[Serious ; BS DS and applications]

I am a new student in the program who have just enrolled for this degree in May of 2026.

I just have few questions regarding everything. I will be really thankful if someone is able to guide me.

1. I see that many competitions have affiliated universities and they ask the candidates to register via the registration link provided to the uni... few competitions even ask universities to conduct internal round for sending the team/candidate (for example, SIH, Prism, etc) ; will we be able to participate in these competitions?

I have asked the support team, they said that I will be informed if there any such competitions or internal rounds taking place via the announcement.

2. What is the criteria of sitting in internship cell? Like, I am aware that there must be some CGPA requirement, etc - but are there any year requirement? like I will sit only after the 2 years from the start of program? (or is there the credit clearing requirements? - where speedrunners have the advantage?)

3. Why the placement is so less? I am only asking about those who were eligible for getting support from internship cell and opted for taking support - they are just in double digits, yet the placement range is less than 50% and the stats are not that good.

4. As in India, for masters, I need to have complete the 4 years of bachelors (as I need to submit the degree or the final transcript) - speedrunning will not benefit me - are there any advantages of speedrunning the program?

5. What about research works? How tough is it to get response from IIT-M professors? Are there any structured program or help from IIT-M?

6. How tough is it to secure and maintain >9.5 CGPA (academic distinction) or >9 CGPA?

7. How tough is it to secure admission in reputed foreign universities for masters/PhD? (This question is directly dependent on answer of question 5, as the admission is completely dependent on research works and academics)

8. Can anyone please share the latest guidebook/handbook and grading criterias?

I am not even joking or exaggerating, whenever I am opening Internet, I see a new competition, program, event...

Now you may say that these are some random events, competitions, programs, but no, they are extremely prestigious which are participated by tens of thousands of hackers and students, many are backed by reputed firms (big techs or quant firms), many are backed by prestigious universities, many have extremely huge award, etc.

So the thing is, how can I even fix the fomo?

Are there any ways to track these competitions or getting the list of events or programs which are hosted or sponsored by specific companies or universities?

I have tried using platforms which like unstop, hackerearth, devfolio, etc - even after using all these, I often see a completely new competition out of nowhere (not random competition, but the competition backed by #1 uni, open to everyone, backed by extremely reputed firms, etc)

[Serious]

Like we have josaa counselling where we have the cutoff rank and the institute name and program name.

Aren't there any similar platform for GATE where I can see every program name along with the paper they accept and the cutoffs?

(I am able to find COAP - but I am not able to find any pdf document or any website there which is helpful in doing so.)

My query :

I asked LLM to create me a self-learning roadmap, which I can follow to learn machine learning. I am not looking for job or professional work, I am just doing it for passion. I want to achieve the ability of being able to create and deploy custom built agents and pipelines.

The problem I am facing is, whenever I am asking it something (like if it's legacy or better tools exist or better pipelines exist, etc), it's saying "Oh, you have a sharp eye, let me change that" - It's keeping on changing the roadmap (the roadmap which I attached is the third roadmap it created).

Can any expert please look into the roadmap and say if it's correct and practical?

Roadmap -

Step 1: The Native Python & Async Foundation

Bypass all standard software engineering fluff. You need high-speed data handling and strict type validation.

• Level of Mastery Required: Advanced Practical (Not Theoretical)
• Exact Things to Master:
  • asyncio (Advanced): You must be able to write non-blocking code. Master async.gather, task queues, and handling concurrent API rate limits. (If you fail here, your agents will freeze in production).
  • Pydantic (Complete Mastery): In 2026, AI outputs must be deterministic. You must master defining strict JSON schemas using Pydantic to force LLMs to output exactly the data structure you want.
  • Polars (Intermediate): Drop Pandas. Polars is the modern, multithreaded standard for data manipulation in Rust/Python. Know how to filter, group, and clean 10M+ rows of messy data.

Step 2: The Core Anatomy & Custom GPU Kernels (Paper to Code)

This is where you fulfill your goal of reverse-engineering papers. We skip bloated academic math and focus entirely on tensor operations.

• Level of Mastery Required: Deep Architectural Mastery
• Exact Things to Master:
  • PyTorch Tensors (Complete Mastery): Understand shapes, dimensions, broadcasting, and matrix multiplications (torch.matmul). You must be able to read an arXiv paper's math equation and type it in PyTorch.
  • Transformer Architecture (Deep): Do not just learn "Attention." You must code a Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture, Rotary Positional Embeddings (RoPE), and KV Caching from absolute scratch. These are the anatomies of modern 2026 open-source models.
  • OpenAI Triton (Intermediate): Skip the 6-month C++/CUDA learning curve. Master Triton to write custom fused-attention kernels in Python that run directly on NVIDIA hardware. This is the bleeding-edge way to modify how a model computes.

