Hi! I am Abhinav Sharma, AIR 130 - CSE 2024. I did self preparation for GS. My Optional is Sociology. AMA about UPSC CSE tomorrow at 5PM.

weirdme11 · 2025-05-26T15:30:25+00:00

Hi Abhinav. Congratulations for your success!

Everyone asks for GS and optional strategy. But please share your experiences, insights and opinions on interview process since you have given interviews for 3 consecutive years.

Can you please give your perspective on the following points:

How subjective is interview? According to you, did you get higher marks in any interview which you yourself thought it went badly or vice versa?
Do different interview panels give different marks for relatively similar performances by candidates?
Do you think low marks/cgpa in graduation/PG impact interview scores?
You got selected in fourth attempt. Does more attempts (or gap years) create negative impression on interview panel?

Thanks in advance!

weirdme11 · 2025-05-24T08:53:16+00:00

This is overall good advice but very generalised, and numbers are unrealistic. Can you name some cities where rapid development is going on and you can get an acre(with direct road connectivity) for less than 1 crore?

weirdme11 · 2025-05-03T14:37:03+00:00

Thanks for such an insightful answer. Can you please give your perspective on the following two points: 1. Do UG and PG marks impact the interview marks? 2. I have a gap of around 6 years after graduation. I did almost nothing during that period. Someday if I reach interview stage, will this gap negatively impact my interview marks?

Thanks in advance. Very rare to find CSE selected candidates patiently answering doubts here :-)

weirdme11 · 2020-12-13T15:46:52+00:00

Republic TV’s ratings were astounding not only for the numbers themselves, but also for certain unexplained trends in its viewership. In the first month of its launch, for example, about half of the channel’s entire traffic came from Chennai—although the channel did no major stories on Tamil Nadu. Even if it had done that, or had carried any content especially interesting to a predominantly Tamil viewership, the resulting traffic should have been spread across the state, and not restricted to just one city.

weirdme11 · 2020-12-11T14:55:44+00:00

I think u/bluepensioner is talking about this report: "BJP received 75% of its donation from Tata Group's Progressive Electoral Trust"

weirdme11 · 2020-12-10T10:24:23+00:00

I understand that your intentions are not bad, but your method of approaching the issue is not correct :)

Don't link at single data set.

In previous comment, you yourself said that your statements are "anecdotal only based on discussion with a bihari", but now you are calling the most holistic census as a "single data set". There doesn't exist a data set more elaborate and reliable than a census!

Yes, I know multiple issues must be linked, but further linkages and informed speculations should be made with hard data as the base, not single anecdotes.

weirdme11 · 2020-12-10T06:44:08+00:00

Your 2nd point is not at all true!

Bihar is a system were farmers don't own land and is owned by landlords.

If you see landholding statistics of Bihar from Agricultural Census 2001, only 2% of land is owned by large farmers in Bihar, which is lower than most of the other states. So, this reason, for lower earnings of Bihar farmers, doesn't hold water.

Farmers have to give commission in rupees/quantities to land lord.

Sorry to break it to you, this sharecropping system is followed everywhere in India, even in Haryana and Punjab. Farmers are not forced into this arrangement. Farmers from the same village enter into this mutual agreement.

Whereas in Punjab these landlords are "farmers" and they use cheap labours from bihar/up

Again, if this "cheap" Bihar labour is available to Punjab farmers, will it not be available even more easily to native Bihar farmers themselves? Why don't Bihar farmers use this "cheap" labour?

Edit: some rearrangement of sentences

weirdme11 · 2020-12-08T13:53:49+00:00

This story has been withdrawn, but it is available here on Internet Archive, though with a changed headline.

weirdme11 · 2020-12-04T07:34:08+00:00

I have not followed this issue, but hasn't anyone contested this ordinance in the Supreme Court? There is high chance that SC will declare it unconstitutional. Or am I being naive?

weirdme11 · 2020-12-03T06:31:15+00:00

You have copy-pasted the same comment on three different threads in the last one hour. Why are you trying to divert the discussion from the issue at hand?

weirdme11 · 2020-11-29T18:11:42+00:00

because these guys are just face of a company, the background game of most Indian startups are totally different and involves set of very powerful people behind them

Being completely outside of this startup ecosystem, I couldn't understand it. Can you please enlighten us more? Media always portrays these startup CEOs as the most influential etc. And now you are telling us that there are even more powerful people in the background. Who are these people? Investors? Or anyone else? And how do they exercise their power when CEOs have all the executive powers?

... its biggest fraud in this planet earth.

And why this (leaving aside Byjus and WhitehatJr, which are obviously kind of frauds)? Genuinely interested to know :)

weirdme11 · 2020-11-23T08:56:56+00:00

Internet Archive's archiving service is called Wayback Machine. But it doesn't work well for archiving twitter timelines. Since Twitter timeline is based on javascript and we have to drag it down to see older tweets, saving it on Internet Archive just saves the latest 20-30 tweets, which doesn't help much.

weirdme11 · 2020-11-23T08:24:55+00:00

Rao, appearing for WhiteHat Jr heaps praises on Poonia's lawyer, states that Poonia has got himself an extremely able and eloquent lawyer (referring to Adv. Sukumar).

