Being a very tiring fortnight after facing some unhappy happenings, i made up my mind to write something about my engineering experiences in college since I believe that would rejuvenate me :) . So what did not go well in the last 10 days? - One, I lost my new windows 7 phone while travelling in an auto. And that is the only reason :) . You might ask losing a phone is a very normal happening but that phone was special to me. I started developing applications for that phone and it went away from me in no time :( . Okay anyways you cannot hold anything unless it is written for you.
So today i wanted to share my thoughts about how a student in school like me finds how amazing computer science can be in some good college like CIT(Notice that i am not talking about very good colleges like IITs or very few NITs).This applies only for colleges like CIT or some other nice colleges that give unimaginable freedom to its students. To start with , my school was a place where you cannot apply your thought. Yes, my school was one of the most popular schools in chennai but I hated that place like anything. It never gave me a chance to explore or innovate. I never dreamt of studying in a college like CIT(wrt the freedom :) ). In a place like CIT where you are expected nothing, it is very easy to choose your way of nurturing your skills. CIT is one of the best places in my life that I have dwelt. You can become CEO of a very big MNC or a politician or even a third grade criminal or an useless goose studying in CIT. Its all in your hands. I was very new to computer science when i joined CIT and I am new still :) . I had no idea of what computers were doing. But my instinct always told me that I will be computer science guy.
The first semester had only common subjects for all branches of study and I dint face any problems then. I was quite happy with my performance. The second semester started and I had my first department specific paper "C programming theory and practice". Ms.Devi was the one who handled that subject. She is very brilliant(lol) that she used to write "Please Enter the number" inside a scanf statement and ask us to take notes of the same. I should not blame her , at that point I didnt even know that :) . Soon the classes started moving fast and I was not able to write a single program in classes, Not even a program that would print Hello world. It took me nearly 1 week to successfully compile my fisrt program. Ms.Devi noted that I didnt know anything in the subject and stated asking me questions on a daily basis. Still I remember the question she used to ask me -"What is function definition and what is function declaration?".Many guys used to finish programs very easily while I was searching for a person who will give me a USB stick with the mere 40 lines of C code loaded. Eventually I scored 14 upon 50 in my first lab exam. I was very sure that I would re-write that paper in october :) . At that time there were some boasters in my class. They would talk as if they were the ones who mentored Dennis to design the language. I was intimidated by them like anything. I tell you one thing, it does not matter how fast you learn a programming language. What matters is only your love for a language. I loved C but I didn't learn it fast. Finally I somehow managed to pass that lab.
Second year started with DSA.The subject had a good head start. I had a flair for that subject as the subject was clean and it was do more with pure math rather than fancy programs(that would not have even a simple application :P ).I still remember that second year where in I used to get dreams in which I would design a finite state automata which would behave like any machine recognizing what is actually expected(lol)!!. I started writing some small programs in C and C++ and started parallely to work with algortihms.My seniors and orkut have played a very crucial role in my engineering career. There are many people in my life who have inspired and influenced me completely in various stages of my life. To mention a few, Dr.Prabhakar,Dr.Naveen,R.K(my brother's friend),Selva,Adith,Abhinand,Felix and the list goes on. For me and most of the comp sci students, learning algorithms can never be compensated by any other pleasure(be it even having a lakh rupee in hand and 10 friends sourrounding you). Once you start writing good, efficient algorithms your coding skills will shoot up like anything in a few days. You will start writing some solid code.While others were trying to complete some assignments , I would bunk the classes and participate in some orkut discussions in forums. I swear that I have never written a single assignment on my own except for some coding assignments in OS and Algorithms. Even people started asking me doubts and I was able to tell them somthing or the other(But ofcourse not the exact solution :P ).Since then I decided that i should do my masters and doctorate in something pertaining to algorithms. For me it has been a life time ambition. Lets see how it works :) .
