IIT Delhi(Computer Applications)

Joint Computer Applications program(JCA) is an interdisciplinary M.Tech program run by Mathematics, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Departments at IIT Delhi. As I have already talked about IIT Delhi in a previous post, I will directly jump to course and interview details.

Selection Criterion

IIT Delhi shortlisted students based on GATE score and shortlisted candidates were called for interview conducted at the institute. The cut off GATE score for M.Tech JCA was 800 which was around rank 245 according to my guess as my rank/score were 241/802 and one of my friend's were 247/798. I considered myself very lucky to be just above the cut off score. In the selection process, both GATE score as well as the interview performance are given weightage.

Category		Minimum GATE norm score CS/IT GATE only	Minimum aggregate percentage or CGPA in qualifying degree
Full time with Assistantship	General	800	60% or 6.75/10
	OBC	720	60% or 6.75/10
	SC/ST/PH	550	55% or 6.25/10
Part-time/ Industry Sponsored	General		75% or 8.5/10
	OBC		74% or 8.3/10
	SC/ST/PH		70% or 7.5/10

  

The interview date for JCA was 19th May. The date was clashing with IIT Bombay's Research Assistantship program's written and interview rounds, so we had a tough choice to make. I went for JCA program.

About Course

JCA is an interdisciplinary course which is governed by 3 departments, Mathematics, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Apart from CS and IT students, ECE, Maths and many more students are also eligible for this course. The program admits 20 students per year from these disciplines. JCA is a very flexible course as a student can choose subjects from any of the three departments. A student from computer science background can take all the elective subjects from  computer science department and would have to do only two maths courses discrete maths and numerical optimization. To read more about the course visit these links:
https://sites.google.com/site/jcaiitd/about-jca
http://mtech-admission-iits.blogspot.in/2011/01/jca-computer-applications-at-iit-delhi.html
http://gaurav89.wordpress.com/2012/03/18/jca-at-iit-delhi/

Jca Course Content 

Interview Round
Like IIT Kgp, the JCA program at IIT Delhi also had only interview round and no written test. The interview consisted mostly mathematics questions.They asked me to introduce myself, why I wanted to join M.Tech. There were questions about matrices, eigen values, definition of eigen values, uses of eigen values, mathematical logic questions, they asked me to make truth tables, gave expressions and asked whether it is tautology, address of a[i][j] element of a 2d array and some more array questions.

My interview didn't go well because I couldn't answer many of the mathematics questions.

Admission Result
The result of the interview was released about a 2-3 weeks after the interview. I got selected for admission in the institute and will join from 21st July, unless waiting list of MCS course clears.

IIT Guwahati

Its one of the institute which take admission on the basis of gate score only, ie no interview, no written test.

Selection Criterion

IIT Guwahati shortlisted the applications based on the GATE score and the shortlisted candidates were called for the counselling at the institute. 

About Course

The course I applied for at IITG was MTech(CSE). There is also a dual degree program at IITG under the CSE department, but it is not for the CS students..(yes you read it right :P), so kindly read the eligibilty crietria carefully before filling the form.

Travel and Stay

There are direct air services from/to Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata with connectivity to all major cities in the country and direct train services from/to all the metropolis and other major cities. Air India, Jet Airways, Jetlite, Kingfisher, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir operate regular flights to and from Guwahati.

It is around 20 km from the heart of the city and around 40 min drive from the airport. To reach the institute from the city, there is an Institute bus service that runs regularly to and from the city.
Also the institute will inform you about the bus timings in the call letter from the airport/station to IITG.
Or you can take a private cab/pre-paid taxis also.

There will be accomodation for the applicant only not for the person accompaning him/her.

The Institute

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, the sixth member of the IIT fraternity, was established in 1994. The academic programme of IIT Guwahati commenced in 1995.

IIT Guwahati has good infrastructure for carrying out advanced research and has been equipped with state-of-the-art scientific and engineering instruments and recently IIT Guwahati has been ranked among the top 100 of the world's dynamic young universities by Times Higher Education (THE) magazine also.

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati's campus is on a sprawling 285 hectares plot of land on the north bank of the river Brahmaputra around 20 kms. from the heart of the city. With the majestic Brahmaputra on one side, and with hills and vast open spaces on others. No doubt its the most beautiful IIT among all

Councelling

There was a pannel of 5-6 professors who all were calling the applicants according to their application no. They were checking all marksheets the till Final/Pre-final Semester. Also our 10th and 12th DMC was required and further I just submit my Demamd draft of Rs.150 along with a passport size photograph and I was done for the day.

The first list was declared after two days and the second list after five more days.

Do wait till the final list because many applicants just reserve their seats till they get any other seat at preffered IIT and later on they withdraw. There is a good chances of selection till AIR 275 at IITG


In 2014
First and Second list was declared till Gate score: 802, AIR: 241

First List
Second List

My Trip

After the councelling I visted to Kamakhya temple, Alfresco Boat in the evening. Do check their timings before going there.