Step 3: Open-Source Manipulation & Hyper-Efficient Fine-Tuning

Fulfills your requirement to modify open-source models and harness systems.

• Approx. Timeline: 4 Weeks
• Level of Mastery Required: Advanced Practitioner
• Exact Things to Master:
  • Hugging Face transformers (Intermediate): Know how to load raw weights (.safetensors), modify the tokenizer, and alter the config files.
  • Unsloth (Complete Mastery): The industry standard for fine-tuning. Master using Unsloth to fine-tune Llama-3/Mistral models 2x faster using minimal VRAM.
  • Evaluation Harnesses (Intermediate): Master lm-evaluation-harness to prove mathematically that your modified model hasn't suffered "catastrophic forgetting."

Step 4: Extreme Quantization & Silicon-Level Fitting

Fulfills your requirement to make massive models fit on single GPUs.

• Approx. Timeline: 3 Weeks
• Level of Mastery Required: Deep Implementation Mastery
• Exact Things to Master:
  • GGUF & EXL2 Formats (Complete Mastery): Understand the difference between weight-only quantization and activation quantization. Master converting raw 16-bit weights to 4-bit EXL2 or GGUF formats.
  • BitNet / 1.58-bit Epoch (Intermediate): The latest 2026 paradigm. Understand how ternary weights (-1, 0, 1) eliminate matrix multiplications entirely.
  • Local Engines (Advanced): Master Llama.cpp to run these quantized models bare-metal on your hardware.

Step 5: Advanced Deterministic Retrieval (RAG 2.0) & DSPy

Forget LangChain. This is how elite engineers feed data to LLMs today.

• Approx. Timeline: 5 Weeks
• Level of Mastery Required: Production-Grade Mastery
• Exact Things to Master:
  • Serverless Vector DBs - LanceDB (Advanced): Drop Pinecone. Master LanceDB, which runs locally and serverlessly in your Python environment with zero cloud bloat.
  • GraphRAG - Kùzu / Neo4j (Intermediate): Learn to extract entities from documents and build deterministic Knowledge Graphs so the AI physically cannot hallucinate relationships.
  • DSPy (Complete Mastery): This is mandatory. Instead of guessing prompts, master DSPy to treat prompts as weights. You will write a program, provide examples of good outputs, and DSPy will automatically "compile" and mathematically optimize the prompt for the highest accuracy.

Step 6: Native Agentic State Machines (The Swarm)

Fulfills your requirement to build and orchestrate custom autonomous pipelines.

• Approx. Timeline: 4 Weeks
• Level of Mastery Required: Deep Architectural Mastery
• Exact Things to Master:
  • LangGraph / Smolagents (Complete Mastery): The only frameworks worth using. Master defining agents as "nodes" in a mathematical graph. You must master "Cyclic Graphs" (where agents loop to fix their own errors) and "State Persistence" (saving an agent's memory to a database like PostgreSQL).
  • Native Tool Calling (Advanced): Teach open-source models to execute pure Python functions using strict Pydantic schema validation.

Step 7: Industrial LLMOps & Bare-Metal Cloud Deployment

Fulfills your requirement to deploy to the real-life practical world.

• Approx. Timeline: 4 Weeks
• Level of Mastery Required: Enterprise Production Mastery
• Exact Things to Master:
  • SGLang & TensorRT-LLM (Complete Mastery): You must master deploying your quantized models using SGLang. You must understand "Prefix Caching" (saving compute when multiple agents read the same system prompt) and "Continuous Batching".
  • Serverless GPU Config - Modal (Complete Mastery): Write Python code that requests an A100 GPU cluster, loads your SGLang inference engine, serves an API request, and shuts down in 10 milliseconds.
  • Telemetry - LangSmith / Arize (Intermediate): Know how to log every single token generated by your agents to trace errors and monitor latency/costs in real-time.

I am transitioning to college this year from high school.

I am looking for casual teammate to participate with in Amazon HackOn.

As I don't meet the eligibility criteria, I will most probably get rejected.

So, a teammate, who is just participating casually, not for winning, just for fun... please reach out.

Requirements -

1. Alive
2. From one of the eligible degree from one of the eligible institutes.

There are probably hundreds of events/hackathons/competitions out there which also acts as pipeline for PPI.

I am looking for the list or wiki of them.

Now, the problem is - that there are lots of misinformation, documented pathways not mentioned in official website, outdated and deprecated competitions, etc...

Moreover, to add on, there are many competitions whose websites are not even available. (For example, Walmart Sparkathon - the website is restricted in India... Yet I am seeing it on every list)

Many deprecated competitions which literally have 0 official information but yet are present in almost every list I am seeing on internet -
Amazon HackOn
Uber HackerTag

I will be really thankful if anyone is able to share any competition, resource, wiki or anything useful.

