All you need to know about CCEE & CCPP | All about Exams and Placements | Tips and Tricks | CDAC

Phew!!!! finally, my CDAC journey has come to an end and and the final result has been sweet as well. I got placed in the first week of the Common campus placement programme better known as CCPP itself and now i've come to my hometown Delhi to spend a few weeks with my family before starting the job in Pune. This will be a long post so buckle up.

I started with my first post when i was allotted Sunbeam institute in the first round of seat allocations. Then I wrote this post during the first week in Pune and before the start of the session. My last post was during the Diwali break and talked about the faculty and included the subjects taught before diwali break so naturally i will start from where i left.

The Faculty (...continued from this post)

• The next subject which was taught immediately after diwali break was Javascript frameworks. Believe me, Javascript is the King of the Web today. There are a number of Javascript frameworks out there and more and more are being developed and released at a faster rate than any other scripting language. It has evolved the User Experience manifold. So there are multiple reasons to learn it. This subject was taught by Kishori ma'am and in a week we were taught Javascript, Jquery, Node, Express and Angular. The angular version taught to us was 2 which was released a couple of years back and now Angular 6 is in the market. This might give you an idea about the ecosystem of Javascript and it's frameworks. Too bad that most of the class was clueless about the Angular due to lack of material on the web due to rapid development rate. But my advice will be to study angular well as it will surely help in your projects and ultimately placements. 

• Unix programming (part of the operating systems) taught by Kaushal sir which included introduction to Linux OS, useful bash commands, shell scripting using C and the practical sessions in labs. This was over in like 4-5 days and helped us to understand why one should study linux.

• Then started the subject for which most of the students were waiting for since eternity - Core Java and Advanced Java taught by none other than Madhura Anturkar ma'am. To be honest, I always wondered about this hype around Java as a programming language as it wasn't taught well in our graduation. But after nearly a month of Java by Madhura ma'am, i realized it's importance as Billions of devices all over the world are running java based apps. Coming to the teaching part, I think i don't deserve to pass some comments regarding her Teaching. She is the best in the business. All you have to do is be a regular in the class, do what is being taught the same day and voila, you are ready to be picked up by the recruiters. If you are new to Java, it will be very intimidating when the Advanced Java starts as was I. If you carefully study from a single resource, all will be clear to you. Be very careful during the Java module as it can either break or make the business end of this 6 month course. So java will be over by December starting with 2/3 subjects remaining - Dot net, Application Security and Upcoming Technologies. By this time, you will be asked about your groups for the projects and specify the technologies to be used. All being tentative. 

• Next subjects were Application Security taught by Manu Zacharia sir who is the main faculty for the DITISS course and Upcoming technologies (Parallel Computing) by Sandeep walwekar sir (I had to lookup his name as i attended only 1 of his 4-5 classes). Application security being a new subject to be included in the course talked about developing secure web applications and included demos on typical attacks on a website like SQL injections, HTML injections etc. The lab part for this module was little dragged as felt by me. The upcoming technologies module will be a good revision for operating systems concepts(if attended).

• The final module was Dot net technologies taught by Alankar Sooraj sir. I had this presumption in my mind about DotNet being an older technology but when it was being taught, i felt why CDAC has scheduled this subject to be taught at the end of the course when the students are busy in revising the modules for the final CCEE exams. It is as if CDAC doesn't want anybody to make projects in dotnet which is similar to the advanced java ecosystem and lots of other features. You will be taught a little different perspective of why we study OOPS which will be really helpful in the interviews. My advice to you will be that don't skip dotnet as there are equal or little less number of opportunities in dotnet too.

All about the Project and CCEE Exams

The teaching part of this 6 month course roughly spans about 4.5-5 months with the rest part reserved for CCEE exams, the project, the lab exams if left and a buffer time for any of the theory classes, if not completed on time. In the last month of the teaching, december in my case. You will be asked about the groups in which you will be making your projects and technologies too. 