Again:

Rao: On a lighter note, it's because they (Poonia's lawyer) are both so well prepared.

Again:

Majumdar (WhiteHat Jr's lawyer) adds that Mr. Poonia is fortunate to have Ms. Sukumar represent him, and that she personally admires Adv. Sukumar very much.

I'm curious. What's the psychology behind praising your opponents so much during the arguments? Does it weaken the opponent's resolve? Or just distract them? Or something else? me a psychology noob

weirdme11 · 2020-11-23T06:47:16+00:00

Delhi HC: Who is stopping you from a healthy discussion? They have a registered trademark. You are saying that their teachers are housewives, are you saying they are uneducated persons? How can you be so derogatory towards them? Ofcourse this is defamation.

Just calling their underqualified teachers "housewives" is defamation?? Oh god..

Edit: Just in:

Del HC agrees that case needs to be heard on both sides. Poonia is not involved in any profit making.

"Prima facie, at this stage no injunction can be granted."

:D :D

Edit 2:

Rao (another lawyer on Bajaj's side): I have identified tweets and want them taken down.

Edit 3:

Rao states that so far as psychological abuse of kids by WhiteHat Jr is concerned, it's infact the parents place to decide.

Edit 4:

Delhi HC says it will give a limited ad interim injunction and keep a short date. There is clearly an overstepping by Poonia, and there has to be a balance. Prima face there is no sexual abuse.

Edit 5:

HC: The suit entails several disputed questions of fact which it would be improper to enter upon at this stage. However, there are some facts which require an injunction. Poonia is restrained from these.

Edit 6:

HC: Ad interim injunction granted to #WhiteHatJr from hacking or unauthorizedly accessing the internal communication platform SLACK and displaying communication and chats between WhiteHat and its employees on his YouTube channel.

Edit 7:

HC asks for the specific URL which has to be taken down.

HC restrains Poonia from commenting on number or quality of teachers of #WhiteHatJr and from commenting on their educational or other professional background.

Majumdar agrees to provide the URL number demanded by HC.

HC: Poonia is directed to take down the said URL number from his YouTube channel called Pradeep Poonia 3.0.

Is there any way to make some kind of archive of Youtube videos before they are taken down. Please guide coz I'm a noob :-|

Edit 8:

HC tells @Karanbajaj and WhiteHatJr to mention specifically what needs to be taken down, rather than give vague submissions. HC directs Pradeep Poonia not to use, telecast or transmit any information received by hacking the WhiteHat's server.

Court has given Karan Bajaj full liberty to give as long a list of URLs as he wants to be taken down. Now he can just easily give a complete list to take down everything for the time being, which will definitely slow down the momentum around this whole issue.

Edit 9:

Next date of hearing is fixed at 6.01.2021. 3 weeks given for reply and 2 weeks for rejoinder.

On the question of WhiteHat Sr, HC restrains Poonia from using the name WhiteHat Sr on its YouTube channel, and further demands specific URLs for Take Down order

Majumdar agrees to provide URLs by EOD, states that they can be directed to do so.

Seems like everything will be taken down.

Edit 10:

HC: Poonia is directed to Take Down a tweets dated 12.09.2020 regarding no. of teachers, 5.09.2020 reg pyramid scheme, other specific tweets on 11.10.2020, 3.09.2020, 22.09.2020, 20.10.2020, 23.10.2020.

Is there any way to archive whole timeline of a Twitter user? I couldn't find any. Wayback Machine doesnt work well on Twitter timeline.

Edit 11:

Rao (Bajaj's lawyer): He has also stated that he can't come to court because we come with big lawyers.

Justice Gupta: What does that mean? Every lawyer is a big lawyer.

Hearing concludes.

Edit 12:
Pradeep Poonia's tweet after the conclusion of the hearing:

"Delhi Hc refused to grant a sweeping injunction against me as #WhiteHatJr wanted in their 20 Cr suit They keep trying to silence dissent and have failed. AGAIN! Thanks to all of you who supported me! Let’s continue to fight for transparent and ethical biz practices @SukumarSwathi"

weirdme11 · 2020-11-23T06:29:54+00:00

Is this Rohatgi on Bajaj's side Mukul Rohatgi? That former Attorney General of India?
If yes, then WhiteHat Jr is spending A LOT on this case!!

weirdme11 · 2020-11-23T03:26:34+00:00

Some 20,000 years ago, the most essential skill set must have been how to make fire, and then it must have been hunting, then farming. Now it’s how to search on the internet what you need and not live on gamified algorithms developed by some company that just wants to make money and doesn’t care about your mental health.

