My First IIM interview : IIM Kozhikode

The procrastinator is back from sleep.. I wanted to blog about thousands of topics but procrasti...
Well now I have something I think not worthy of procrastination..
So here is my experience in the Pagalguy format

Hi puys [way of greeting Pagal Guys]!

Essay topic:-(was something like)
Trees are poems written by earth in the sky.
Man cuts the trees to make paper so that
he might write down his emptiness.
Comments about your performance : Wrote 3 and a half pages.(7.5 out of 10)

Personal Interview:-
I was the seventh one to be interviewed in the 2nd panel .Timing (about 20 minutes). There were two interviewers (I think both of them were Alumni) - P1 [young south indian guy](who was mostly asking the questions), P2 [young south Indian technical guy] (who asked last few questions). The panel was very chill. P1 laughing most of the time and P2 sometimes.I entered with a smile,P1 escorted me in.:o

Me:Good Morning sirs
(P1 &P2):good morning ,have a seat.
P1:Tell us about some famous personalities having the same name as you.
Me: Named some but could not tell their designations,P1 told me about them.
P1: I would not ask any questions from CSE but tell me what is science as you have been studying it since STD I.
Me: Oh,I said that it is about forming some hypothesis,validating it by proofs and then framing theory.
P1: are u satisfied with your definition?
Me:this is the best i can now ,there might be better definitions.
P1: So my mother is also a scientist ,If she is cooking a new curry she will also form an opinion (hypothesis) about how much salt to put,the validate it by tasting..   !!
Me: Oh sir that is science in everyday life (we all share a laugh)
P1: Asked what special did scientists do ,difference between opinion and hypothesis.
Me: The make new discoveries and innovations !! hypothesis is scientific opinion (we discussed more about why 'my mother is not a scientist' some talk on nomenclature and classification too )
P1: so you are from Dhanbad ,what is famous about it?
Me: Sir,It is the coal capital of India..
P1:how ,where is it written?
Me:because of large coal production etc.. It is written on the internet , also at Dhanbad we have many hoardings by CIL saying "Welcome to the Coal Capital of India"!! (chuckles ..)
P1: So if I take a wire and insert it in a glass of water,put the switch on ;what would happen ?
Me: Sir ,errr.... Short circuit (he laughs as if short circuit is some joke !! and picks a wire from the table lamp !!) no sir it would get heated ,not undergo electrolysis.
P1: so why heat, why not electrolysis oxygen and hydrogen getting separated?
Me: err .. electrolysis needs proper equipment.. and water must not be distilled. (we talked more about water as a conductor ,i said it is if not distilled finally he was somewhat satisfied when i talked about ions of impurities in water)
P1: so tell me what will happen ,will the water decompose,will it have H+ ions..,will it be acidic? (ohhhh!!)
Me: i said it might momentarily .. (he laughs again) [I forgot the funda of AC and  DC current which is the reason water is heated by AC and electrolysed by DC :banghead:]
P1: Now lets move to the next level ,what is photon?
Me: sir , according to the wave particle duality principle,it is the particulate form of light. (discussion on wave-particle nature and hisenberg's uncertainty principle also on different types of photons [i remembered none !!] )
P1: so dual-nature hmm.. amplitude of a plastic bottle or the curtain cloth?
Me : it is very less ,duality is visible in sub-atomic cases (he moved the bottle to give it some amplitude but i took my stand)
P2: (now he is activated) What is Android?
Me: answered (talk on version names..)
P2: What is an Operating system?What is the difference between an OS for a computer and for a mobile?
Me: answered and explained (P1 said you are a computer engineer from a good college ,you must give more technical answers :shock: )
P2: What is RTI and its main activist who brought it?
Me : Explained RTI but did not know about activists (P2 so you don't read newspaper in depth hmmm..)
P1: how to file an RTI ?
Me :answered (mentioned nominal in my answer he said nominal might be Rs.100 for me and Rs.500 for you ,i said it is Rs.5 for me [he laughed i joined him later])
P2: what is Bimaru or something i never understood it ..
Me :no sir ..
P1:So you are form bihar ,tell me what Rajgir is famous for?
Me : answered
P1 : what is Bodh Gaya famous for ?
Me : answered (P1 not very convinced , more discussions on Bodh Gaya and Rajgir )
P1: First CM of Bihar ?
Me : [i knew it,but forgot] sorry sir.. :banghead:
P2 :When is the budget being presented this year? why is it delayed
Me : answered (questions on which states elections are on) answered.
P1:where is Gateway of India ?
Me :mumbai
P1 : now where is India Gate (trying to confuse me :devil:)
Me :sir, its at Delhi (discussion on why Gateway of India is called so?)
P1: first viceroy of British Rule and First Viceroy of free India.
Me : errr.. [confused] sorry sir :sigh:
P1: OK at least tell me where was the first viceroy of British rule stationed ?
Me :sir ,at Kolkata which was east India company's headquarters..
P1 & P2 : Ok well ,now rate yourself out of 10 ,this would not affect your marks ..
Me :sir 6 out of 10.
P1 & P2: OK ,good ;all the best.
Me :(smiling) Thank you Sirs..

