My journey from Infosys to PayTm SDE
#100Stories is a series of transformational stories of courage and indomitable will to excel, picked from the lives of tech students, particularly in India. Initiative by Programming Pathshala.
In conversation with Sarthak Verma, a student of Programming Pathshala who has gotten placed at Paytm as SDE. He has made his transition from a Service based company “Infosys” to a Product based company “Paytm” with utmost dedication and sincerity. Read his Interview below to know more about his Journey to PayTm:
Hi Sarthak, Let’s begin with your Introduction.
Sure, So Hi everyone, My name is Sarthak Verma and I am a 2020 Computer Science graduate from SRM university of Science and Technology, Chennai. I have worked with Infosys as a Digital Specialist Engineer where my major responsibilities were to build Data pipeline applications as Data Engineer and soon I am joining PayTm, which I still can’t believe haha!
That’s great Sarthak, so could you take us through your journey to reaching PayTm?
Yes sure, but for that I first have to thank Programming Pathshala because of which I am where I am today. Previously I never felt so confident in applying for Product based companies, even though I had a firm hand at coding and Computer science fundamentals but the confidence to believe in myself of being able to crack a Product based company is all due to Programming Pathshala and the mentors here who made me believe in myself everyday.
It’s amazing to hear that you feel confident now Sarthak, this surely is one of the most important feelings that we wish each or our student is able to achieve. Now, can you take us through your Interview process at PayTm?
Yes, so actually I wasn’t actually looking to apply in other organizations, Instead I had an Internal examination for a specialist programmer in my ex-Organization, Infosys. I contacted Anoop bhaiya regarding the same and asked for his help. I was a Genesis student, a course that was there before “Renaissance” came, at Programming Pathshala but I wanted to do the course once again to revise everything, and Anoop bhaiya happily gave me access to “Renaissance” to help me prepare for my exam. During that time, One day Anoop bhaiya dropped a link which included sources of building a Good resume and as I was about to finish a year by being a part of Infosys, I thought of rebuilding my Resume based upon those tips. I came across a post on LinkedIn that PayTm was hiring and applied for the same. I thankfully got a referral from someone at Paytm itself, I used to message a lot of people from PayTm for referrals and Thankfully one accepted my request. I had applied in August and after the wait of almost one and a half months, I received an Email from the HR department with the willingness to Interview me. Under the Interview rounds, I had one Online round under which there was one coding question followed by 20 MCQ questions which was more focussed upon Big Data as I was working on that profile. There were also 5 Data Structure questions based upon “Trees and Linked Lists” which I could pass. After that there were 3 Technical rounds in which the first round consisted of Data Structure questions based on sorting and two pointers Algorithm, some SQL questions and some distributive system concepts, Second round was revolving completely towards Big Data Technologies as this is the profile that I was being hired for and the last round was Tech Managerial round which was completely focussed towards my Resume and the projects that I have done till date. Just before my third round was about to begin, I had called up Vivek bhaiya and had a word with him for around 15–20mins for how shall I go about it, really thankful for it.
So nice Sarthak, so as you have mentioned “Projects”, could you tell me how many projects you had worked upon before applying for PayTm?
Yes, so I actually had done only one project but that was a pretty big project. It belonged to one of the US banks and that helped in detecting Fraud for the Credit and Debit cards transaction which helps in building the Machine Learning Model and for that you need big Data and to create that Data, my project came into existence.
Okay, Great! So Sarthak, as you have been a part of our Genesis as well as Renaissance course here at Programming Pathshala, are there any Insights that you would like to share with us?
Firstly, I would say that the course here at Programming Pathshala teaches you Not to Mug up, instead Understand the problem and then solve it. If you mug up a problem, you won’t be able to solve multiple problems. Instead, if you understand a problem from its concept, that will help you crack most of the problems. Another thing that I would like to highlight is that instead of solving hundreds of problems, try and solve 10–15 different kinds of problems with different kinds of concepts. The DBMS section which is taught by Bharat bhaiya was pretty insightful as well, there I could learn Data modelling which helps in the Data engineer role.
That’s good to hear Sarthak, so in this journey of yours, what do you think has kept you motivated throughout to reach where you are today?
Haha, firstly I am still not through with the course and still am in the process of learning everyday. I am almost 45% through the course until now and managed to crack PayTm, wondering how it would be when I will be 99% through the course, wow! So as I mentioned earlier when I began with the course here at Programming Pathshala I lacked self confidence, and after being a part of Programming Pathshala’s course, I could feel myself becoming more and more confident each day passing and it definitely helped me boost my confidence during my preparation.
How did you get to know about Programming Pathshala?
So in my college, there was a guy who got placed at Amazon and he had met Vivek bhaiya in one of conferences being held in 2019, he came and told me about Programming Pathshala and as I had 11 months of gap before I joined Infosys, I thought of joining the course here and giving it a try, and here I am thankful of the decision I made that day.
Amazing Sarthak, It has been wonderful having a word with you. Before you leave, any parting words for our budding Software Development Engineers? Any word of Advice?
Consistency! Consistency is the key to success. Even if you solve 2–3 problems in a day, that’s completely fine but just maintain the consistency every day. Apart from that, Chill time, It is absolutely necessary to have your Chill time where you don’t think about studies and just spend the time with yourself doing what you love and relaxing time to time. I myself took a break of 1–2 days every week to refresh myself and did not solve any problem or watched any video during that time. My third and final advice would be on Projects. You should never talk like a Robot and make sure you Explain your projects thoroughly, for Why did you work upon it, How did you do it and what impact does it create? It is very necessary to explain your project in the Hiring Manager round.
Thank You so much for such great insights Sarthak and thank you for giving me your time. I wish you all the best, as you board upon this new journey of yours with PayTm.
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