P.S: If you are a nature oriented person you will enjoy your visit to IITG.

    Bridge near IITG

    Kamakhya Temple

    

    View from Alfresco Grand Boat

-Nikita Jain

IIT Kharagpur

After IIT Delhi, the next institute to visit was IIT Kharagpur. IIT Kharagpur is the oldest IITs and considered as a very good institute for computer science.

Selection Criterion

IIT Kharagpur shortlisted the students based on GATE score and the shortlisted candidates were called for interviews at the institute. The cut off GATE score for CS at IIT Kharagpur was around 735 which was around 450-500 rank. There was no written round for IIT Kharagpur. The interview was scheduled on 19^th, 20^th May and those who had their interviews clashing with some other institutes, they could give interview on 17^th May. I gave my interview on 17^th May as I had M.Tech Computer Applications interview at IIT Delhi on 19^th May.

About Course

The courses I applied for at IIT Kharagpur was M.Tech in CS and M.Tech in IT. There was only one interview for CS and IT.

Travel and Stay

Kharagpur is a small town and doesn’t has an airport, so I took a flight from Delhi to Kolkata. I reached Kolkata on 16^th May and stayed at my friend’s house. The next morning at 6, I had a 1.5 hour train journey to Kharagpur, a journey that I can’t forget. 

We took a train from Howrah station to Kharagpur. The train moved smoothly for about an hour and then there was large sound of sparking and the train stopped at Haur station about 40 Km away from Kharagpur station. I was very afraid whether I would be able to make it for the interview or not. We waited for 15 minutes and then we got down from the train. The TC told us that the overhead line of the train had broken and it would take around 2-3 hours to fix it and get the train moving.

I couldn’t wait for 2-3 hours as I had to report for interview in 2 hours, so I decided to take a taxi or bus from there to Kharagpur. Haur was a small village. I couldn’t find any transport from station to Kharagpur. A nearby shopkeeper said he would arrange a taxi, we waited for it for about an hour but we didn’t get any taxi. I called the institute and informed them about the train breakdown and they said that there is no problem and interview will start late at about 10.

A family was going from the station to somewhere so I requested them to give me a lift to the highway so that I could get some transport from there. They gave me a lift and dropped me at the highway. I thought getting a bus or taxi would be easy from a highway, but I was wrong. There were 2 more people standing with me who got down from the same train to Kharagpur. I waited for some time, asking for lift from many people and then a bike came. All 3 of us got on to the bike and the biker took us about 3-4 Km ahead and dropped us at a bus stop.

I waited for about 15 minutes for bus but couldn’t find one. I asked for lift from many people and finally an ambulance stopped. YES an ambulance. Ambulance gave me a ride from the bus stop to a bus depot where I got a bus to Kharagpur railway station. I took an auto rickshaw from station to the institute. I reached the institute at around 11 am, the interview had not yet started. I marked my attendance and waited for my turn.

The institute had made arrangements for staying at hostels. I was there for only one day so didn’t need hostel.

The Institute

IIT Kharagpur has a large campus. There were many hostels. I saw LBS hostel. It was a new hostel and was better compared to Kanpur and Madras hostels. The hostel rooms were on sharing basis, 3 people shared one room. The room had enough space for 3 people. there were 3 beds, cupboards , study tables, balcony.

The Interview

There was a lot of mismanagement at interviews as they had not expected so many candidates would turn up on 17^th. Most of the candidates had IIT Delhi or IIT Bombay scheduled on 19^th May so there were many who had come on 17^th May. 

My interview started at around 2 pm. There were 2 people taking my interview. They started by asking me my favorite subjects, to which I replied Data Structures, Algorithms and DBMS. They sent me to white board and asked me to explain on the white board. He asked me questions about sorting. Which is the sorting algorithm I would prefer (heap sort), why would I prefer this. The time complexity of heap, merge, quick sort, which out of these is the best and why. If both heap and merge have same time complexity why I chose heap. How we calculate different time complexities i.e. average, best and worst case. I answered all these correctly.

After this he asked me questions from TOC. He focused on finite automata. He asked me how to find complement of the language, give an example. And conversion from NFA to DFA etc. To these also I answered properly.

Now they came to engineering maths, they asked me about vectors, basis, vector space most of which I did not knew. Then they switched to operating systems and asked me about system calls, how they are made, when are they made, examples of system calls, how they are implemented, what is difference between normal function call and a system call. I had minimum idea about system calls so this also did not went well.

The interview lasted for about 20 minutes and I was free at about 3 pm. We had lunch at dreamland restaurant in the campus and then I went to see hostels.  I left for Kolkata around 4 pm.