Once you get the glimpse of writing efficient code , comp sci is your home and indeed your world..!!. You will start loving each and every aspect of computer science and people who are passionate about writing code. You will relish it and live it like I and many others do :).
Thats all I had for this post. Soon will be back with some interesting stuff about one particular topic that one of my close friends has requested me to write about...!!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Microsoft interview questions- Jan 2011
Interview 1
1.Code for string reversal and test the code
2.Test cases for a pen
Interview 2
1.Given a linked list, we need to write a function that reverses the nodes of a linked list ‘k’ at a time and returns modified linked list.
For Example
Linked List : 1->2->3->4->5->6->7->8->9->10->11
For k = 3
Return value: 3->2->1->6->5->4->9->8->7->10->1
2.Test cases for a vending machine
Interview 3
1.How will u load test a web page
2.Given a function bool func(int x,int y,int piece) where x,y is the destination of a piece on a chess board and the piece denotes the chess piece type. write test cases and a code to test the function.
3.Write a function which returns a string after removing the duplicate characters from a string.
Interview 4
1.Write a function to take a string as an input and give the first recurring substring.You have to ask various questions and find out what he wants exactly.Sometimes he might ask u to code for two different results he expects.
3.Write test cases and categorise them.
2.Some HR questions
Interview 5
1.Some more HR questions.
2.One puzzle- You are given two magnesium strips which don burn uniformly. Each takes 1 hour to burn completely. You have to measure 45 minutes with these strips. u r also provided with a lighter.
1.Code for string reversal and test the code
2.Test cases for a pen
Interview 2
1.Given a linked list, we need to write a function that reverses the nodes of a linked list ‘k’ at a time and returns modified linked list.
For Example
Linked List : 1->2->3->4->5->6->7->8->9->10->11
For k = 3
Return value: 3->2->1->6->5->4->9->8->7->10->1
2.Test cases for a vending machine
Interview 3
1.How will u load test a web page
2.Given a function bool func(int x,int y,int piece) where x,y is the destination of a piece on a chess board and the piece denotes the chess piece type. write test cases and a code to test the function.
3.Write a function which returns a string after removing the duplicate characters from a string.
Interview 4
1.Write a function to take a string as an input and give the first recurring substring.You have to ask various questions and find out what he wants exactly.Sometimes he might ask u to code for two different results he expects.
3.Write test cases and categorise them.
2.Some HR questions
Interview 5
1.Some more HR questions.
2.One puzzle- You are given two magnesium strips which don burn uniformly. Each takes 1 hour to burn completely. You have to measure 45 minutes with these strips. u r also provided with a lighter.
5 years back on the same day..!!!
Today is a remarkable day in my life. The reason being - I was thrown out from my math tuition center by my Tutor Mr.Anna (exactly on the same day 5 years back) for not being regular to the classes. We had a different timing for our classes. The class used to start at 8 in the night and end at around 10. I usually come from my school in Anna nagar at around 6.30 pm because of the so called special classes where we used to do nothing special. The classes were meant to be rigorous since we were the first set to face the new syllabus framed then. I had a bad habit of sleeping for some time after coming back from school.But i used to set my alarms, get up and pedal it to my center. I would then come back home when almost everyone has slept off in the entire two storied apartment. The next day when i was thrown out of my center Mr.Anna asked me to bring my mother to the center if i again had to resume with the classes. So my mother and I went to the center and Mr.Anna took me in to the classes after 20 mins of advice. Mr.Anna used to be the unbeaten pro in math in the whole region. I had a lot of respect for him and so I did not want to discontinue from the classes. Even then he was not happy with my performance because earlier in the year I used to crack lots of full scores(and some incidents like explaining skew lines in analytical geometry to others) and now my performance was degrading. I knew that all those were real silly mistakes in my integrations and calculcations.
