🇮🇳 Astra Fresher's Handbook · MAY 2026

Crack Your First 10 LPA Job

The complete, no-fluff guide for 2024–26 graduates — from your first LeetCode problem to your offer letter. Everything in one place.

10Weeks DSA
50+Interview Qs
10Job Boards
10Live Jobs
90Day Plan
01 · DSA Roadmap

10-Week DSA Study Plan

Structure matters more than hustle. Work through these three phases in order — each one builds the mental models you need for the next.

Phase 01
Foundations
Weeks 1 – 3
  • Arrays & Strings
  • Sliding Window & Two Pointers
  • Linked Lists — reversal, cycles
  • Stacks & Queues
  • Hashing & Frequency Maps
  • Basic Recursion
Phase 02
Core DSA
Weeks 4 – 7
  • Binary Search (& on answer)
  • Trees — BFS, DFS, LCA
  • Graphs — Dijkstra, Union-Find
  • Dynamic Programming
  • Heaps & Priority Queues
  • Backtracking
Phase 03
Advanced
Weeks 8 – 10
  • Tries & Prefix Trees
  • Segment Trees / BIT
  • Topological Sort
  • Greedy Algorithms
  • Bit Manipulation
  • System Design Basics
📚

Resources: LeetCode Top 150 · Striver's A2Z Sheet · NeetCode.io · GeeksforGeeks Practice. Target 150–200 problems before your first interview loop.

Must-Solve Problems

  1. Two Sum — hash map approach, O(n) time
  2. Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters — sliding window
  3. Merge Intervals — sort + greedy merge
  4. Maximum Subarray — Kadane's Algorithm
  5. Number of Islands — BFS / DFS grid traversal
  6. Valid Parentheses — stack-based matching
  7. Climbing Stairs — classic 1D DP
  8. Reverse a Linked List — iterative & recursive
  9. Binary Search on Rotated Sorted Array
  10. LRU Cache — HashMap + Doubly Linked List
02 · Core CS

Interview Questions You Must Know Cold

Every technical round pulls from these four pillars. Understand the concepts — don't just memorise answers.

Operating Systems

What is the difference between a process and a thread?
A process is an independent program in execution with its own isolated memory space. A thread is a lightweight unit within a process that shares memory and resources. Context switching between threads is faster and cheaper than between processes.
What are deadlocks? How do you prevent them?
Deadlock occurs when processes wait on each other indefinitely. Four Coffman conditions must hold: mutual exclusion, hold-and-wait, no preemption, and circular wait. Prevent by breaking any one condition — most commonly via lock ordering or timeouts.
Explain virtual memory and paging.
Virtual memory gives each process the illusion of a large address space. Paging divides this into fixed-size pages mapped to physical frames via a page table. A TLB caches recent translations to speed up repeated lookups.
Mutex vs. semaphore — what's the difference?
A mutex is an ownership-based binary lock — only the acquiring thread can release it. A semaphore is a signalling counter — any thread can signal it. Use mutexes for mutual exclusion; semaphores for signalling and resource pool management.

DBMS

What are ACID properties?
Atomicity — all or nothing. Consistency — DB moves between valid states. Isolation — concurrent transactions don't interfere. Durability — committed data survives failures.
Explain 1NF, 2NF, and 3NF normalization.
1NF: atomic values, no repeating groups. 2NF: 1NF + no partial dependency on a composite key. 3NF: 2NF + no transitive dependency (non-key attributes depend only on the primary key).
Clustered vs. non-clustered index?
A clustered index defines the physical storage order of rows — one per table. A non-clustered index is a separate B-tree with row pointers, requiring an extra I/O hop to fetch actual data.
Explain INNER, LEFT, and FULL OUTER JOIN.
INNER: only matching rows from both tables. LEFT: all rows from left table, NULLs for non-matches on the right. FULL OUTER: all rows from both, NULLs wherever there's no match.