Some tips about projects--

• Choose your partners carefully and according to the technologies you want to use in your project. 
• Most of the students prefer Java for the project but i would suggest go for dotnet as companies visiting as well as CDAC R&D require dotnet people too, so it will be an advantage for you too stand out from the crowd. Additionally you can think of implementing a REST service in DOTNET(WCF) or JAVA(SPRING) and consume using a REST client in Angular on the front. This will be a deadly combination. Also don't go overboard and try to use a technology if it isn't at all required. For example, your web application requires simple CRUD operations then don't go overboard and show your skills in services and angular just because it is flashy. Major point you should now is that why are you using a specific technology for your project. Is it really required ??
• You will get at max 15-20 days for your project after the CCEE exams. Like 15-30 January in our case. 90% of the projects will be on similar lines ie - A web application to manage something say blah blah management system, with 3 types of user viz admin, customers, vendors, login - logout functionalities, CRUD ops etc.  Do something that differentiates your project from the rest. Implement some extra features like -- Localization, Hashing of passwords, AJAX, Single Page App, Upload-Download, BLOB handling, Use of APIs, Social Login etc. This will surely give you a boost in the interviews and an edge over others. 
• Know your role in the project and the number of good practices you have employed. These things will be frequently asked in the interviews. More on the interviews below...

Now something about the CCEE Exams(8-13 Jan-2018)

• These are basically MCQ exams conducted at the end of the course for all the modules, 14 in our case.
• Each module will be of 40 marks with 40 MCQs and no negative marking and time limit is 1 hour. 
• Students from closer institutes are shuffled and they have to travel to other institute to give the exam. 
• Exams will be over in 7days with 2 exams each day. You will hardly get a sleep of more than 3/4 hours as there will hardly be any time for you to revise.
• Prepare these very carefully and with your full concentration as these marks are considered by the companies visiting the CCPP. 
• This time, the topper for the DAC course for all over India was from our class with 80% in CCEE. Later, he was recruited the first day itself by CDAC R&D. \
• Go through a lot of MCQs as you will get an idea about the questions which can be asked in the CCEE Exams. More on study materials below...

Teaching---->Exams---->Project---->????Next What

Now the business end of the course arrives -- CCPP---The placements---for which most of the students join CDAC...

A presentation is given to the students in which they are briefed about the placement process. The first thing which is mentioned is that CDAC DOESN'T GUARANTEE PLACEMENTS. They are just a tool, a guidance or a help to you to get placements. Ultimately, it is upto you to get placements. CDAC will just invite companies to the campus. If you are worthy, no one can stop you from getting a job.

Approx 1700 Students in the Pune region including 1100 from DAC course will participate in the common placement program in Pune. CDAC hires a campus in Shivaji Nagar Pune (Catering College) where companies are invited to conduct their processes. If not possible other CDAC affiliated institutes - Sunbeam, IACSD, Infoway etc are also used for the written rounds during the placements. 

The schedule of the CCPP is roughly like : 

• First Month -- Companies will visit CDAC common campus placements for the recruitments
• 5-10 Days break
• 1-1.5 month--- Off campus placements. Students will have to visit the companies to take part in their processes.
• Lastly, Local Campus--- Companies will visit only the institute from which you have done your course. Of course that will differ from institute to institute and number of unplaced students.

Some tips:

