I have 5 YOE working primarily with Java, Spring Boot, React, Kafka, AWS, Docker, Microservices, and AWS.

Current CTC: ₹12.9 LPA

I recently received an offer from Fractal(grade 8 engineer) for ₹15 LPA CTC (₹13.64L fixed + ₹1.36L committed pay).

To be honest, I was expecting something in the ₹20–25 LPA range, if not more, based on my experience, tech stack, and the interviews I've been clearing.

A few questions for the community:

• Is this what companies are offering for 5 YOE these days?
• Is Fractal generally conservative with compensation?
• What kind of offers are people with similar experience actually getting?

Also, if anyone knows companies actively hiring backend/full-stack engineers in the ₹20L+ range? I need to switch asap. Lol.

Thanks!

For those who started learning DSA using the Striver Sheet, what was your approach?

Did you watch Striver's lecture first and then solve the problem, or did you try solving the problem on your own and only watch the lecture if you got stuck?

I'm currently on the Binary Search topic. So far, my approach has been to watch the lecture first and then solve the problems. However, I don't feel like I'm making meaningful progress. Since I already know the solution after watching the lecture, I'm not really developing my problem-solving skills. Whenever I encounter a new or slightly different problem, I get stuck.

Another concern is the time it takes. Following this approach, it feels like it will take a very long time to complete the entire sheet.

I also haven't started participating in contests because I haven't covered some important topics yet, such as Strings, Linked Lists, Stacks, Queues, Sliding Window, etc. At my current pace, it'll probably take another two months before I finish these basics.

For those who follow the approach of attempting problems first, how did you learn the topic and the optimal solutions when you hadn't studied them before?

Striver usually explains three approaches (brute force, better, and optimal). I can often think of the brute-force approach and sometimes the better approach, and occasionally I even understand the idea behind the optimal solution. But I usually can't code the optimal approach on my own. If you only attempt one or two approaches before watching the solution, how do you learn the remaining approaches and build that way of thinking?

I know this might sound like a basic or even silly question, but I'm genuinely confused. I don't want to waste time following an inefficient approach or fall behind. My goal is to learn DSA effectively and start participating in contests with enough preparation to solve at least 2–3 problems consistently.

I'd really appreciate any advice from people who've been through this journey. Thanks!

Anyone able to enter the contest? My one's crashing

Can anyone tell me how much Honeywell is paying for SDE-1 to ~1 year of experience in Banglore. I tried searching the same on Google but the data seems to be vague. On leetcode one post of 2020 is there in which they paid 13.5 lakh fixed to NIT grad on campus, but google says right now salary is 8-10 lakhs only in 2026

3rd year is about to start haven't done dsa or dev yet ine thing I realised that dsa is not my cup of tea so thinking to grind dev more or should I prepare for gate /mba

For context i have completed diploma as a cs student the only project I have is smart wheelchair we can control it using button, voice commands and gesture (gyroscope of phone) using an app, that my only project and I have won a state level competition on that, rn my concern is as I am entering 2nd year btech /be what should I focus rn i have 38 question of lc out of which 27 are of dp and 5-6 are of binary search and rest are normal questions without and pattern I followed aditya verma playlist and did dp pattern (0/1, unbounded, grid, 3d dp, linear dp) right now I am focusing more on dsa but my peers say that project is more important than dsa, I am really confused as I have zero network and totally dependent on , on campus placement help me

Hi All,

To all those having a 90 day notice period. How do you negotiate?

As of today almost all companies are looking for immediate joiners. How do you usually negotiate with the recruiter in the first call? And if we lie about np saying immediate release, bench or serving notice period, How do you give proof of LWD if they ask? Please give suggestions. Resigning with an offer in hand is quite a gamble in 2026

Basically i am able to write recursive sol to DP and tabulation is smth which takes me quite some time, any way to get faster at it???

can anyone please share some good notes for placements for these core subjects, would be of great help!

Anyone else's codechef contesr not opening?

What would you do if you were in my position?

Understood the concepts but can’t actually get
Myself to do it logically like
Atleast now I have started seeing the patterns like number of islands or max area of islands but can’t code without keeping edge cases in mind .

Any tips on how to train my brain for DP as well like I know practice and practice only can help but any other tips ?

I have done a 6 month intern + got fte offer as a sdet. But I need to switch to sde. How can I switch???

Hi All, would really appreciate if someone can share their interview experience of Lufthansa for senior java developer role.

If after graduation you were put in a frontend only team, but you wanted to work on backend/fullstack, what did you do to upskill and switch to a backend role. (Assuming direct shift within company wasn't an option)

Please shoot your advice/experience below. I am having sleepless nights thinking about how I'm gonna come out of this situation:(

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for a LeetCode/DSA mentor who has mastered problem solving and has prior tutoring experience.

A little about me:
I have professional software development experience and I’m preparing for a job switch.

I’ve solved around 200 LeetCode problems in the past, so I’d consider myself at an intermediate level.

I’m not starting from scratch, but I need structured guidance to become interview-ready.

What I’m looking for:
Someone who can teach the underlying patterns instead of just explaining individual problems.

A structured roadmap on what problems to solve and in what order.

Regular sessions, feedback on my solutions, and help identifying weak areas.

Someone who has successfully mentored others for coding interviews before.

I’m looking for a focused plan that can get me interview-ready in a few months, not a year-long journey.

This will be paid, and we can discuss the pricing based on your experience and availability.

If you’re interested, please comment below

Hi all,

Mera doubt tha, as I'm bing a consistent solver and learner of DSA, mei kab leetcode k daily challenges ko solve karu?

Okay. So, Graviton visits our college (but only for an full SWE role with compulsory 6 month intern). I am targeting only this company. Although there are companies which pay better than Graviton, I only like the type of work they do - something related to low level, optimization, and a little bit of mathematics.

