Divyansh Singh is a Final Year Graduation student pursuing his B.Tech in Computer Science Engineering from Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar. Currently, Divyansh is working as a Frontend Engineer Intern at Razorpay for the last year.
What exactly is Razorpay? `
Razorpay is an all-in-one online payment app. It includes a Payment gateway, links, invoices, subscriptions, payouts, payment pages & more all in a single place. Using this app, one can send, receive, route & manage all payments.
How did you get this internship at Razorpay? What is the selection process?
For Razorpay I had 3 rounds of selection. But before these 3 rounds, I gave a test on e-Litmus called pH test that included Apti, Coding, and Theoretical Subject related questions. After this test Razorpay took its own set of 3 rounds: 1st being the Coding Round which had 3 easy-medium Coding questions to be coded in JS Only as I applied for the Frontend position and 15 basic I/O MCQs which was about an hour long. 2nd round was a 1 hour 15 min long Interview as I remember, where I was asked multiple Domain related questions, about my past projects and questions on those about the Problem statement, pros and cons, why that tech stack, etc. 3rd and the last round was an HR Round where I was asked some basic HR questions. After which I got the offer to work as an intern at Razorpay.
What is your title and responsibility during this internship?
I'm working as a Frontend Engineer intern at Razorpay. Under this title, I work upon multiple features. I've built certain features for the admin panel as well. I have worked here with different teams such as Payments Teams, and the Issuer Tokenization team. Currently, I'm working on the Tokenization Solution for multiple banks including KVP access and so on. The majority of my work was restricted to the Admin Panel in the beginning but recently I switched the team in order to explore diverse areas and gain some extra links.
What were the challenges that you faced in the process of getting this internship?
I didn't face any specific challenges as such while getting this internship. But, before getting this internship I faced a relevant sum of rejection in my earlier days of applying to certain companies. The primary challenge for me during these rejections was keeping myself motivated and staying put with my dedication to getting an internship.
What kind of skills/characteristics are needed for this role?
For working as a Frontend Engineer at Razorpay, one should be absolutely well versed in JavaScript Fundamentals. One should also have enough practice on Frontend Tech Stack which includes multiple libraries such as ReactJS, AngularJS, or NodeJS for the Back-end integration and so on. Apart from this, the knowledge of Material UI, Chakra UI, Semantic UI, and so on can help in getting this internship as well.
What are the certificates and achievements that came in handy for you to get this internship?
Talking about certificates, I don't think course certificates come in as handy while getting an internship as I've seen a lot of my juniors include them in their resume. These certificates mostly work as a gap-filling element in one's resume and do not signify much about a candidate's ability. These certificates are not something that an interviewer or an HR person is looking for basically. One's knowledge and experiences from the past are of primal importance when getting an internship. However, certificates from certain competitions such as Hackathon, D2C, and so on can come in handy for a candidate to get an internship.
What was your stipend/ salary range during this internship? What kind of benefits did you get during the same?
Disclosing the stipend is against the company's policy. However, I receive a five-digit stipend which is more than enough for an intern to keep himself motivated to work to his best abilities. Along with the stipend, the benefits include festival goodies and a lot of swiggy coupons which is a nice way to keep a student motivated in a most effective and efficient manner.
What do you think is a decent stipend during the internship which would interest students? Can you give a range?
I cannot provide a range as such as it completely depends on the work that a student has to do as an intern. This can also vary as per the student's performance or the duration that he is interning at a company. For example, my stipend during my last internship was a four-digit stipend depending on the purpose I served there. With the change in role my stipend also shifted to a higher amount. Thus, providing a range without knowing the role and performance of an intern would be unfair according to me. Stipend however can help students to keep them motivated to do their work sincerely.
How do you think this internship will help you in getting your future job?
I already have a full-time offer from Razorpay itself to work as an SDE. My present internship played a key role in getting this job offer. Apart from this, I also hold offers from a few other companies presently. The name Razorpay itself is a great entity that helped get a lot of job offers and connections. It also provides a lot of scopes for freshers to have a job at new firms like Razorpay. The things I learned at Razorpay can be considered to be the primary elements that helped me gain the present job offers that I hold.
Why do you think an internship is important for students?
Internships not only increase one's learning exponentially but also provides them with a glimpse of what their life would be like once they enter the corporate world. It also helps them in building strong professional connections which comes in very handy while applying for jobs in the future. It provides them with ample experience as well. Internships are thus a great way of learning new things, exploring diverse fields, and getting to know how companies function on such a large scale.
What suggestions can you give to fresh grads/students who want to apply for internships?
This is a question that I get to hear a lot from my juniors as well. My suggestion to all of them would be to have patience and keep learning and experimenting. According to me, exploration and experimentation are the best ways to learn something. I would also suggest them not to get disheartened if they face any amount of rejection as it is nothing but a step that takes them nearer and nearer to being successful in the future. I would suggest that they should develop a positive attitude and build a never give up the spirit within themselves. As for me, I've also faced a lot of rejection which helped me learn and reach the position that I'm in presently. Thus they should always keep their head high and success will ultimately come their way.