Computer Networks

What happens when you type a URL into a browser?
DNS resolution → TCP 3-way handshake → TLS handshake (HTTPS) → HTTP request → Server responds → Browser parses HTML, fetches sub-resources → Layout and paint.
TCP vs. UDP — when do you use each?
TCP: reliable, ordered, error-checked — use for web, email, file transfer. UDP: connectionless, low overhead — use for video calls, gaming, DNS where speed beats guaranteed delivery.
Name the 7 OSI model layers.
Physical → Data Link → Network → Transport → Session → Presentation → Application. Mnemonic: Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away.

OOP Concepts

  • Encapsulation — bundle data and methods; hide internal state via access modifiers
  • Abstraction — expose only essential behaviour through interfaces or abstract classes
  • Inheritance — child class reuses and extends parent behaviour; enables code reuse
  • Polymorphism — overloading (compile-time) vs. overriding (runtime)
  • SOLID — Single Responsibility · Open/Closed · Liskov · Interface Segregation · Dependency Inversion
  • Design Patterns — Singleton, Factory, Observer, Strategy — know at least 2 with examples
03 · Aptitude

Beat the Online Assessment Round

Most Indian tech companies open with a timed online test — 30–45 minutes. Accuracy matters more than speed. A wrong answer may carry a penalty.

Topics to Cover

  • Time & Work — pipe & cistern, combined efficiency
  • Time, Speed & Distance — relative speed, boats & streams, trains
  • Percentages, Profit & Loss, Simple & Compound Interest
  • Permutations, Combinations & Probability
  • Number Series — arithmetic, geometric, mixed patterns
  • Ratio & Proportion, Mixtures & Alligations
  • Logical Reasoning — syllogisms, blood relations, directions
  • Verbal Ability — reading comprehension, sentence correction

Fix your career, Now!

Find jobs, internships, freelance gigs and more with better preparations.

Sample Questions

#QuestionAnswer
01A finishes work in 10 days, B in 15 days. How long together?6 days
02A 120 m train crosses a pole in 12 seconds. Speed in km/h?36 km/h
0330% of x = 45. Find x.x = 150
04Missing number: 2, 6, 12, 20, 30, __?42
05Bag: 4 red + 5 blue balls. P(picking blue) = ?5/9 ≈ 0.556
🎯

Practice sites: IndiaBix.com · PrepInsta · Examveda · Freshersworld. Aim for 85%+ accuracy in timed practice. Do at least one full mock test per day in month 2.

04 · Resume

Write a Resume That Gets Opened

Recruiters spend 6–8 seconds on a resume. You need to pass the ATS filter first, then survive the human skim. One page. No exceptions.

Sections to Include

  1. Header — Name · Phone · Email · LinkedIn · GitHub · Portfolio
  2. Summary — 2–3 lines tailored to the role; mention your stack and what you build
  3. Skills — Languages, frameworks, databases, tools. Cut the fluff.
  4. Projects — 2–3 projects with tech stack + a one-line impact statement each
  5. Education — Degree, college, CGPA (include only if ≥ 7.0)
  6. Internships / Certifications — Cloud certs (AWS, GCP), relevant MOOCs, open source
✓ Do These
  • Use action verbs: Built, Reduced, Implemented, Optimised
  • Quantify — "Reduced API latency by 40%"
  • Keep it to exactly 1 page
  • ATS-safe fonts: Calibri, Georgia, Garamond
  • GitHub with active, documented repos
  • Tailor keywords to each JD
  • Add LeetCode profile if rating is strong
✗ Avoid These
  • Photos, DOB, gender, or full address
  • Graphic templates — they break ATS
  • Generic lines like "hardworking team player"
  • Projects with no problem statement
  • Every skill you've vaguely touched
  • Tables or columns — ATS can't read them
  • Spelling or grammatical errors
🛠️

Free tools: Jake's Resume Template on Overleaf (LaTeX, ATS-safe) · Novoresume · Resume.io · Canva (single-column only)

05 · Job Boards

Where to Apply Every Day

Set up daily alerts on at least three platforms. Apply to 10–15 roles every day. Track every application in a spreadsheet — company, role, date, status.