• One call === Shortlisting by a company
• CDAC R&D will be the first one to recruit the students. The process is held at CDAC ACTS itself. Almost 500 Students were shortlisted by CDAC for the first round of interviews itself. Therefore no written rounds were there. Don't waste your time speculating about the shortlisting criterias. Just concentrate on interview questions and study well.
• The companies shortlist the students not the CDAC. CDAC just acts as an intermediary to communicate this information to the students via email, website and mobile application. So don't complain that CDAC is not giving you opportunities. Even now, 18 days after the placements have started, students in my class are badmouthing CDAC for not getting enough opportunities.
• There are multiple criterias employed by companies to shortlist students. They may be your CCEE marks, Subject wise marks, 10th, 12th Marks, Graduation Marks, Graduation year, etc.
• You have to provide your details- academic, experience, and general information on CDAC Placement portal which will generate your resume/CV based on that. So be careful while filling up that info. You should be able to justify each and every thing in your resume.
• If you are a fresher with good academics, buckle up because you will hardly get any time to Study. Most probably you will get 2-3 calls daily. All you have to do is be prepared and most probably you will get placed within the first week itself.
• If you are not a fresher and have some gap in your studies or some work experience but have good academics, then initially you will struggle a little to get shortlisted by the companies but ultimately your day will come. 
• If you are not a fresher and have average or below academics, the you are bound to struggle for the placements. These students were getting very less calls and if it's your day and you have studied hard then 1 call is enough.
• For students with gaps or work experience may have a little hard time around in the HR rounds.
• Being a fresher and good academics, I got 13-14 calls during first week and luckily I got placed in the 11th one.
• Most companies will arrive for DAC students. Courses like DBDA and DIOT have very less placements. DVLSI, DESD have also fewer placements but with highest packages.
• 1st week will see highest packages for the higher packages between range 5-8lpa. But it's not guaranteed that a more higher package offering company will not visit during the 2nd week.
• You don't have a choice to choose between companies when selected by 2 companies. Once selected by a company, you can't sit in the process again.
• You can opt out of the process of a company but for this you have to visited the designated center and sign the attendance. The call will be counted if you opt out of a process.
• Behave yourselves when in the campus as the coordinators can snatch your Placement ID cards and block you from the placements.
• Keep your eyes, ears and Internet open as the emails can arrive ANYTIME OF THE DAY. If you miss a process or are absent, then you will be blocked from the placement process. Few students in our class have been blocked for such carelessness.
• It will be frustrating when you will see your classmates getting placed but you have to be patient and wait for your day. This might be a blessing in disguise as you can prepare well and go all guns blazing in the interviews.
• If you are shortlisted for multiple companies then everything will be managed by the placement team. Be sure to inform them if you have to go attend other processes.
• Most of the companies have a written/online round which consist of Aptitude and technical questions. Aptitude will be basic. Just revise the formulas and basics. Concentrate more on the technical part.
• For visiting companies list and package details, feel free to comment....

Sources to refer for study:

• In most cases, resources provided by the teachers and notes made in the class will be enough for placements and interviews. Though can't say that about the CCEE exams for few subjects. Subjects like DotNet, Data Strcutures, Operating System, Advanced Web Programming and Javascript frameworks will require a more in depth study at your end and some extra knowledge. For that you have to refer some books or some online resources.
• For MCQs, questions can be asked from the online websites like Sanfoundary, IndiaBix, CarreerRide, Javamadesoeasy etc. But don't rely on only them. One should refer them after completing the study from the course syllabus.
• Books are provided by CDAC but most of the students don't open it. I also referred to them a few times only. Students got stumped this time after realizing that Software Engg Exam was straight from the book only.
• Extra Knowledge will never go waste. You will surely have an edge in the interviews.
• For CDAC provided CCEE exam dumps and topic wise resources, you can ask me in the comments.

Some tips for the Interviews:

• Your explanation matters more than your knowledge during the interviews. Most interviewers listen to the same explanations again and again as most of the students have studied the same thing. Explain in such a way with examples to stand out and impress the interviewer.
• Don't fool around in an interview. If you don't know or remember something, just say as it is but if you try to fool around, rejection is sure.
• One thing which will be asked in 99% of the interviews is your project. Be ready to write a code or two from your project. Sometimes your graduation project can also be asked. "Tell me about your project", "role in project", "why this technology", "how you solved this common problem" etc are some of the questions that will be asked.
• Next common question is the cliche -"tell me about yourself". If it's being asked in a technical round, keep it short and simple. Don't provide some extra detail accept academics, hometown, hobbies etc.
• Your luck matters more than you think during the placements. for example - you are giving an interview at the end of the process, by that time the interviewer might already have finalized the students already. If it's your day, everything will fall in place for you to be selected. Signs will be there too. Just watch out. There will be days when you will be down and out. Just get up and move on. There is always a better opportunity waiting for you.
• One thing i've noticed is that Interviewers don't ask very difficult questions. Just keep your basics correct and explain beautifully.
• For subject wise frequently asked question, just comment ....

For any other help, please feel free to comment and ask...

Thank you and hopefully you see this soon 

Gearing up for CDAC - PGDAC at Sunbeam Pune

So, the 4 year B.Tech in Computer Science is complete from DU. Yes, this is the University of Delhi from where I and a thousand strong more did a B.Tech which, I think is pretty much unheard of. But believe me, it did made a lot of noise about 4 years ago when the then HRD Minister decided to port all the 3 year courses at University of Delhi to 4 year courses in a program called the Four Year Undergraduate Program (FYUP). Adding more mockery to this, B.Tech was also started.

