How I put Coding and Programming skills to work

In the complete leader board, combining all the hackathons, I secured AIR 25 among 6500 coders

Following your dreams is usually easier said than done. A little motivation and inspiration help fulfil your dreams. But there is always a journey you embark on in order to accomplish them. I always say “This is just the beginning of my journey” because I never want to stop working hard, and eventually make my dreams a reality.

When I narrate my story to people, the first thing that comes to my mind is that I am only 19. Computer science has always been my passion and I want to make a name for myself in that field. My parents always taught me to celebrate success no matter big or small, as you never know how much they contribute in helping you achieve your major goal.

Being a shy person prevented me from exploring a number of opportunities that came my way. But recently, I decided to move out of my comfort zone without thinking about the consequences.

Like I said, I have always been a tech-enthusiast. I joined UPES, Dehradun, with a motive to improve myself in various aspects, be it technical, public speaking or personality development. And, I am glad that my university really helped me in all these aspects.

I recently participated in the Hackathon Festival on Dare2Compete which was organised by various IITs, NITs, IIITS, IIESTs and other prestigious colleges. It was a 30-day festival consisting of questions related to algorithms, data-structures and general coding problems. It seemed like  a great opportunity to code for colleges like IITs and NITs. I was delighted to secure second, third, fourth and fifth ranks in Hackathons by NITs and IIESTs. Twelfth rank in IIT, Roorkee, and 20^th in IIT, Dhanbad, was my best-ever score in IITs. In the complete leader board, combining all the hackathons, I secured AIR 25 among 6500 coders.

The major challenge that I faced in the hackathons was time constraint. I was not able to do it in the beginning, but my peers and seniors from NITs helped me as they were quite used to it. The aim was to provide solutions with less time and space complexity. The hackathon festival was a great experience as I learned a lot of new concepts and made new connections with peer coders.

I could not have have done all this without the support of the faculty. Dr. Monit Kapoor, Head of the Department, never stopped believing in me and inspiring me. He guided me all the way. Ms. Kalpana, Course Coordinator, encouraged me to register for the challenge as these hackathons help in gaining experience.

This is just the beginning and there is much more to achieve. I am looking forward to begin as an effective Open Source Contributor very soon. I am also keen to learn much more about DevOps and implement it in various projects. My aim is to learn new programming languages, implement them and keep practicing. I always wish to work hard and keep evolving. The only way is to be confident and consistent.

(The writer is a second-year student from UPES, School of Computer Science)