SDE Placement Plan

 Jan to Apr (Before Intern)

• Choose a language (C++ / Java).
• Learn the syntax of the language.
• Learn stl/c++ thoroughly.
• If you choose java, be prepared with collections, comparator, Math class, Fast I/O.
• Be comfortable with the basic implementation. (Give time to this)
• Always upsolve the unsolved problems at the end of the contest on the day of the contest itself.
• You should be able to solve Div2C and 3 to 4 leetcode problems regularly in the contests. (Around 50% of the time)
• If your English is a bit weak, or you feel you are not confident enough to speak. Start talking with your friends and family in English.

For data structures and algorithms

• Array: leetcode
• Math: leetcode
• String: leetcode
• LinkedList: gfg, leetcode
• Stack: gfg, leetcode
• Queue: gfg, leetcode
• Binary search: leetcode
• Sorting: leetcode, algorithms from gfg( Insertion Sort, Bubble Sort, Selection Sort, Merge Sort, Quick Sort, Heap Sort)
• Sliding Window, 2 pointer: leetcode
• Greedy: leetcode, gfg
• DP (focus on recursion) (Aditya Verma/ Tushar Roy/ Abdul Bari from youtube) -  Leetcode / InterviewBit + GFG 56 questions
• Binary Trees: gfg/leetcode, InterviewBit
• Binary Search Tree: gfg/leetcode, InterviewBit
• Heap: read operations from gfg, but implement using priority_queue
• Priority queue (STL): Heap (Aditya Verma), leetcode
• Hashing: gfg/leetcode, interviewbit
• Backtracking + recursion: gfg, leetcode
• Bit Manipulation: Hackerearth theory, leetcode
• Divide and Conquer: gfg, leetcode (focus on merge sort method)
• Graph

• For theory: CP Algo, hackerearth, gfg (not good codes)
• For practice: leetcode, InterviewBit, Codeforces, Hackerearth (not good solutions)
• BFS / DFS
• DSU (with Path compression)
• Topological Sort
• Bipartite
• Cycle, coloring
• Shortest paths (Djisktra, Bellman Ford, Floyd Warshal, BFS)
• Minimum Spanning Tree (Krushal’s Algorithm, Prim’s Algorithm)
• Flood Fill Algorithm
• Bridges, Articulation & Strongly Connected Components ( Kosaraju’s algorithm, Tarjan’s algorithm)
• Biconnected Components ( optional, rarely asked)
• Hamiltonian cycle + path (Dp with bitmasking)
• Eulerian Path
• LCA (from here) (Binary Lifting)
• Max flow Min flow (optional, rarely asked)

• String Algos:

• KMP algorithm: CP Algorithms (most Important)
• Z algorithm: Cp Algorithms (Rarely used)
• Rabin Karp algorithm (Roling Hash)
• Manacher’s Algorithm

• DP

• Digit Dp (codeforces)
• DP with Bitmask (after graph) (Codeforces and Kartik Arora Videos)
• DP on trees (after graph) (GFG/Codeforces)

• Advanced DS: (asked rarely)

• Trie (leetcode, Hackerearth)
• Segtree with Lazy Propagation (Leetcode, Hackerearth, CP Algo)
• Fenwick Tree: hackerearth, CP algo
• AVL Tree: gfg ( asked a lot in mcq)
• Red Black Tree : gfg
• Suffix Tree

• Try to cover these topics as much as you can:

• Backtracking
• Binary search
• DP
• Greedy
• Graph

• DSU
• BFS/DFS related topics
• Shortest path algorithms
• Topo sort
• Bipartite checking/ cycles/ coloring (study after the above topics are covered)

• Segment Tree/ Fenwick Tree
• Digit DP/ DP on trees/ DP with bitmasking
• String algorithms

 May to Jul (During Intern)

• Don’t leave coding, do as much as you can
• Complete/revise interviewbit of some important topics like (Dp, Tree, Binary Search, Graph )

 Jul to Sept (After Intern)

• Practice/ give contests rigorously on leetcode or interviewBit.
• You can Join the telegram group for algorithms.
• Try to do at least 30-40 questions (majorly medium and hard) of each topic from leetcode.
• Read GFG articles regularly (data structures/ algorithms) and also try to implement some of these side by side on leetcode.

• Read CS subjects 

• OOPS
• OS
• DBMS (study SQL nicely &  practice on hackerrank)
• Computer Networks

• Prepare for MCQs. (GFG/ placement docs)
• Do Inter IIT Placement docs of this year and the previous year. (VVImp as questions are repeated) (Also join the Inter IIT Placement Group in Telegram)
• Inter IIT Placement docs:

• Placement 2022: https://bit.ly/3uezBCn 
• Internship 2022: https://bit.ly/2VJaHOd
• Placement 2021: https://bit.ly/3ff7ji4
• Placement 2020: http://bit.ly/33OwO4j, http://bit.ly/2LRQO0T

• Interview:  https://bit.ly/2BNlY6r
• Internship 2020: http://bit.ly/39TMM0P
• Placement 2019: https://goo.gl/tn7mRx
• Interview exp 2019: https://goo.gl/vpdNNG
• Placement 2018: https://goo.gl/FNziKM
• Placement 2017: https://goo.gl/Xs3LdG
• Placement 2016: https://goo.gl/NJXvVU
• Placement 2016: https://goo.gl/yDRnCF

 Mid Oct/ Nov

• Interview prep

• Cover important DS algo interview questions from GFG. You can follow this. Regularly use Leetcode to practice too, as you are generally asked to code in your interviews.
• Revise CS subjects.
• Puzzles: Gfg (1-85)
• Prepare the resume.

• Projects
• Technical skills- Only mention those in your resume in which you are confident.

• Communication skills are very important.

• Try giving mock interviews to friends or seniors.
• HR questions.

        

 Suggested Resources

• Reference for Resumes

• POTW link
• For implementation

• A2oj ladders/ Rating filter on codeforces. (start from div2A, should be comfortable at least up to Div2C later)
• Be comfortable with contests (codeforces/ leetcode). Leetcode contests are more relevant to placement preparation.
• Hackerrank.

• CS Subject

• OOPS (GFG or learncpp.com or Saurabh Shukla YT videos)(for java : javatpoint.com)
• OS (Yellow pages, Gate Smashers)
• DBMS (Gate smashers)
• Networking (Gate Smashers)

• Important Leetcode links: Here
• CP algorithms is a good source for slightly complex algorithms which may come directly as a problem (eg. Josephus Problem) : CP-Algorithms

The more questions you solve on leetcode, the more are your chances in cracking a good company.

All the Best!!! 🙂