My Trip

I really enjoyed my trip to Kharagpur. I enjoyed the awesome journey from Howrah to Kharagpur. Later that evening we went to a floating hotel Floatel, floating in the Hooghly River. Next day I left for Delhi.

Selection

The result of the interview was announced about 3 weeks after the interview. I got selected for IT and I took admission here.I may have been upgraded to CS but I withdrew admission from here and took admission at IIT Delhi in Computer Applications program.

IIT Delhi (M.Tech CS, MS Research CS)

For me being from Delhi, IIT Delhi was the dream institute for me. IIT Delhi is one of the best IITs. In a recent newspaper article, it is also rated as best Indian Institute in QS BRICS 2014 University Rankings.

Selection Criterion

IIT Delhi shortlisted students based on GATE score and shortlisted candidates were called for written and interview rounds conducted at the institute. The cut off GATE score for M.Tech and MS-R CS was 800 which was around rank 245 according to my guess as my rank/score were 241/802 and one of my friend's were 247/798. I considered myself very lucky to be just above the cut off score. In the selection process, both GATE score as well as the interview performance are given weightage.

Category		Minimum GATE norm score CS/IT GATE only	Minimum aggregate percentage or CGPA in qualifying degree
Full time with Assistantship	General	800	60% or 6.75/10
	OBC	720	60% or 6.75/10
	SC/ST/PH	550	55% or 6.25/10
Part-time/ Industry Sponsored	General		75% or 8.5/10
	OBC		74% or 8.3/10
	SC/ST/PH		70% or 7.5/10

  

The written and interview rounds, both were to be conducted on the same days. IIT Delhi CS Dept, unlike other IITs gave a number of days to choose from for written and interview rounds. We had to choose one date from 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and 19th May for the interview. I chose 15th May as I returned from Madras on 14th and had to leave for Kharagpur on 16th May. We needed to appear  only once for written, interview rounds even if we had applied for both MS-R and M.Tech program in CS dept.

About Course

I applied for both M.Tech and MS program at IIT Delhi CS department. M.Tech is for 2 years and MS in Research varied from 2 to 3 years depending on when your thesis is complete.

Travel and Stay

As I am from Delhi itself, I did not needed to stay at hostel. But for those who were from outside Delhi, IIT Delhi had made arrangements for them at the hostels.

The Institute

IIT Delhi has a very nice and green campus. The nearest metro station to the institute is Hauz Khas Metro Station. The institute has many hostels. Hostels were spacious and looked well maintained.

Written Round

The first round in the selection process was written exam. This was a subjective paper containing 4 questions. This was not an elimination round and all the candidates were interviewed irrespective of their performance in written round.

The written round was easy and we were given enough time around 1 hour to attempt it. It had 4 questions. The first question was a probability question in which we had a number of balls and bins, we had to find some probability when all balls were identical and when they were distinct, I don't remember the question exactly but it was on the same lines. 

Second question was a question of mathematical reasoning in which we were given 4 statements in mathematical notations and we had to write their meaning in English.

The Third question was a code question in which we had to write C language code to calculate the sum of weights of all the leaf nodes. The tree here did not have to be necessarily binary tree. It could have any number of nodes. We also had to give the structure of the tree.

The fourth question was a question of permutation and combination in which we had to find the maximum number and minimum number of connected components that can be there in a graph using n nodes and m vertices. I attempted all the 4 questions and I think correctly.

The Interview

The next round was an interview round. Interview round started about 1 hour after the written round. My chance came after lunch. There were 2 people taking my interview. One person was evaluating my written paper and asked me questions from the paper and my approach while solving the questions, while the other person had my application form which had details about my B.Tech percentage etc.

The interview started with general questions like what place I am from, he asked me the meaning of percentile, about my B.Tech college, GATE score, asked me that was my score good etc. Then he came to the subjects. 

The interviewer asked me questions mainly from data structures and algorithms. I asked some of my friends who had interview with other panel and one who had interview on another day, they also were asked algorithm and data structures questions. 

The first question he asked me about an array and sorting its first k elements. I wrote the pseudocode, then he asked me to improve the complexity of the code. Then the other interviewer started asking questions from the paper I had attempted.

He asked me how I solved the question, in the code he asked me the structure of the tree that I had made, how it was working. He asked me how I had done it, I found a mistake and corrected it. He also asked me some question about time complexity of my code. Then the first interviewer asked me how to delete an element from linked list, time complexity to delete an element, insert and search an element in a circular, doubly linked list.  

Over all the interview went fine. I hoped that I get selected for admission.

Admission Result

The result of the interview was released on the department website about 3-4 weeks after the interview. Only 2 candidates were selected for MS programme and no one was wait-listed for this. 23 candidates were selected in the M.Tech programme, 33 were wait-listed for the same.I was wait-list number 14 and at the time of writing the blog hoping that it clears.

Interview call letter

Interview Call Letter 

List of Selected Candidates