of mindset does it build when we practise it regularly?

Like, does it improve problem-solving, logical thinking, debugging, patience, or the way we approach complex problems?

Also, for people who have already gone through this journey, what are your main learnings from doing DSA?

Please share your experiences and advice for beginners.

I’m currently trying to improve my DSA skills, but I’m a bit confused about how much DSA is actually required to crack a good company.

I see a lot of people saying that you don’t need to “master” DSA or become extremely good like competitive programmers unless you are genuinely interested in CP. At the same time, many interviews and online assessments still seem heavily focused on DSA.

So I wanted to ask:

How much DSA is enough for a decent/good software engineering role?

Do we need to solve hundreds and hundreds of problems, or is it enough to be strong in the most common topics like arrays, strings, hashing, two pointers, binary search, recursion, trees, graphs, DP basics, etc.?

Also, for someone who is not very interested in competitive programming but wants to get placed in a good company, what should the target be?

For example:

• How many problems are usually enough?
• Which topics are must-do?
• How good should I be at solving unseen problems in contests/OAs?
• Is LeetCode enough, or should I also do Codeforces/CodeChef?

I know the answer depends on the company, but I’m asking generally for internships/placements and good product-based companies.

Would love to hear from people who have already gone through placements or cracked good companies.

I have a general doubt about DSA contests and online assessments.

Let’s say a contest or OA is going on, and there is a question where I’m not even able to understand what exactly the problem is asking. Not the solution part, but the problem statement itself feels confusing.

Also, sometimes the visible/sample test cases pass, but hidden test cases give TLE, MLE, or wrong answer. In that situation, what is the right approach to debug or optimize during the contest?

Do you usually:

• Read the examples first and try to reverse-engineer the logic?
• Break the statement into input, output, and constraints?
• Check constraints to estimate the expected time complexity?
• Think about edge cases like empty input, large values, duplicates, sorted/reverse sorted input, etc.?
• Skip it and come back later if it takes too much time?
• Try to identify the topic/pattern from constraints?
• Or is there any other method you follow?

I’m asking because sometimes I feel stuck before even reaching the actual coding part, and sometimes my code passes samples but fails hidden tests due to TLE/MLE. I want to improve how I understand problem statements, handle edge cases, and optimize solutions quickly during contests/OAs without wasting too much time.

Would love to know how experienced people handle this.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently exploring both CAT and GMAT prep and I wanted to understand what good resources are available, especially free or affordable ones.

I’m mainly looking for structured resources like:

• CAT previous year questions, preferably topic-wise / section-wise
• Free online practice for QA, VARC and DILR
• GMAT section-wise practice for Quant, Verbal and Data Insights
• Good free YouTube channels or websites for concepts
• Reliable mock tests or free diagnostic tests
• Any resource repository or roadmap that helped you personally

I have searched a bit and found some CAT PYQ websites and GMAT official free practice material, but I’m confused about which ones are actually worth following and which ones are enough for a beginner.

Also, if someone has prepared for both CAT and GMAT, how much overlap is there between the two? Can CAT preparation help with GMAT Quant/DI, or should both be prepared separately from the beginning?

I’m not looking for pirated material or paid course links. Just genuine free/affordable resources and advice from people who have used them.

Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently exploring both CAT and GMAT prep and I wanted to understand what good resources are available, especially free or affordable ones.

I’m mainly looking for structured resources like:

• CAT previous year questions, preferably topic-wise / section-wise
• Free online practice for QA, VARC and DILR
• GMAT section-wise practice for Quant, Verbal and Data Insights
• Good free YouTube channels or websites for concepts
• Reliable mock tests or free diagnostic tests
• Any resource repository or roadmap that helped you personally

I have searched a bit and found some CAT PYQ websites and GMAT official free practice material, but I’m confused about which ones are actually worth following and which ones are enough for a beginner.

Also, if someone has prepared for both CAT and GMAT, how much overlap is there between the two? Can CAT preparation help with GMAT Quant/DI, or should both be prepared separately from the beginning?

I’m not looking for pirated material or paid course links. Just genuine free/affordable resources and advice from people who have used them.

Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone,

Is the rating for LeetCode Weekly Contest 506 updated for you?

For me, it still hasn’t reflected on my profile. Usually ratings get updated after some time, but this one seems delayed.

Just wanted to know if it’s the same for everyone or only my account.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m currently in my 3rd year of college and I’ve solved around 390 problems on LeetCode. I’ve also given around 40 contests across platforms like LeetCode, CodeChef, and Codeforces.

But the issue is that most of the problems I solved were random. I haven’t followed any DSA sheet properly. I did some sheets only nominally, but not in a structured or consistent way.

Even after solving these problems, I’m still not that confident while approaching DSA problems on my own. Sometimes I struggle to identify the right pattern or think through the solution clearly.

Now I feel like I need to fix my preparation and follow a proper path. I seriously want to improve my DSA skills before the end of this year.

I wanted to ask:

How should I structure my DSA preparation from here?

Should I start a proper sheet like Striver/NeetCode/Blind 75 even after solving 390 random problems?

How do you guys revise previously solved problems?

How can I improve my confidence and problem-solving approach?

How many decent problems can I realistically cover by the end of this year if I work consistently?

For contests, how should I analyze and improve after each contest?

I would really appreciate guidance from people who have gone through this phase. What would you do if you were in my position?

Thanks in advance.

https://preview.redd.it/6rgifo7eco8h1.png?width=1172&format=png&auto=webp&s=c64fc306a93cb3152a981e3691c06b492f8d5366

https://preview.redd.it/a7attffkco8h1.png?width=672&format=png&auto=webp&s=ac973ff327a3f230e2c903e7faa2cbc7b01592fa