The interview was light and i almost smiled throughout.P1 laughed and smiled ,he was very enthusiastic and charged up.

Verdict : Converted (I got an Admission offer from IIM K)

http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/78306-iimk-wat-pi-2012-2014-a-12.html#post3291064

My First Blog : Microsoft Intern

Without boring you much , I would like to move straight to the topic.Someone said, "He had a habit of writing blogs , so he got selected for the Microsoft Intern." So I decided to better join the League and be more fortunate   next time in any such selection processes.

Well,this is about my first industry interface in College.I study at Indian School of Mines,Dhanbad (yes I am a pseudo-IITian [who qualified JEE but did not get admission in one]) and my Branch is Computer Science and Engineering (the branch exists at ISM since 1998).It was 30th January,2011 and it was our first chance to test the knowledge acquired so far at college.Yes,it was the "Microsoft India Intern Test".I had been waiting for it since last year but preparing for it since only the last month ;).I was quite assured of doing well at it ,I have a fairly decent GPA:8.52 and according to my branch-mates I had good subject knowledge too,though I have never felt it.I had mugged up many algorithms,blogs and used my mental faculties to solve some practice problems since last one month.Having appeared at ACM ICPC Kanpur Regionals this year I was quite assured that my coding skills were upto the mark.

I woke up early on the day of test,had bath,offered my prayers(most of us do remember God when we are in such a situation where "luck" is a key factor) and fully charged up went to the test room.The test comprised of Objective paper of half an hour duration and a Subjective paper of 1 hour duration (it was a subjective test,of course).As soon as I saw the objective paper I pressed the "panic button",I tried some relaxing techniques but  of no help.Well my confidence was decreasing exponentially after I saw that there was +3 marks for right answer and -2 for a wrong answer,(and yes no marks were deducted for unanswered questions,Yippeee).I skipped easy and trivial questions such as inorder traversal of tree etc. and wasted time in calculating number of possible strings generated by a finite-state automata.Still at the end of the test I was able to mark only six answers about which I was quite assured of.So the test was in vain :(.My batch-mates had done quite well in the Objective test.Everything till now had passed like a dream..

I was thinking in my mind ,"Chalo,Subjective to phodh denge"("I will crack the Subjective test with flying colors").Its good to be optimistic isn't it? Then came the Subjective paper ,and yes I knew the first question :)

The second was imcomplete ,well MS guys have a habit of doing so (Everyone has used Windows).Then the third was about searching in a sorted rotated array ,I tried hard to develop the most complex algorithm which was both lengthy and confusing but was highly optimized.I did succeed in doing so ,but the algorithm was not optimized and binary search I had used had some silly mistake :( .I managed to do the fourth question and get a nip at the fifth one.The test was screwed ,all my hopes shattered within few hours.

Well guys,my advice to you is whenever you are in such a situation,don't panic.Though the test results are not out yet ,I am pessimistic about it.Signing off till the test results are declared...