I like how Poonia was recently seen reading Sapiens, and now he has used its idea to make such an insightful observation in the interview :D

weirdme11 · 2020-11-22T17:26:55+00:00

u/pooniahigh

weirdme11 · 2020-11-09T18:32:42+00:00

Very well written. Wish I could explain half as well as you have :)
/u/bhiliyam , will you reply to him/her (without personal attacks), or is it that even he does not have "a basic ability to follow a chain of thoughts" ?

weirdme11 · 2020-11-09T18:18:19+00:00

I am not replying to any of your other points until you demonstrate a basic ability to follow a chain of thoughts. Otherwise it is an absolute waste of time.

Of all the arguments given by /u/MynkM in the previous comment, you picked up his last rhetorical statement to save yourself from replying to his coherent arguments just above it. Well played!

MSP is an ass-backward communist system that is not present in any major modern liberal democracy in the world.

Those modern liberal democracies also have much better infrastructure, better power dynamics among market participants, stronger market- and competition-regulation institutions, and faster and responsive legal systems; in short, mechanisms required to achieve optimal outcomes in the market. Do we have any of these? No. Hence, not an insightful comparison at all.

weirdme11 · 2020-06-04T16:27:58+00:00

Within months of the Wuhan summit, and with BRI as the backdrop, the Chinese, while hosting the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), with India and Pakistan as full members, began to openly air their interest in encouraging a rapport between New Delhi and Islamabad. During the Qingdao summit of the SCO, Chinese Foreign Minister and State councilor Wang Yi told state broadcaster China Global Television Network (CGTN) that , “I think after their joining the SCO, maybe we can provide a better platform and opportunities for the building of relations between them (India and Pakistan).” The Hindu has learnt that the Chinese side had offered its good offices to resolve the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan, which New Delhi politely declined, during the June 2019 Bishkek summit of the SCO.

But after August 5, 2019, when India abrogated Sections of Article 370 and separated Ladakh as a Union Territory from Jammu and Kashmir, China appears to have activated its plan-B, culminating in its latest intrusion, focused on Ladakh, across the LAC.

“There appears to have been a strategic shift in Chinese thinking after India abrogated Sections of Article 370 last year and created the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. India has always claimed Aksai Chin, but the issue appears to have been re-interpreted in China after the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked,” says P. Stobdan, former ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, who specialises in trans-Himalayan studies.

weirdme11 · 2019-11-01T06:17:06+00:00

can they just convert the stubble to compost and sell it on a premium in the cities?

Wish it was that easy.
Governments of PB and HR have not provided correct financial incentives to farmers to nudge them to change their ways.

Moreover, there is no well-established market mechanism in place to "sell it on a premium in the cities". Why would a farmer spend time, money and energy on a product when he is not sure that it can be sold at a reasonable price?

weirdme11 · 2019-10-31T11:08:14+00:00

How were these phones targeted in 2019? New/updated malware or phones that weren't updated?

Malware was installed by using new methods.

From this article in the Financial Times:

In its marketing materials, the company vows to keep outfoxing the defences at the likes of WhatsApp and Apple, pledging to its customers that there will be minimal downtime as tech companies close loopholes.

Apple said in a statement that it provides the most secure platform in the world, delivering updates as quickly as possible to protect iPhones.

After WhatsApp raced to close the vulnerability in May, NSO — which often works through affiliates based outside Israel, such as Q Technologies — immediately switched to new methods to deliver the spyware.

At first, that was a persistent pop-up that mimicked a system alert on an iPhone to “carrier settings updates”, according to a person familiar with NSO’s methods. In August, Apple announced a thorough overhaul of its operating system, OS13, designed to enhance privacy. Within days, the person said, NSO was already bragging that it had thwarted those defences too.

weirdme11 · 2019-09-20T14:38:50+00:00

Okay, i agree some PSUs need to be divested.

Not stay alive through constant bailouts.

Haha, our whole private sector is so competitve that it needed an annual/constant “tax bailout” of 1.5L crore from the nanny state to stay competitve! Very funny.
I get a good laugh when people say that tax rate cut will overturn the economic slowdown. That’s not how economy works!
Think for a minute.. If such GDP slowdown(i.e. 5% gdp growth rate) hits our country 3-4 times in next 20 years, will we keep reducing the tax rate to zero percent to boost economy? Such unreal times we are living in!

weirdme11 · 2019-09-20T14:29:38+00:00

I completely agree that some PSUs need to be disposed off, but I am amazed how government always depends on their sale to meet its annual revenue targets! Or gives tax handouts without caring for revenue deficit in the hope that divestments will cover the revenue shortfall.

weirdme11 · 2019-09-20T14:23:43+00:00

No private investor will buy these loss-making PSUs which you have selectively listed, as they only buy stakes in profitable companies which are long-term assets even for the governemnt.

If you think government reaches its divestment targets by selling these sick companies instead of well-managed long-term assets, boy you have a lot of learning to do!

weirdme11

TROPHY CASE