And finally my board exams started. I had no fear except for one thing.Even now I am shivering (:P) to tell that word..BIOLOGY!!. Yes I was in biology stream in school and had no idea of computers. So don't ask if I were a pro in Biology. I didn't like the subject and always had no ideas with those hi fi Binomial Nomenclatures. I have hardly obtained more than 80 percent in that subject in my school life. I had a companion called Vasanth who used to be like me in that regard. It was my destiny to go with computers. Somehow we managed to study something in biology and wrote something that came to our minds. Most of our class mates were serious medical aspirants and we were nowhere near them. And I was in a great confusion whether there was entrance exams or not but I dint mind to study anything great. One of Vasanth's relatives were in DPI. So we planned to know our board exam results a day before it was officially announced. Two days before the results were officially announced,I knew my results. I was not able to believe that i have got 93 % in biology. And I also made a full score in Math. But I knew that many in my center would grab a full score. And after two days the results came out. I went to my center and informed Anna that i have got full score in Math. I could hardly find any brighties there. And after some time I came to know that I was the only one in the center who had got full score that year. I was shocked because Anna had produced an amazimg 23 centums in a batch of 50 the previous year. Anna was also shocked to the core. Then ,after some time he came near me and said WELL DONE RAM!..I was not so happy because Anna was not completely happy with the results.
I met Mr.Anna once after that in a get together of that tuition center. Though I was not his favorite student , I still respect him and owe him...!!!
And finally my board exams started. I had no fear except for one thing.Even now I am shivering (:P) to tell that word..BIOLOGY!!. Yes I was in biology stream in school and had no idea of computers. So don't ask if I were a pro in Biology. I didn't like the subject and always had no ideas with those hi fi Binomial Nomenclatures. I have hardly obtained more than 80 percent in that subject in my school life. I had a companion called Vasanth who used to be like me in that regard. It was my destiny to go with computers. Somehow we managed to study something in biology and wrote something that came to our minds. Most of our class mates were serious medical aspirants and we were nowhere near them. And I was in a great confusion whether there was entrance exams or not but I dint mind to study anything great. One of Vasanth's relatives were in DPI. So we planned to know our board exam results a day before it was officially announced. Two days before the results were officially announced,I knew my results. I was not able to believe that i have got 93 % in biology. And I also made a full score in Math. But I knew that many in my center would grab a full score. And after two days the results came out. I went to my center and informed Anna that i have got full score in Math. I could hardly find any brighties there. And after some time I came to know that I was the only one in the center who had got full score that year. I was shocked because Anna had produced an amazimg 23 centums in a batch of 50 the previous year. Anna was also shocked to the core. Then ,after some time he came near me and said WELL DONE RAM!..I was not so happy because Anna was not completely happy with the results.
I met Mr.Anna once after that in a get together of that tuition center. Though I was not his favorite student , I still respect him and owe him...!!!
Friday, January 7, 2011
Product development and problem solving
Hi..,
It has been long time since i blogged something. Today is a holiday and i hardly have any work at home. I just have to throw away my used clothes into the machine. So today I wanted to write something about how product development world and problem solving is. I just have 6 months of experience in product development. But I still think I can feed some college graduates(especially who have had no internship experiences in product development- so almost all grads from CIT).
When you are in college (and if you have interest in writing code), you write a lot of code. Many college grads use windows, linux , unix as their predominant platforms of developing and technologies like unmagaged code (c, c++) , java , managed code(.net) .
According to me , a good coder should be a master of logic that is not specific to any platform or technology , should have decent awareness in her favorite technology and should write code that is free of bugs(still even world class programmers are prone to bugs) and solves even corner cases.There are subtle differences between the words CODER and DEVELOPER. There are basically two different aspects that make up a good developer. One(the most important one), is your analytical skills or call it Problem solving skills and the second one being your style,methodology of developing code. A coder should have great analytical skills but not necessarily good style or methodology of developing. But on the other hand a good developer must possess each of the above mentioned. It is indeed your thing to decide how your skill set look like.
