How to Prepare For On Campus and Off Campus Placement in CS/IT?[2023]

Completed your 12th, Completing your graduation, Now What? Will I be able to grab a good placement? Being a CS/IT student, does this question haunt you? No worries, we’re at the rescue. More than 45% of on-campus and 49% of off-campus placements happen every year in India. So, if you have the required skills and a strong will to get placed, no obstacle will come on your way. 

Getting a good Placement with a high package is what everyone dreams about while entering college. For every student guy who dreams about getting placed in a good company, this article has been compiled which will guide you on the path to getting a good placement. 

If you’re one among those who are still struggling in the path of on-campus placement preparation and keep thinking about “How to Prepare For On Campus and Off Campus Placement in CS/IT?“, here’s the way to help you with. This article will act as a roadmap to placement.

But, before stepping into the placement rounds, make yourself ready by following the below-mentioned points:

1. Cover the Basics

Make yourself completely ready (be it technical skills or soft skills) before knowing the process of on and off-campus placement. You can also say that the first step towards getting a good placement is covering the basics. Without knowing the fundamentals, you can’t get deep. For example, to reach the terrace of your home, you need to cross the stairs step by step. Likewise, when you know the basics/fundamentals, then only you can build amazing projects on it and showcase them in your resume to attract recruiters. 

• Programming Language – The primary languages which every company looks for these days are:
  • C / C++
  • Python
  • Java
• The next concept that you should be thorough about is OOPS. OOPS lets you create objects in programming which helps you to code easily and the main objective of using OOPs is binding data and functions together, also maintaining security. 
  
• DBMS(Data Base Management System) is the second most important topic that one should prepare before sitting for any interview. A database management system is known as software that lets you store, retrieve, and manage data in an organized way. This topic often comes up in the MCQ rounds and is asked nearly in every interview.
  
• OS (Operating System) is a major concept every student should know. As the operating system acts as a bridge between the user and the hardware, it is one of the most basic and important topics to be covered. Questions based on OS are also asked in tech interviews and also during MCQ rounds. 
  
• Computer Networking is the next topic that you should be clear about. Questions based on networking are generally asked in tech interviews to check the basic knowledge of the candidate during placement. 

2. Must-Have Skills 

DSA (Data Structures and Algorithms) is the building block of software development. It is used to create efficient and optimized solutions with low complexity. Data Structure is the storage and organization of data whereas Algorithms are the method followed to bring a solution to the problem. 

Here’s the Complete Roadmap To Learn DSA From Scratch which you must definitely go through, it covers all the basic to advanced points from Strings, Arrays, Linked Lists, and Stacks to Graphs, Queues, and Trees. 

Also, If you’re looking for something that could guide you completely toward the path of DSA, then must explored the best dsa course – DSA Self Paced By Sandeep Jain, CEO and Founder – GeeksforGeeks.

3. Coding

You need to be a pro at coding. For this, you should have the habit of continuously practicing questions. You should have practice solving at least 1-3 hard-level questions daily, 2-6 medium-level, and 3-8 easy level. There comes a round in the placement series where you have to solve 3-4 DSA-based questions within a limited duration of time. So, in order to clear that round, you must have a good command of coding. 

You can solve a question daily on the POTD series prepared by GeeksforGeeks where you’ll get a question on DSA. 

You Can Also Try: 

1. Competitive Coding
2. Dynamic Programming

3. Prepare a Skillful Resume 

The first step which helps you in entering the corporate world is your resume. Your Resume says it all. A resume is a document that describes your 

• Educational background
• Skills and Expertise
• Projects
• Internships
• Certificates and Achievements

A proper resume is one that should be a one-page document demonstrating your qualifications or how good you are at your skills. In your resume, you can mention skills, prepared projects, some important certificates and achievements, and internships you have done. The project which should be mentioned in your resume should be one among Web Development, App Development, Machine Learning, and Blockchain Development). 

4. Soft Skills

Having good technical skills isn’t enough, you need to have the required soft skills in order to grab a good placement. Soft skills play an equally important role in your career transition. Some of the skills which you must have are:

• Communication Skills
• Problem-Solving
• Teamwork
• Creativity

Important Factors to Note:

• A Decent CGPA – Never underestimate CGPA. It’s true that if you have skills, you can get into any big MNCs. But, during campus placement, some companies set a passing criterion (which is the primary step towards campus placement) which is more than 7.5 CGPA. 
  
• Mock Interviews – Try to attend mock interviews, it makes you ready for the placement. Mock interviews help students to experience an interview before the actual one, it prepares you mentally. 
  
• Check last year’s placement papers of companies as it helps you in getting an idea of what type of questions may get asked during interview rounds. Read On Campus Interview Experiences and Off campus Interview Experiences.

Complete Interview Preparation – Self Paced course is a one-stop solution to all interview problems. This is a complete package that covers all the concepts needed for all kinds of placements be it on-campus or off-campus.

Once, you’re done with all the above-mentioned points, now you’re all ready for campus placement. Make sure you cover all the basic concepts and have a strong grip on DSA as it is the most important and majorly asked question during placements. 

Now, comes all the steps/interview rounds held in placements. 

1. Resume Shortlisting

You have to create an ATS-friendly resume describing all the vital points that companies look for. Your college takes up the responsibility to send resumes of all the candidates to the companies. After scrutiny performed by the company, if the company founds your resume to be suitable for the job role, you get shortlisted. And this is where your first round gets cleared.