I'm not gonna dwell into those 4 years to explain how the FYUP was rolled back after a regime change and how a protest by a thousand strong made our B.Tech stay and get an AICTE approval.

4 years went by and the inevitable happened which was already expected by almost all the students. No Placements arrived. No IT Companies visited. No Mass Recruiters visited leaving this standalone batch hanging in mid-air.

I decided to pursue a 6-month Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Computing (PGDAC) from CDAC (Center for development of advanced computing). I heard of this from my mother after she came to know of someone who also studied from CDAC. It also provides M.Tech program for 2 years with tie-up with regional universities like IP university in Delhi. But since, a job was the priority, I gave the entrance exam called C-CAT to get admission to the training centers and other private institutes affiliated to CDAC. I gave the exam at CDAC-Noida. The exam was computer based with an option for students to bring their own laptops.

The exam is pretty simple for the CS students who have also given some other entrance exams like CAT or GATE. The C-CAT exam for CDAC is held twice in 12 months for 2 batches a year. One in June (for august admissions), other in December(for February admissions).

The syllabus for the 3 sections A,B,C are given below. Each section is of 1 Hour and section A is compulsory for admission to any course. Depending upon your choice of course, you will have to give exam for either Section A only, Section A+B or Section A+B+C. More detailed information can be found in the Admission Booklet.

Syllabus : 

• Section A English, Quantitative Aptitude, Reasoning 
• Section B Computer Fundamentals, C Programming, Data Structures, Data Communication & Networking, Object Oriented Programming Concepts, Operating Systems  
• Section C Computer Architecture, Digital Electronics, Microprocessors

Note: Each Section has 50 Question

So that makes it 50 Questions for 60 minutes.

Since I was opting for their flagship program PGDAC, I gave Section A+B on 25 June 2017 at their CDAC Noida center. The exam started an hour and a half late due to some server problems. Since the exam is computer based, all you have to is open a browser (preferably Mozilla Firefox) on their system and go to the URL provided at that time. Login with the details on your Admit Card, carefully read instructions and wait for invigilators' go. After each section, a break for 10-15 minutes will be provided. The aptitude part is pretty easy but can take time so brush up your skills. The computer science part is easy, only if you remember everything you studied in those 4 years and remember the concepts to the detail. 

Only a few questions (5-7) out of 50 for Section B will be straightforward. Rest will require some thinking to do. Overall, you can complete this part easily before time and still go through all the questions once before submission.

I attempted around 32 questions in section A, mostly with confidence when the time ran out and around 40 questions in section B. The results came : I got rank 786 for section A and 576 for Section A+B. That means my rank that mattered for the admissions was 576 among all those who gave section A+B exam.

From what I searched on the net about CDAC, the city Pune will be frequently discussed as the CDAC Headquarters are located in Pune itself along with other top institutes for PG Diploma like Sunbeam, while other centers like Noida, Mohali etc don't find a mention anywhere. Bangalore and Mumbai are also above average if I go by the information available on the web and take them at face value.

With rank 576, going through the 480 seat strong top 2 institutes - CDAC Pune and Sunbeam Pune seemed probable as each and every student ranked better than me won't select the same PGDAC course or same center in their preferences. As it turns out, i am allotted sunbeam Pune. That means now I am inside the 480 odd students opting for CDAC from either CDAC pune or Sunbeam. My chances for CDAC pune seem improbable but not impossible as I wait for the 2nd round of seat allocation in a few days. The CDAC Pune chapter seems final now as I prepare myself to live alone for a 6 months (or more....) which I haven't till yet but ultimately, it had to happen at some point. 

CDAC Pune or Sunbeam Pune don't Hostel facilities available but they have tie-ups with independent PGs and accommodations. I found a list with the contacts of the PGs online for Sunbeam Pune here.

But I don't think the choice of room to sleep will matter as most of our time will be spent at the centers only.

I have to report to the center on 16th August while the session starts the next day. Going through the Sunbeam website, I went though a notice for the Sunbeam Karad students (Near Pune) which gave some instructions before the start of the session. Some of them are :

• Formals for Mondays and Thursdays
• An assignment in C language and Data structures to be submitted before the session starts.

This really prepares one of what's to come in the next 6 months. Since I am also admitted to Sunbeam, the instructions will be more or less same. So, I better start brushing up the concepts now itself. 

I will keep updating this blog with more insights in the coming months ( If I find time :) )