I am preparing for it from the bottom of heart. Solved many puzzles, almost finished DP section in CSES and some questions of trees, graphs and mathematics as well. Before these, I was already comfortable with leetcode type questions of almost all easy and medium and a portion of hard ones too. But, every 15 days or so, I come to know conflicting information with my beliefs at that time.

1. One of my seniors told me today that they don't ask graphs and trees much, and they just stop at DP.

2. Also, I he told me that they don't even ask computer architecture, for which I was especially preparing in very deep and got interested too much that I read some research papers as well because I was scared of this subject as I got low grade in it.

3. He also told they ask about python. Although I am familiar with python and can easily understand the code, the examples of questions he told me on the chat were the things which I haven't even heard about in python. If the similar questions were asked in C++, I would have answered them outrightly but python made me uncomfortable. I take python very lightly. I couldn't even imagine such a company using python.

I have few questions now:

1. Should I stop doing mathematics, tree, and graphs from CSES problem set and focus on Leetcode Hard and Codeforces contests?

2. Should I stop computer architecture and focus on other core courses (OS, Networks etc)?

3. Exactly what they ask about python? Are those standard interview questions that can be found with a google search like "Python interview questions" etc?

4. How much focused is the interview process on projects?

5. Any other tips will also be helpful.

Thank you in advance.

For people who will ask these questions in the comments (I will update other FAQs as well):

1. My College: Third Gen IIT

2. Stipend: 1.5 LPM, I guess. No idea of full time as of now.

Are the result for Cisco summer internship OA which was conducted on 11th july out for any college?

Lately I've been trying to be more consistent with LeetCode and learning dev, but doing everything alone gets a bit boring after a while.

I was wondering if discussing problems, sharing resources, or just talking about what we're learning with a few people actually helps. For those who've done something like this, was it worth it? Any tips or things to avoid?

I’m looking for some perspective from people who have been in a similar situation.

I have around 8 years of software engineering experience, mostly in large service-based companies in India. I recently completed my master’s in the US, and now I’m trying to transition into a mid/senior software engineering role here.

The problem is that I seem to fall into an awkward middle ground.

I’m not really a new grad, so entry-level/new grad roles aren’t a great fit because of my experience. At the same time, I don’t have experience working at well-known product companies, which seems to make mid/senior roles much harder to break into.

I’ve been taking interview prep very seriously. I’ve solved ~800 LeetCode problems over the last couple of years. I wasn’t someone who naturally “got” DSA. In the beginning, I’d study solutions, understand them deeply, and code them multiple times until I really understood the pattern. Over time I’ve definitely improved, and now I can solve a fair number of medium problems on my own. If I get stuck, I still go back to understanding the solution and practicing until it sticks.

I’ve started interviewing, but the results have been discouraging.

• Large tech company (SWE II): Didn’t clear the coding screen. The problem wasn’t a standard LeetCode question—it felt like a harder medium that required recognizing the right approach quickly.
• Large tech company (Senior SWE): The interview was more of a problem-solving/low-level design exercise than a typical LeetCode question. I chose the wrong data structure early, and that decision snowballed throughout the interview.
• Enterprise software company (MTS): I was given two coding problems. I solved the first in about 5–10 minutes, but completely blanked on the second. Looking back, it wasn’t impossibly difficult - probably a harder medium - but I just froze and couldn’t think clearly. I’m still waiting for the result, but I’m not very optimistic.
• Robotics startup: Cleared the take-home assessment and recruiter screen, then reached the system design round. I don’t think I performed poorly, but I also don’t think I demonstrated the level of depth they were looking for, so I wasn’t selected.
• Fintech company: Cleared the recruiter stage and had an initial hiring manager interview that was focused entirely on my resume and experience. I walked away feeling optimistic because the conversation went well, but I wasn’t selected to move forward.

One thing that makes this especially stressful is that getting interviews itself is incredibly difficult in the current market. Every interview feels like I can’t afford to fail because I don’t know when the next opportunity will come.

I keep telling myself that improvement is a matter of time and practice, and I genuinely believe I’ve gotten much better than where I started. But after every rejection, it’s hard not to wonder if I’m approaching this the wrong way.

For those who successfully transitioned from service companies (or from outside the US) into product companies here:

• Did you go through a similar phase?
• Is this just a numbers game, or did you change your strategy at some point?
• Is targeting mid-level roles the right approach, or should I be thinking differently?

I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences - both success stories and failures. Sometimes it feels like everyone else is making the transition except me, so hearing from people who’ve actually gone through it would help.

Thanks in advance.

I’m currently learning AI engineering and thinking of teaching a small group alongside my own learning.

Topics may include:

- Transformers from first principles

- Building a small transformer

- Fine-tuning, LoRA and QLoRA

- Agentic loops, agent harnesses and practical AI engineering concepts

The sessions would be free, conversational and focused on understanding the why, rather than simply copying code.

I’m looking for 3–5 serious learners who know basic Python, already have some exposure to AI engineering and can commit to learning consistently.

About me:

I graduated from an IIT in 2023 and currently work as a software engineer at a product-based company.

I would prefer people with a similar level of experience and technical background.

Anyone interested?

1st dsa problem - easy (normal array iterative solution)
2nd dsa problem - medium/medium-hard (graph based)
3rd sql problem - a bit trickier than my previous slot

4th python problem - too lengthy as always - wasnt able to finish

Hey! I’m in third year of my college aiming to get internship in software company. I have solved 50 questions of Neetcode 150 and that’s my start (I have also started dsa through some yt videos in the very beginning). I wanted to ask whether Neetcode 150 is enough or not? Specifically for companies like Citibank, cognizant etc. or should I start striver a2z ?