Have a look at the 20+ Tips To Get Your Resume Shortlisted For Top Tech Companies.

Here’s an FREE Online Resume Builder if you haven’t created one. This also has templates for freshers/experienced professionals. 

So, prepare a perfect resume using our Free Online Resume Builder.

2. Aptitude Round

Aptitude level rounds are generally those rounds in which the candidate is asked questions based on basic Mathematical topics such as probability, time distance and speed, ratio and proportion, and English topics like idioms, synonyms, antonyms, basic puzzles, etc. This round is conducted just to check your basic skills. Knowledge of maths is required in IT since you have to deal with logic while creating solutions to a problem. Knowledge of English is necessary to understand the questions and it may also help in proper communication. 

In this round, companies give MCQs based on Maths and English and candidates need to solve those in a given stipulated time, or else the test ends up. Try solving Aptitude questions in a time frame and practice on a daily basis.

You must have a look at Must Do Questions for Companies like TCS, CTS, HCL, and IBM … which covers all the basic concepts asked in the aptitude level round.

3. Technical Round/Coding

The next round is a technical coding round followed by an aptitude round in which you’re asked to solve 3-4 coding questions based on DSA in a given time. The maximum time given per question can be 30 mins. You need to strong grip on searching and sorting concepts of DSA. Generally, companies repeat questions after every 1-2 years so try to have contact with seniors and ask about their experience to gain an idea of what type of questions and come and then practice those. 

There are test cases given that you’ve to pass. The maximum number of test cases you pass, the more marks you get, and the more the chance of getting into the next round. Here’s How to Prepare for Coding and Technical Interview Rounds?

You can use our Practice portal to solve questions based on levels such as basic, intermediate, and advanced. 

4. Group Discussion

This round may or may not happen as it is an optional round in many companies. Some companies prefer it while some do not. In this round, a group of candidates (maybe 10) is asked to share his/her ideas on a general topic. Sometimes, even a for-or-against discussion is performed to understand the mentalities of the candidates.  This round is conducted to check the interpersonal skills (leadership, teamwork, confidence, communication, and problem-solving) of a candidate. It helps the recruiter to understand the candidate’s caliber and whether he/she deserves to be placed or not. 

5. Technical Interview

The next round is a technical interview in which after you clear all the above rounds, you’ll be interviewed by the interviewer based on the tech topics such as:

• DSA
• OOPS
• DBMS
• Networking
• Basic Programming Fundamentals

Generally, this round is a one-on-one round where the interview is held for approx 30 mins or sometimes even extended in case the interviewer asks more questions. If you’re a beginner and searching for tech interviews, here’s How to get started for technical Interviews?

Here are the Top 25 Interview Questions which are must-read as these are the questions that are definitely asked.

6. HR Interview

Congratulations, you have made it to this round. This is the final interview round of the whole process. This is also a one-on-one round whose duration is approximately 10-20 mins, where the interviewer and interviewee have a formal conversation. As you’ve cleared all the previous rounds, the interviewer already knows that you’re well versed with the technical fundamentals, so here you’ll be checked based on your confidence level, leadership skill, etc. The interviewer just puts you in certain conditions where your interpersonal skills are checked. On the basis of your responses, the company hands over the placement offer to you.

Here are two sets prepared for placement which cover basic to advanced level topics required during placement.

• A Step by Step Guide for Placement Preparation | Set 1
• A Step by Step Guide for Placement Preparation | Set 2

Programming Languages	C C++ Java Python Kotlin (for Android Applications)
DSA (Basics)	Arrays String Hashing Searching Sorting Linked List Stack Queue Tree Heap
DSA (Advanced)	Queue and Dequeue Tree (Binary Search Tree) Greedy Algorithm Dynamic Programming
OOPS	Classes Objects Inheritance Polymorphism Abstraction Encapsulation
OS	Memory Management CPU Scheduling Deadlock
Networking	Protocols TCP/IP Types of Networks
Frameworks and Libraries	For Web Development React Angular For Machine Learning Tensor Flow scikit-Learn For Application Development Flutter React Native
DBMS	NoSQL SQL MongoDB

Also, to bring to your notice, some of the rounds mentioned above may or may not take place (such as group discussions). Till now you must get an idea about placement interview rounds and also How to Prepare For On Campus and Off Campus Placement in CS/IT? Rounds may vary from service-based to product-based companies. So, if you’re prepared with all of the above rounds, you’re all ready for placements. 

FAQs – On Campus and Off Campus Placements

Q1: Which company is better- Service based or Product based?

Answer:

When it comes to the type of company there are several factors that have to be kept in mind while deciding which one is better such as-

• Salary package
• Company perks
• Future scope
• Designation offered
• Growth (professional as well as personal)

Product-based companies are sits slightly up on the bench but Service based have their own benefits.

To know more about this visit: Difference Between Product Based Company and Service Based Company

Q2: How much percentage is required for placement?

Answer:

As such specific percentage is not a barrier in your placement journey but it is always recommended to have a good percentage about 75% to get selected for a decent job in a renowned company as some companies sort the candidates on the basis of their percentage in the first round itself.

Q3: When should I begin my campus placement preparation?

Answer:

For getting a good placement easily one should start his/her preparation from the end of the second year i.e. 4th semester of your graduation as many companies start giving internships and job opportunities in your third year i.e. 5th and 6th semesters. By the end of your 3rd year, you would be a perfect candidate for any company you started as stated above.