Or if they are not available - can we please make the comment section of this post - a wiki?

(As useful posts don't get pushed by algorithm, I will be grateful if viewers cfbr so that it can reach to as many people as possible)...

There are probably hundreds of events/hackathons/competitions out there which also acts as pipeline for PPI.

I am looking for the list or wiki of them.

Now, the problem is - that there are lots of misinformation, documented pathways not mentioned in official website, outdated and deprecated competitions, etc...

Moreover, to add on, there are many competitions whose websites are not even available. (For example, Walmart Sparkathon - the website is restricted in India... Yet I am seeing it on every list)

Many deprecated competitions which literally have 0 official information but yet are present in almost every list I am seeing on internet -
Amazon HackOn
Uber HackerTag

I will be really thankful if anyone is able to share any competition, resource, wiki or anything useful.

Or if they are not available - can we please make the comment section of this post - a wiki?

(As useful posts don't get pushed by algorithm, I will be grateful if viewers comment for better reach, so that it can reach to as many people as possible)...

There are probably hundreds of events/hackathons/competitions out there which also acts as pipeline for PPI.

I am looking for the list or wiki of them.

Now, the problem is - that there are lots of misinformation, documented pathways not mentioned in official website, outdated and deprecated competitions, etc...

Moreover, to add on, there are many competitions whose websites are not even available. (For example, Walmart Sparkathon - the website is restricted in India... Yet I am seeing it on every list)

Many deprecated competitions which literally have 0 official information but yet are present in almost every list I am seeing on internet -
Amazon HackOn
Uber HackerTag

I will be really thankful if anyone is able to share any competition, resource, wiki or anything useful.

Or if they are not available - can we please make the comment section of this post - a wiki?

(As useful posts don't get pushed by algorithm, I will be grateful if viewers comment for better reach, so that it can reach to as many people as possible)...

I am a teenager, and I literally have few questions regarding how does health insurance works.

There are health insurance with all bells and whistles (i.e they cover pre, post hospitalization fees, maternity cover, no copayment, no room rent limit, opd, etc) - if almost every middle class has insurance - they why do we say -

"Paise ke liye bacha nahi paaye", "Paise nahi hai isliye ache hospital mai nahi dikha paa rahe"?

And if health insurance covers everything, then everyone (middle class or rich class) should be able to afford best healthcare in India?

One more thing, let's assume that they don't have health insurance - they sell up everything and most of the time they are not yet able to afford it, so they turn to donation platforms (thanks to wonderful ppl who help), but - why haven't they tried asking their friends and relatives?

(I mean hume pata hai ki bure waqt mai koi apna nahi hota, magar iss waqt tho log atleast saath rehte hai na? Kyunki kisike jaan ki baat hai...)

It's extremely common to see people not paying back... and there are thousands of reddit posts of those where the lender says they have learnt lesson by lending X thousand rupees...

So...

The person who took the money and was not able to return (or returned later) - what was the story from your side?

Born -

Bit strict but loving parents - complete care and control - make me good in academics - put me in swimming, make me good there

Considered Academically and physically gifted by everyone (from school to family members to literally every friend) - pinnacle of achievements

School friends - Many (whole school is true friend)

Pandemic hits - School friends start to loose connections
Left with handful

Started gaming - made around 48 true friends there

Lockdown over - 47 friends vanished in a day

School started - Tried to make school friends - too toxic (due to competitive environment)

Shifts to online way of making friends (but major friends are from school)

School change + got into program for preparing for national exam

Belief of making many true loving friends there (inspired by brother's life who changed school and enjoyed new school) -

Complete shock - EXTREME competitive environment + Too toxic people

Shifts to online way of making friend

Academic downfall started (No friends, no parents proctoring, no self control) - Started to cheat to fake up infront of parents

Downfall escalating -> Physical health loss (disorder where I am not able to sit for more than 10 minutes without sharp pain) + Mental health deterioration (no interest in anything + can't focus + can't able to do anything + maladaptive daydreaming + Loneliness)

Online friends starting to crumble - Friends change every 2-3 days + No one wants to become best friends

National exam day -> Performed the worst possible (40 students - I was the only one to fail drastically)

Promised parents to perform better next time

Suic*de attempt and depressing phase

Cycle repeated - can't focus, loneliness, maladaptive daydreaming, can't able to do anything

Addicted to substance (Not literal, but AMVs)

Again tried to make friends online -> Was successful -> thought I got the friend group

1 week later -> Friend group crumbled

Second chance National Exams -> Failed drastically (got less than 1/4th of first attempt)

Again the cycle repeated

Another national exam tomorrow - writing this post, knowing that I am going to fail

This is just less than 1% of the pain, actual story is much more tragic ->
Left with sorrow, destroyed mental health, destroyed physical health, burdened with parents expectations, no option for suici*e as parents love me...

