Students’ Speak: Preparation for Coding and Aptitude Tests key to successful placements

By: Shubham Singla

Placements is the top-most priority for students enrolled in any of the premier engineering institute of the country. Shubham Singla in this article shares the common eligibility criteria set by top companies and some basic tips to secure offers by top companies.

After getting admission into an engineering college, every student wants to be placed in their dream company. All the candidates aiming for their future goals prepare for campus placements. In many colleges, there are training and placement cells that help students prepare for on- and off-campus placements.

The eligibility criteria generally varies from company to company. In my college, MAIT, one has to pass all the subjects to sit in any company placement drive. Students with backlog in any subject of the previous and current semester are not allowed to sit for the placement drives. Students can sit in placement drive after the end of their third year or beginning of the seventh semester.

In my college, there is no such attendance issue, but you have to maintain at least 75 per cent attendance to be eligible for campus placements. Moreover, you need to score at least 75 per cent marks in your academics to be eligible for placement drives of the major companies. In case of a few companies, students with an aggregate percentage greater than 85 were allowed to sit in the drive, although such companies are very less in number every year.

Even the giant MNCs such as Amazon, Samsung, etc. asks for only 75 per cent aggregate in college. Hence, the main point here is that you have to maintain at least 75 per cent in your academics so that you are eligible for bulk of the companies. It would be great if you can score more than that because at last when two students perform equally in their interviews and coding test, they are shortlisted based on their academic percentage.

There are several tips and tricks to perform well in the placement rounds.

• Never show the interviewer that you are afraid and stay confident. The interviewer will easily find out whether you are prepared or not simply by your walking style.
• For campus placements, you need to prepare for a coding test. If you qualify the test then you have to face the interview round.
• All companies have different criteria — some take only one coding and aptitude test (if you are applying for software developer role) and some large companies such as Amazon conduct 6-7 tests to hire students.
• To be successful for any kind of campus drive, you need to prepare for both the coding and aptitude tests

There are two primarily two kinds of placements — on-campus and off-campus. In the on-campus placement drives, companies visit the college campus and then hire students after screening candidates through different rounds such as Aptitude test, Technical round, HR interview round, etc.

In the off-campus placements, you have to apply online or through any other appropriate channel for different companies. You are shortlisted and called for the interview round based on your resume/profile.  For on-campus placements, college officials send out notifications via mail so that you can apply and prepare for the drive while for off-campus, you have to search for openings in your preferred companies on your own.

About the Author:

Shubham Singla is a student at Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology pursuing Bachelor's in Technology (Information Technology). He is a tech enthusiast and likes to network with people. His hobbies include photography, digital marketing.