JP Morgan Chase & Co. Code For Good’22

Some Past story: This started in my second year I got to Know about this from LinkedIn for the coding test for JPMC’s code for the good hackathon.

• I had a very modest idea about what coding tests are, and what hackathons are. 
• So I reached out to my seniors who were part of this program earlier and talked to them about my curiosity and they cleared every doubt ( I always prefer my seniors for any kind of query they are like google to me ….. just kidding). 
• And also this was the 10th year of code for good so it is a kind of special event. 
• link of their career portal: https://careers.jpmorgan.com/us/en/students/programs/code-for-good?search=&tags=location__AsiaPacific__India
• The Code For Good hackathon is one of JP Morgan’s hiring events as well, 2-month summer internships for 2nd-year students, and a 6-month internship + FTE for 3rd-year students. (This is for the next year, i.e I took part in the hackathon in 2022, and the internship opportunity is for summer 2023)

Coding Test: There were 2 rounds of shortlisting. In April, a coding test was conducted on Hackerrank. The level of the questions was GeekforGeeks easy-medium. (Date:- march-19)

Tip to ace coding round: Regular practice of easy to medium level coding Question of gfg, leetcode, hackerrank.

Virtual Interview: On Hirevue: The next round was a video interview on HireVue, where 2 questions similar to the ones asked in HR rounds were asked. A preparation time of 4–5 minutes post which we had 2 attempts to record the answer. 

The coding test and video interview were compulsory, after which shortlisting was done.

Tip to Virtual interview round: Be genuine don’t give Gen-Z internet mugged-up answers.

On the 9th of May, I received a message from my Training and placement group about the selected students for Code For Good Hackathon. And I was one of them.

Around 15000 students appeared for the selection process and 900 students were selected to take part in the grand event.

Timespan: The hackathon was a 4-day event conducted between 25-26h June.

The hackathon was scheduled to take place from 25th July to 26th June 2022. We were divided into teams of 6 -7 members. The team’s list 3 days before the hackathon on 22nd June and we sent invites for slack from where we can find and interact with our team members and when the mentor is assigned we can also contact them. So after I got to know about my team member from the Sheet they shared in the mail, teams were divided into 7-8 students each, each from a different university.

Note: Mentors were assigned on the day of the Event only.

• On 23rd  and 24th June 2022, we had a few technical sessions and fireside chats telling us a little more about the nature of the hackathon and what is expected of us as students.
• 25th June 2022 was the big day, it marked the start of the hackathon, at 7:00 AM the problem statements were released, and after an hour of discussion with the team and our mentors, (Each team was assigned 2 mentors, who were employees at JPMC) we decided the order of our preferences, there were a total of 10 problem statements. We finally received the problem statement from the Banglore Foodbank.
• To find out more about this NGO, visit:  https://bangalorefoodbank.com/
• Bangalore Food Bank was started on 16th October 2014, World Food Day 2014, and registered as Feeding Bangalore Foundation on 24th December 2014 under Section 8 of Companies Act 2013 with a vision to address the issues of hunger, malnutrition, and food wastage. 
• The foundation runs various programs such as “The NGO Feeding Program” to support NGOs running residential programs with their monthly grocery requirements, “Food Rescue Program” to prevent food wastage, “Breakfast Feeding Program for school children” at schools, and “Food Relief Programs” in emergencies.
•  Thanks to the efforts of our benefactor donors, Bangalore Food Bank has procured 519 tons of food products to date. 
• Through this, we were able to make more than 54 lakhs of feeds to the needy.

Working: For the next 24 hours, we brainstormed and built a prototype. We built a web portal based on the MERN stack. In which the N.G.O provides you a problem statement about what they want in their website or app and according to that you need to build the web or app.  

 The first was a submission that had to be made on the portal, which included a description of our solution and the idea behind our solution. The next was the technical judging round, following which the shortlisted teams, the top 2 teams would progress to the final judging round. My team did progress to the final judging round.

The Final Day:

• On 26th June 2022, at 11:00 AM, we presented our solution to the technical judging, we were very excited and nervous at the time. 
• The question and answer session following the presentation was very thought-provoking.
• And after 30 min the first round result was announced and unfortunately, we could make it to the final but we are satisfied that we gave our best and no matter whether you win or lose it’s the effort that matters. 
• And most important it is not mandatory to win the Hackathon for an internship at last the individual performance matters for getting an internship. 

Overall tips to ace Hackathon: Be vocal don’t hesitate to present your ideas interact with mentors suggest what comes to your mind don’t dominate others be polite and listen to everything carefully. 

Here I would like to thank my mentors and team members for the successful completion of the event with great enthusiasm and for making the day a memorable day.