For me(like most college grads), when i was in college, I personally loved to be a coder rather than a developer. Now of course I would die to a be good developer rather than a plain coder. The best way to look at it is something like this : Until pre-final year aspire to be a coder and once you get out of the shell better be a developer and not a plain coder. A developer must have good awareness in technology that he/she develops primarily on. For ex., I had no good knowledge in any of the technologies when i was in college except for one or two. And now I am atleast trying to get a good knowledge in technology i work predominantly on(Managed code). When you are in college the code that you write may be used utmost by you or your project mates.But imagine developing a product that is used by half of the globe. Certainly a coder cannot shine in this space unless he/she learns nice methods and standards of developing code.
Some straight forward tips to cultivate good developing practices when you are in college.
1.Write utility classes for almost anything that you can and circulate it to your friends for usage and get their feedback and incorporate any valid suggestions.
2.Save your classes in your system and maintain them as repository since you can use them when you need.(I used to write some classes in Php and post it in a community website for php where they will save it and display it for use for other users).
3.Try using technologies like java , .net , server side scripting etc(That will expose you to commonly used technologies).
4.If you have the habit of developing code in your leisure time then practise new things like how to trace your application,doing error logging for your application etc.
Above of all,
(Notice the bullet number)
0. Improve your problem solving skills by consistently solving problems , practising code on paper or even mind :). Interact with analytically strong people, read technical blogs that talk about problem solving and show great interest,attitude for solving problems.
Thats all I had in mind for this post. Happy coding...!!!
It has been long time since i blogged something. Today is a holiday and i hardly have any work at home. I just have to throw away my used clothes into the machine. So today I wanted to write something about how product development world and problem solving is. I just have 6 months of experience in product development. But I still think I can feed some college graduates(especially who have had no internship experiences in product development- so almost all grads from CIT).
When you are in college (and if you have interest in writing code), you write a lot of code. Many college grads use windows, linux , unix as their predominant platforms of developing and technologies like unmagaged code (c, c++) , java , managed code(.net) .
According to me , a good coder should be a master of logic that is not specific to any platform or technology , should have decent awareness in her favorite technology and should write code that is free of bugs(still even world class programmers are prone to bugs) and solves even corner cases.There are subtle differences between the words CODER and DEVELOPER. There are basically two different aspects that make up a good developer. One(the most important one), is your analytical skills or call it Problem solving skills and the second one being your style,methodology of developing code. A coder should have great analytical skills but not necessarily good style or methodology of developing. But on the other hand a good developer must possess each of the above mentioned. It is indeed your thing to decide how your skill set look like.
For me(like most college grads), when i was in college, I personally loved to be a coder rather than a developer. Now of course I would die to a be good developer rather than a plain coder. The best way to look at it is something like this : Until pre-final year aspire to be a coder and once you get out of the shell better be a developer and not a plain coder. A developer must have good awareness in technology that he/she develops primarily on. For ex., I had no good knowledge in any of the technologies when i was in college except for one or two. And now I am atleast trying to get a good knowledge in technology i work predominantly on(Managed code). When you are in college the code that you write may be used utmost by you or your project mates.But imagine developing a product that is used by half of the globe. Certainly a coder cannot shine in this space unless he/she learns nice methods and standards of developing code.
Some straight forward tips to cultivate good developing practices when you are in college.
1.Write utility classes for almost anything that you can and circulate it to your friends for usage and get their feedback and incorporate any valid suggestions.
2.Save your classes in your system and maintain them as repository since you can use them when you need.(I used to write some classes in Php and post it in a community website for php where they will save it and display it for use for other users).
3.Try using technologies like java , .net , server side scripting etc(That will expose you to commonly used technologies).
4.If you have the habit of developing code in your leisure time then practise new things like how to trace your application,doing error logging for your application etc.
Above of all,
(Notice the bullet number)
0. Improve your problem solving skills by consistently solving problems , practising code on paper or even mind :). Interact with analytically strong people, read technical blogs that talk about problem solving and show great interest,attitude for solving problems.
Thats all I had in mind for this post. Happy coding...!!!
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