As you might know by now that to get into levelOne you need to clear interviews. You will get interview call only if,
so do make sure that you do both of these correctly and only then worry about interviews.
While we trust that students are honest, there are always bad actors. These are people who are copying code for levelZero from a friend and when they qualify to levelOne they'll collectively bring down the quality of the group.
The vision for levelOne is to have a peer group of hard working and smart people. These students will then go and make a mark in their career and create a network amongst themselves which will help in growing everyone.
To ensure that the honest and the hard working get in, we are doing this interview.
Mostly no. Understand that we are interviewing with an intent to accept and not with the intent to reject. We won't take pride in leaving someone who has worked hard in levelZero behind or knows all the concepts taught in levelZero.
You have cheated. You don't understand the code, you didn't do the exercise as it was intended. You just copy-pasted code from the video without trying to do it yourself. You can ask how would we test this, it's simple, we'll explain in the next section.
You can't read instructions. We don't want kids, we want responsible adults. If during levelZero your first reaction has been to tag OG Admins on Discord for every doubt believe us we know. We have been running a list of repeat offenders. And I (Tanay) would strongly suggest you not to apply for levelOne.
You have an attitude problem. We want positive people in the peer group. If you are not helping folks, if you're always lamenting about this or that, if you are always criticizing every move, trust us, we are noticing that kind of behavior too. It's good that you know something about web development, use it to help people, not to show off by putting snarky comments everywhere and bringing the morale down.
Why? In real life, we don't tag our managers the moment we get stuck somewhere, you will graduate from the camp, you will go to work somewhere and you will damage our reputation. In the future, these hiring partners won't hire from us. You don't realize that your behavior reflects bad on the entire future batches of neoG Camp.
Is it bad to ask questions? No, asking questions is good. We encourage it by doing doubt solving hours too. But what we have seen that some people don't read what's being written. Someone has put their heart and time into putting together instructions and announcements, but you choose to completely ignore it and demand to be spoon-fed. Understand that spoon-feeding is not done in the industry, it's time you learn it.
You have to score 70 out of 100 in the interview to get in. The break down for 100 is given below.
Marks: 50%
To make sure that you have not cheated, we can give you one or two tests:
Code Walkthrough: Our interviewer will take any of your projects, from levelZero, ask you to open your code and explain the code. If you can explain what's happening where, you're in.
Solve an exercise on call: Remember how we did everything as mini exercises? Our interviewer can ask you do any of the exercise from any of the guide. Just one piece. Think of it like: design a button, or write a fetch call, or write a navigation bar, or loop over an array of objects, or open a PR. Just one piece. And yes, you can google for syntax. We don't want you to mug up syntax, but we do want you to remember how to use that syntax to solve the problem in hand.
50% would be divided into 3 parts:
Marks: 10%
We don't want you to be an extrovert. But that also shouldn't be an excuse to not present your work in the public. We are not asking you to show off but at least take pride in your work. It's important for long term career growth.
For this we will see your:
LinkedIn profile: Should be updated, proper naming, professional photo. Look for blogs online on how to put proper LinkedIn profile. Post some of your projects made during the camp, some of your learnings too for bonus (optional) points. Remember: LinkedIn is mandatory. Put your best work here.
Create a twitter profile: If you have really good portfolio, linkedIn and blogs then you can skip this one. Otherwise, put a proper profile together. Put a decent bio, choose a nice username, and put a profile pic too. Again, see the RTs from neoG Camp to see how others are doing it. If you don't get original ideas, see and get inspired!
Your own blog: Again, optional. But having it will increase your chances if we are not impressed by your other work, say your portfolio or LinkedIn profile is not done well, but you have a good blog, we will still take you in. So, having few blogs, even two will increase your chances of getting in multifold.
Marks: 20%
In your portfolio, you were asked to choose a color, an image and a font to make the portfolio reflect your personality. It should have details about you. Just copy pasting Adarsh Balika won't cut it. Make it yours. For ideas, go to neoG Camp's twitter or #share-your-work Discord channel and see how beautifully some people have used the same design but put their soul in it.
Every guide and every lesson had bonus (optional) exercises and ideas. If you've ignored all of it, then levelOne is not the place for you. We need students who are motivated by themselves, who do more than what is bare minimum.
Even outside the bonus (optional) thing, if you have created the projects and assignments and you have given them their own soul, their own flavor, you will get full marks for trying new things, trying your own ideas.
We feel this 20% is the easiest to score. Don't leave this on the table. Interviewer will ask you about where you have pushed your limits, be ready to showcase.
Marks: 20%
During levelZero we covered tons of concepts, for example:
and many many more. We will give you a list of 5 concepts randomly selected for you. You can choose any two out it and explain it in your own words. Just tell us what you understood about that concept.
Tip: See the understand section of the guides and solidify your concepts.
When asked to live code first think about how you would solve the problem.
Then divide that problem into three parts: INPUT, PROCESSING, OUTPUT.
The input output pair remains the same for most programs and changes only on environment. Which means CLI app will have different way of doing input/output, vanillaJS will be different and React will be different. However, if you learn how to it in these three environments it will be the same for any question.
So, when you get a question to live code, first take the input and show that input as output. Do this first step. Now, come to processing. There's a chance you don't know about the processing part but now you have done 60pc of the program already and you only need to think in the term of logic.
Even if you're not able to complete the logic part you still showed two things
That you can write program in a language, and
That you can break a program in your mind, which is an important skill.
We advice you to please read this guide carefully before attending the interview. Further, after scheduling your interview, make sure to sit for the interview 5 minutes before the time scheduled and do a system check to ensure everything is working fine.
Once again, we are interviewing to accept, so don't be under any pressure. Talk to us like you would talk to a friend. Dress well for the interview and sit with water.
We are sure you'll give your best and will come with your friends to learn more in levelOne.
We have also put up an interview-practice questions compilation for you. All the best.