I am a student and I really won't be able to afford therapies.
Adding salt to injury, I can't tell my parents (due to several private reasons).

My situation, I personally think is extremely grieve.

I have tried those free therapy platforms and my experience is worst in all of them.

Just a view of iCall ->

I contacted, they asked "Out of 1-10, how depressing are you feeling?"
I gave specific number and started speaking and he is again repeating "Out of 1-10, how..."
I mean atleast LLMs provide better response than these services...

And literally whenever I am asking something, they are just saying they can't say anything as it depends on situation... (I can understand them, but they are literally saying these to everything I am asking).

Then there is V-Foundation ->
I message them today at 8 am, they reply me back at 4 am next day (I am not even exaggerating). One day I was wake up due to anxiety and I saw their message and responded back, - no matter what I say they attach me with 101 exercises pdf... literally, I am not even saying it sarcastically...

Please are there any online messaging platform which is free and has good relational therapists (those who can advice and speak like a human, rather than a machine following the specific protocols)

Please I really need help.

[SERIOUS - no jokes, sarcasm, misinformation or old information, please... Already I have lots of misinformation, lol]

Profile -
General, Male
10th Marks (icse, Science) - >90% (all subjects combined)
12th Marks (cbse, science) - 60-75% (all subjects combined)
B.Sc DS - above 80% (will get 10 rating in this category)
Work experience - 2yrs 4 months

Should I prepare for CAT? Will it be worth it?

Gemini 3.1 Pro high recommended not to, saying it will be extremely useless due to the low scores in my 12th (which I agree, as I fked up thinking counselling will not take my 6th subject into consideration forgetting about the requirements of IIMs) and moreover, it also stated that my work experience will be counted as 0 as I have done it parallel to my bachelors and IIMs calculate work experience after bachelors.

Is it worth it to prepare for CAT? Gemini also added that even if I get 100 percentile in CAT, it's impossible for me to get admission due to the fked up 12th marks and work experience will be counted as 0.

I am confused about what I should do.

[SERIOUS - no jokes, sarcasm, misinformation or old information, please... Already I have lots of misinformation, lol]

Profile -
General, Male
10th Marks (icse, Science) - >90% (all subjects combined)
12th Marks (cbse, science) - 60-75% (all subjects combined)
B.Sc DS - above 80% (will get 10 rating in this category)
Work experience - 2yrs 4 months

Should I prepare for CAT? Will it be worth it?

Gemini 3.1 Pro high recommended not to, saying it will be extremely useless due to the low scores in my 12th (which I agree, as I fked up thinking counselling will not take my 6th subject into consideration forgetting about the requirements of IIMs) and moreover, it also stated that my work experience will be counted as 0 as I have done it parallel to my bachelors and IIMs calculate work experience after bachelors.

Is it worth it to prepare for CAT? Gemini also added that even if I get 100 percentile in CAT, it's impossible for me to get admission due to the fked up 12th marks and work experience will be counted as 0.

I am confused about what I should do.

[SERIOUS - no jokes, sarcasm, misinformation or old information, please... Already I have lots of misinformation, lol]

Profile -
General, Male
10th Marks (icse, Science) - >90% (all subjects combined)
12th Marks (cbse, science) - 60-75% (all subjects combined)
B.Sc DS - above 80% (will get 10 rating in this category)
Work experience - 2yrs 4 months

Should I prepare for CAT? Will it be worth it?

Gemini 3.1 Pro high recommended not to, saying it will be extremely useless due to the low scores in my 12th (which I agree, as I fked up thinking counselling will not take my 6th subject into consideration forgetting about the requirements of IIMs) and moreover, it also stated that my work experience will be counted as 0 as I have done it parallel to my bachelors and IIMs calculate work experience after bachelors.

Is it worth it to prepare for CAT? Gemini also added that even if I get 100 percentile in CAT, it's impossible for me to get admission due to the fked up 12th marks and work experience will be counted as 0.

I am confused about what I should do.

my_qualifications: a living human being from India, male with 0 to no achievements in real life

I am talking specifically of masters (or related degrees or studies) - how were you able to afford the fees?

When I was looking for opportunities in bachelors, the options were so limited that handful of college provide full tuition fee waive (or full ride) and that too to one or two student per admission cycle (so yk, they are going to pick up olympiad medalists...)

At that time, seeing my situation, everyone recommended me to do masters or higher studies from abroad as they said the funding will be generous, well, I am here ...

Earlier atleast handful of colleges provided scholarship to one or two students per admission cycle, now it's 0...

I searched for the reason behind it and came to know that universities use this batches as cash-cows to fund up the costs... Well well.. well..

So, now what should I do?

Are there any external scholarships which I can apply for?