LinkedIn Jobs
Set daily alerts → Easy Apply
Naukri.com
India's #1 portal — update weekly
Indeed India
Custom resume per application
Instahyre
Tech-focused, great for startups
Wellfound
Startups & equity-stage companies
Internshala
Internships that convert to FTE
Freshersworld
Exclusively for 0–2 yr experience
Unstop
Competitions + campus-style hiring
HackerEarth
Skill-based assessments + jobs
Career Pages
TCS · Infosys · Wipro · Cognizant
⚡

Referral tip: A referral makes you 5× more likely to get a call. DM engineers at target companies on LinkedIn — under 80 words, mention a specific project of theirs, ask directly for a referral.

06 · Live Jobs

Active Openings — Bangalore & Mumbai

Sourced from Indeed India this week (April 2026). Click any role to go directly to the application page.

📍 Bangalore
01
Software Engineer 1
APNA · Bengaluru, Karnataka
Apr 2, 2026Apply →
02
Graduate Engineer Trainee
InstaSafe (Cybersecurity) · Bengaluru
Nov 2025Apply →
03
GET — Graduate Engineer Trainee
ABTYCHE ALFOTEC PVT LTD · Bengaluru
Feb 2026Apply →
04
QA Automation Engineer
Brit Technology · Hosur (near Bangalore)
Apr 20, 2026Apply →
05
Inside Sales Representative
GSAS Micro Systems · Bengaluru
Mar 2026Apply →
📍 Mumbai
01
Associate Engineer, Software Engineering
RXO · Mumbai, Maharashtra
Apr 19, 2026Apply →
02
Junior Programmer
Garena · Mumbai, Maharashtra
Apr 14, 2026Apply →
03
Software Engineer
Medpace · Navi Mumbai
Jan 2026Apply →
04
Jr. QA Engineer
Sciative — We Price Right · Navi Mumbai
Feb 2026Apply →
05
Trainee Engineer
Sysnet Global Technologies · Maharashtra
Dec 2025Apply →
07 · Action Plan

Your 90-Day Roadmap to an Offer

Stop improvising. Here's the month-by-month breakdown. Commit, track daily, and adjust based on feedback.

Month 1
Build Skills & Lay the Foundation
  • Complete Phase 1 DSA — Arrays, Strings, Hashing, Linked Lists, Stacks
  • Build or polish 2 GitHub projects with clean, documented READMEs
  • Write your resume using Jake's Overleaf LaTeX template
  • Set up LinkedIn (headline, about, featured) and Naukri profiles fully
  • Start aptitude practice — 30 minutes daily on IndiaBix
Month 2
Practice Intensively & Start Applying
  • Complete Phase 2 DSA — Trees, Graphs, DP, Binary Search
  • Solve 150+ LeetCode problems (Easy + Medium mix)
  • Apply to 10–15 roles daily, track status in a spreadsheet
  • Revise OS, DBMS, CN, OOP — one topic per day
  • Network on LinkedIn — connect with engineers at target companies
Month 3
Interview Season — Convert to Offers
  • Complete Phase 3 DSA — Tries, Greedy, Segment Trees, Bit Manipulation
  • Mock interviews on Pramp.com or with peers — 2 to 3 per week
  • Follow up on applications with no response after 7 days
  • Ask for referrals from LinkedIn connections at target companies
  • Research market salaries and negotiate — don't accept the first number blindly
🏆

Final word: Landing a job is a numbers and consistency game. Apply broadly, iterate fast on feedback, and don't spiral on rejections — every interview is practice for the next. Your 6 LPA offer is closer than it feels. Stay consistent. 🍀

Fix your career, Now!

Find jobs, internships, freelance gigs and more with better preparations.