u/Full_Interaction_416

I'm a college student with a 7.8 CGPA, and I'm trying to understand how placements actually work in practice.

How much weight do companies give to:

Internships

Hackathon wins

Personal projects

Club. Activities

Open-source contributions

Experience in domains like Cloud, AI/ML, Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, etc.

compared to CGPA?

I know some companies use CGPA cutoffs, but after clearing the eligibility criteria, do recruiters mainly look at skills and experience, or does CGPA continue to play a major role?

For someone with a 7.8 CGPA, is it realistic to compete with students who have 8.5–9.5+ CGPAs if they have stronger projects, internships, or hackathon achievements?