Season 1: The one where HackerRank discovered Adyasha
Tags: myjourney, career, community
Published: 2022-12-15 13:19:52

After interning at **HackerRank** for the past year and a half, writing a blog now seems strange, doesn't it?

**_I KNOW!!_**

So stay tuned for this series, in which I will be releasing the seasons of my **J.O.U.R.N.E.Y at HackerRank**. And a series without a climax at the end is all a moo point, so hang tight for the final season, y'all!

> I hope you get all the F.R.I.E.N.D.S references and if you don't 😳 ... well then I guess you need to go on a _BREAK_ and binge-watch it. Thank me later!😌 

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**_"So no one told you life was gonna be this way....."_**

Well, the day I received this mail from [Vassavi](https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaasavi-suncol/), no one could have told me my life was gonna change this way!

One hot April afternoon, freshly heartbroken (_found out my lobster🦞 wasn’t my lobster at all 💔_), I was cocooned in my bubble when I got this mail from one of the most fun and passionate HR ever. 

![Mail from HR](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/87uwqse3nwk71n7zf9se.png)

This wasn’t just a mail, it practically rescued me 🥹! I was pumped and started figuring out how to go ahead with this. I approached one of my seniors, [Muskan Khedia](https://www.linkedin.com/in/muskan-khedia/) who was then an intern at **HackerRank**. Being the _Monica she is_, she helped me with the referral and thus, I answered the mail with my resume and the necessary documents. 

It was all going smoothly. A bit too smooth. And of course, life had to mess up. Yes ~~guys~~ folks you guessed it right, I got down with Covid 😷 . That day, _"it was like there’s rock bottom, 50 feet of crap, then me."_
 
So I got admitted to the hospital, bedridden for two days straight. And as if the universe was testing me, I received a call from Vassavi regarding the interview process. The interview got scheduled while I was still admitted 🤦🏻‍♀️ !

The only thought in my mind? **If not now, then never**. I buckled up my mind and started getting ready for the interview that changed my life.

Okay, enough about the pre-interview overthinking. Let’s talk about the real deal. So after I got enough information regarding the test, my preparation started with exploring what HackerRank is all about. Its <u>core values</u>, qualities that they look for in their folks, and what exactly was I expected to present to crack it. I went through all the past projects that I was going to showcase, thoroughly understood my role in all my <u>past internships</u> and polished my <u>React skills</u> by going through a bunch of articles, quizzes, and blogs.

But then my brain asked, **_Bro what about DSA?!_** 🤷🏻‍♀️ To disclose the fact, I was quite reluctant for the interview as I felt, HackerRank being synonymous with Data Structures and Algorithms, they might focus a bit more on my DSA knowledge instead of my dev skills.

> But oh boy, _could I BE any more wrong!_ I got to know, the core requirements for SDE interns at HackerRank were <u>development skills</u>.

![HR is love](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/bksjkn0l83lbkfz9tdpj.png)

And now, with some newly gained confidence, I furnished my dev skills and awaited the interview.

Well now moving on to the interview….
Should I go on? 🤔 _Oh, I wish I could, but I don’t want to._

![Friends: Oh, I wish I could, but I don’t want to.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/fisnnaft51fq34zy0vwi.gif)

To read the whole season go check my [blog](https://adyasha.in/series)! 

Feel free to connect on **[Twitter](https://twitter.com/Adyasha8105)** :)