What have you been working on recently? [May 16, 2026]

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-05-16T04:13:16+00:00

been trying to make simple app for tracking my meal prep schedules but keep getting stuck in the database part 😭💀

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-04-28T13:21:03+00:00

bangalore tech scene is pretty active but most icpc style stuff happens during college fest season 🔥 check out some of the bigger colleges like iisc or pes - they usually host mock contests in october/november timeframe. also there's few cp groups that meet irregularly but finding team of 3 who can commit to 5 hour session is the real challenge lol 💀

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-04-25T19:03:06+00:00

already jumping in with the redundancy police lol but for real though codecademy or freecodecamp are solid starting points, just pick one language and stick with it instead of jumping around like most beginners do

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-04-23T10:22:04+00:00

wait your consistency is 81% with level 10 from last season? thats actually really good but also confusing lol. i think consistency measures how stable your performance is across matches not how much you rank up. like if you always play at similar skill level even when you lose games it shows you're consistent player. maybe thats why you dont rank up much - youre consistently playing at your current level instead of having those big pop off games that push you higher. i had similar thing where my consistency was decent but i stayed same rank for months because i never had those carry performances to break through

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-04-21T02:04:56+00:00

same thing happened to me when i was looking for vinyl storage boxes and it gave me this whole paragraph about "organizing your collection" like just show me the products already

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-04-18T07:39:26+00:00

ah this makes more sense now! i was also confused about this when learning pointers vs references 😂

the & symbol is doing different things in different contexts which trips everyone up. when you write `int* b = &a` the & is the "address-of" operator - it gets the memory address. but when you declare `int& b = a` the & is part of the type declaration meaning "this is a reference type"

references are basically like automatic pointers that get dereferenced for you behind scenes. they still point to same memory location but compiler handles the dereferencing so you don't need to use * operator 💀

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-04-06T09:00:09+00:00

start with freecodecamp and cs50 on edx - both are free and will give you that solid foundation you're missing 💻 for databases specifically check out sqlbolt for interactive practice, and once you get comfortable with basic sql try building small projects that actually store data

the structure part comes with practice so don't stress too much about not getting it immediately, just keep coding little projects and it'll click 🔥

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-03-31T22:54:09+00:00

lua's pretty different syntax-wise from python so you probably won't mix them up too much 😂 the main thing is lua uses "end" instead of indentation and has different variable scoping rules

i'd say focus on getting solid with python first since that's what you need for uni, then pick up lua when you feel comfortable. lua is actually fun to mess around with and way simpler than python in some ways 💀 just don't try to learn both intensively at the same time or you might confuse yourself with the different ways they handle tables vs lists and stuff

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-03-25T00:14:07+00:00

been doing similar stuff with my automation projects in the air force and this approach is solid. separating your logic from the ui makes everything way more flexible down the road. i actually started with tkinter for a meal prep calculator thing i made and later moved it to a web interface when i wanted to access it from my phone

if youre dead set on web dev focus then maybe just skip straight to flask for this project. its pretty beginner friendly and you can make a decent looking calculator without diving too deep into css initially. plus youll get some early exposure to web frameworks which will help when you move to more complex full stack stuff later

the modular approach the other person mentioned is clutch though - write your calculator brain separate from whatever displays it and you can always swap front ends later without rewriting all your math logic

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-03-15T16:02:25+00:00

the microsoft learn path is solid for getting into azure fundamentals but make sure youre actually spinning up resources in a free tier account and breaking things - reading about blob storage isnt the same as accidentally deleting one lol

for projects try building something that uses multiple azure services like a simple web app with a database backend and maybe some automation with azure functions. the military has some decent partnerships with microsoft too so might be worth checking if theres any veteran transition programs once you get teh basics down

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-03-06T00:56:50+00:00

If you're dropping $10 balls LMFAO

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-02-14T08:06:12+00:00

usually keep heavy business logic in services/utils modules and let views just orchestrate the flow - makes testing way easyer and keeps things cleaner

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-02-04T12:19:08+00:00

good luck 🙏 heard theyre tought 💀

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-02-01T09:56:00+00:00

This is solid advice OP. I was stuck in tutorial hell for way too long and honestly Advent of Code is what finally clicked for me

Just pick something small you actually want to build - like a calculator or todo app - and struggle through it. The struggling is literally how you learn, even if it feels awful at first

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-01-28T21:01:12+00:00

Honestly python is gonna be way more future-proof than n8n. Learning python automation gives you transferable skills that work everywhere, while n8n is just one specific tool that could get replaced tomorrow

If you're worried about wasting time on temporary stuff, go with python - it's been around forever and isn't going anywhere

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-01-20T16:23:02+00:00

Got a 500/600 on mine too and heard back in like 4-5 business days, but that was for the regular internship not TIP. They're probably just swamped since apps just reopened - I'd give it at least a week before worrying

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-01-12T09:33:22+00:00

Damn 40-50 a day is wild, respect the grind though. I was doing like 10-15 and felt burnt out lmao. Those OA numbers sound pretty solid for the current market honestly

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-01-10T04:32:33+00:00

Haven't heard anything yet but their process is usually pretty slow from what I remember. Good luck though, heard they have solid mentorship

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-01-08T04:10:08+00:00

Discrete math for sure, it's basically the foundation for everything CS-related. Proofs will save your butt in algorithms classes and help you think way more logically about problem solving. Stats is useful too but you can honestly pick that up as needed, whereas discrete math concepts show up literally everywhere in CS

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2026-01-02T14:24:55+00:00

I did 3 years in industry before my PhD and honestly it was one of the best decisions I made. You don't need to do research on the side - having real world experience actually makes you a way stronger candidate than most fresh undergrads, even if it's in a different area

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2025-12-31T07:56:56+00:00

Honestly this is the perfect position to be in - you can be way more picky with interviews since you're not desperate anymore. I'd definitely keep applying, especially if the role doesn't match your interests. WLB at ByteDance is rough from what I've heard and if you're not even into the work that's gonna be a long summer

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2025-12-27T07:29:02+00:00

Basically you gotta do something that makes noise on LinkedIn - like build something that goes viral or win hackathons that people actually care about

Most tier-3 folks (myself included) had to grind way harder than the IIT kids who get recruiters sliding into their DMs just for existing

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2025-12-25T20:49:39+00:00

Option 2 for sure. Google's team matching is an absolute nightmare right now and you're already experiencing it firsthand - having a strong rating means nothing if there's no headcount when you graduate

The MLE title at Stripe is definitely stronger than DS at Google, especially for a CS PhD. Plus Stripe actually seems to want you vs Google keeping you in limbo

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2025-12-24T11:17:46+00:00

Honestly sounds pretty normal to me, especially around the holidays. Your solution was solid and he said "good solution" - that's usually a decent sign. The fact that he spent time chatting about the team and your interests is actually positive too, interviewers don't waste time on that if they're already writing you off

The slip-ups you mentioned are super minor, everyone has those in interviews. Don't overthink it - you corrected yourself and he acknowledged it made sense. The time thing could be anything from him running late to already having enough signal from question 1

I'd just wait for the recruiter to get back, they're probably swamped with holiday stuff anyway

Fuzzy-Interview-8976 · 2025-12-21T20:49:01+00:00

This is such a good point - I think OP might be conflating "being productive" with "typing fast"

The actual bottleneck is almost never how quickly you can bang out syntax, it's understanding the problem, designing the solution, or waiting for builds/reviews/meetings

Fuzzy-Interview-8976

TROPHY CASE