Code for Good Hackathon: How I WON and got PLACED in JP Morgan Chase & Co. ?
I recently participated in the J.P. Morgan Chase — Code for Good 2022 Hackathon, which celebrated its 10th anniversary that year. Since then, a lot of students have been asking me about my experience and the recruitment process and wanted to know how I won the hackathon and got two internship opportunities and a PPO offer through it. So, I decided to write an article to help you out. Keep reading till the end to find some tips to help you succeed!
By the way , I was in my 2 nd year , 3 rd sem of my B.Tech Engineering Computer Science Degree UG , when this process was going on !!!
Hence , I had 0 expectations and gave my 100% efforts.
A brief about Code for Good Hackathon
Since 2012, J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. has been organizing Code for Good every year where university students from various institutes come together as teams and solve a real-world problem in under 24 hours. Hear from what they say.
“Code for Good is our opportunity to bring in university students to our offices and brainstorm for twenty-four hours on how nonprofits can solve a challenge that they’re facing.”
But But But , I had this during the COVID pandemic and hence it was conducted online 😥
So without further due ,let’s get into the process :
Step 1: Online Application
The initial step is to apply on JPMC’s career portal. They’ll ask you for a few details along with your resume. Following was the eligibility criteria:
- Degrees: B.Tech./B.E./MCA
- 2023 Batch Pass-outs [eligible for Full-Time opportunity]
- 2024 Batch Pass-outs [eligible for Internship opportunity] ( I had applied for this category )
- Streams or Specializations: Computer Science/Information Science/ Information Technology/Data Science/Artificial Intelligence/Big Data/IoT/Electronics/ Electrical/Electronics and Telecommunications etc.
- A well-rounded academic background with a minimum aggregate 7 CGPA [until date] in engineering course.
A few students were shortlisted based on eligibility and we moved on to the next step.
Step 2: Coding Test (1 hour)
This round is considered quite easy if you have a decent grip on Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA). It comprises two medium-level standard DSA questions that mostly focus on topics like Arrays, Strings, Stacks, Queues, Bit Manipulation, Searching-Sorting, and Linked Lists. You are given one hour to solve these questions which are simple enough that if you practice DSA daily, you can finish them in just 10–15 minutes.
For practicing enough DSA I would recommend following any of the Strivers SDE Sheet, Love Babbar’s Sheet, and LeetCode’s top 150 liked questions on the above-mentioned DSA topics.
Step 3: Online Interview
This was an automated video answering round. They would ask two HR type questions and you had 2 chance to record an answer to that. I was asked:
Q1) Tell us the situation where you have an idea which must be implemented but everyone is against it , how would you deal
Q2) Tell us the situation where you need to learn something from scratch and build up something following a strict deadline
I have heard that wearing a formal dress , keeping your self tidy and speaking with confidence matters. Many people were dropped after this round. So prepare well.
After this , I got a confirmation of being selected for the hackathon
( I was on the cloud 9 ☁️, seeing this email )
Step 4: Form filling for Hackathon round
A separate form comes for the shortlisted candidates, in this form they mostly ask about your development skills. Be honest while filling this up because this is the way they get to know about your skillset and decide on which team you should be there in the hackathon round to have a proper balance in the skillset as a team. So be honest and frank, even if you know very little about development it’s fine to mention what you know, and you will be paired up with the team that balances out your skillset.
Step 5: The Code for Good hackathon
Hackathon is the final step of the CFG event. This happens mostly in the month of June or July. You get ample time between the shortlisting process and the final hackathon to level up your development skills.
Now Coming to Hackathon Process:
Hackathon is a 2-day event, it starts in the evening of the 1st day with an ice-breaker session and a few games among the formed teams. Each team consists of 5 to 6 members and 2 to 3 mentors. This team formation is done by the CFG body and no 2 members of the same college can come in the same team. Slack is used for chatting and announcements and Zoom is used for video calling.
Sessions on the 1st day are particularly to get to know each other and be aware of skillsets and also to get acquainted with mentors allocated to each team. Mentors basically are for doubt support and help/guide you in your projects. They keep track of individual contributions and they also interview each team member in separate breakout rooms during the hackathon. Regardless of whether you win or not in the hackathon, it’s your mentor’s remarks that decide whether you will get an internship/full-time offer from the firm.
The main hackathon starts on the 2nd day in the morning. 7 NGOs present their problem statement and you need to give your preference list. Problem statements are allocated on a first come first served basis, and some time is given for discussion to choose the problem statement. Make sure you consider your mentor’s advice for selecting the problem statement. We got the KOTAK Education DLS NGO problem statement.
Once you get the problem statement start working on the prototype by starting with the design of the application. Distribute the tasks based on the expertise of the members. You get 24 hours to build the prototype. Utilize the doubt support facility whenever required, and be frank in asking about doubts. Your zoom meeting is continuously on for 24 hours and your discussion and contribution are monitored by the mentors present in the meeting.
In between the hackathon, Mentor will keep on taking one-o-one sessions with you to know the progress , to know how you are thinking and also give some indirect ideas to implement .I was kind of given the idea to “ implement a feature where we upload pics from our phones as many don't know how to use websites in rural areas and it gets automatically update on the application in the correct place under the correct profile “
To be honest ,I had no clue or never worked upon such thing , but i googles and saw many you tube videos and made it , the happiness inside me just exploded when it worked on the mentors phones and showed them real time .
Apart from this ,they also took technically rounds ( some of my friends didn't have this ,but I think it solely depends on the mentors)where he asked me few DSA coding questions related to graphs and DP and told me to code while sharing my screen and also asked questions related to SQL as well. He did ask me questions related to core subjects but I told him that I wasn’t aware as I was still in my 2nd year 😥,and after the session ended this kept on killing me thinking that I might not hold a chance to get an offer , but I did get an offer and when i asked the mentor later on , he said ,it was my honesty ,hard work and inputs that were taken into consideration , hence always be honest and be to the point.
Next day by the end of 24 hours, you need to be ready with the code repository of the prototype along with a demo video of the project explaining its key features and the problems it solves. Once this submission is done few teams are shortlisted for the discussion round to get the winner for each problem statement.
In the discussion round, it is discussed on the future scope, updates, scalability of the application, and the impact it will have. Based on this winner is decided.
AND WE WONN THE HACKATHON
it was not expected at all , we all were so exhausted working and when we heard our team name being announced ,we couldn’t stop smiling laughing !!
Getting an Internship/Full-time offer entirely depends on your mentor’s review of you. It is not compulsory that if your team wins means you will get an offer and it is also not compulsory that if your team didn't win then you don't stand a chance , it totally depends on your contribution and your active participation in the discussion process.
After few months ,I received an iPad as we had won the hackathon and my parents were there to receive it and unbox it and I could see the happiness screaming on their faces ,it was a proud moment for all of us.
And then my internship started in the month of June-July 2023 and it was an amazing experience !!
And then after my internship ended .I got an Attachment intern + PPO Offer ✨🧿❣️
Some of the in-office activities , find me if you can🤗
Last but not the least, it’s about learning, exploring, and sharing. Just grab as many opportunities as you can and try to learn from them. This program gave me a lot of exposure.
If you have any queries regarding this, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter.
If you like this Medium or it helped you in any way, please like💓 and do comment if you have anything to add, it would help other aspirants who want to apply and be a part of this amazing program! :)
