From a Merit Scholarship to a Generative AI Engineer: Vishnu Vardhan’s Placement Journey

Some students are defined by a single big break. Vishnu Vardhan was defined by consistency. A Computer Science and Engineering (Artificial Intelligence) student at Parul University from Andhra Pradesh, he turned a merit scholarship into a degree, a degree into three placement offers, including HashedIn by Deloitte at a package of 8.1 LPA (alongside Capgemini and Cognizant), and that first job into a career as a Generative AI Engineer. How he did it holds lessons for any student.

Vishnu chose Parul University in part because a merit scholarship made high-quality education accessible. On the strength of his intermediate results, he earned an annual scholarship of Rs 50,000, which meaningfully reduced his family’s financial burden and left his tuition at a manageable level. Alongside the scholarship, the university’s accreditation and reasonable fee structure made the decision straightforward. It is a reminder that a strong scholarship can turn ambition into opportunity for a deserving student.

Once at university, Vishnu saw clearly that Artificial Intelligence had become one of the fastest-growing fields in technology, and made it the centre of his career.

The market is very booming in the AI era, so I chose Artificial Intelligence as the primary focus of my career.
– Vishnu Vardhan

It was a prescient choice. Today he works as a Generative AI Engineer, building AI agents and agentic AI workflows, and he credits the concepts he learned during his degree with directly powering his current role.

It is necessary that you make your foundations strong. Also, work and practice apart from the curriculum. Vishnu started preparing for placements from his third semester. He was disciplined. He knew where he wanted to go. He aimed at a product-based company.

Guided by advice from seniors, peers, and industry professionals, he built his skills systematically: he solved around 600 problems on LeetCode, competed in weekly coding contests to sharpen his problem-solving under time pressure, and followed companies and professionals on LinkedIn to track which skills were in demand. That steady grind, the same disciplined approach we outline in our guide to learning DSA and cracking coding interviews, built both his ability and his confidence.

Vishnu is refreshingly honest about a trap many beginners fall into. He started, like most, by following YouTube tutorials and writing code as he watched, but soon realised that copying code is not the same as understanding it.

Later I understood that we have to build the projects on our own.
– Vishnu Vardhan

That shift, from copying to building independently with real understanding (using AI tools as a help, not a crutch), produced his standout project: Study Circle. Built in his final year, it was a platform where students with shared learning goals could come together to study, exchange completed online courses (a ReactJS learner swapping resources with a Java learner, for instance), and form meaningful study connections, using modern technologies like WebSockets for live video and communication. Vishnu handled the majority of its development, and the project, he says, helped him get selected by several companies.

Vishnu’s selection at HashedIn by Deloitte, the product-engineering arm of Deloitte, ran across four demanding rounds, and his account is a valuable map for anyone targeting a product company:

• Round 1, online coding test: three tough problems (dynamic programming, string manipulation) in 90 minutes. He solved all three in an hour; only 27 of around 350 candidates advanced.
• Round 2, Data Structures and Algorithms: four coding problems, solved and explained on paper, with the interviewers focused on his approach, not just the answer.
• Round 3, system design: a 90-minute round where he was asked to design a Snakes and Ladders game, despite little prior system-design knowledge (more on how he handled it in our system design interview guide).
• Round 4, HR: a values-and-fit conversation that he cleared to secure the offer.

A theme Vishnu returns to is that confidence matters as much as raw skill.

As a fresher, I noticed that confidence is more important than skills. They see your confidence.
– Vishnu Vardhan

He learned it the hard way. Earlier, he had been the sole candidate to reach the final round at another company, Azure Pay, and though he did not clear it, the experience gave him a decisive confidence boost. He is equally clear that opportunity matters alongside ability, that even strong skills need a platform to be shown, which is exactly what the university’s placement drives provided.

Vishnu credits Parul University’s Impact Training as a turning point in his placement readiness. Placed in the programme’s product-focused batch, he found the sessions completely industry-oriented and rich in practical problem-solving, and he built genuine connections with experienced IT-industry mentors who sharpened both his coding and his communication.

The 45 days of Impact Training taught me more than what I had learned in four years. It is the main backbone for placements.
– Vishnu Vardhan

Vishnu’s offer did not come quickly. Placements had begun months earlier, and despite consistently strong academic performance, he watched others get placed first while he waited. Rather than lose heart, he kept giving his full effort and trusted that his time would come, and when the HashedIn by Deloitte offer arrived- a full-time role at a renowned firm- it became one of the happiest moments of his life. His steadiness under that pressure, more than any single skill, is what carried him through.

Vishnu’s message to juniors is grounded in exactly what he lived:

• Give your hundred percent in whatever you do, and stay consistent from early in your degree.
• Stay mentally strong and confident, because confidence carries you through interviews.
• Do not compare yourself to others if they are placed earlier; every journey is different. Do not lose hope.
• Build projects independently and keep learning, so your skills are real and your own.

Even if others get placed earlier, do not become hopeless. Be confident in what you are working on.
– Vishnu Vardhan

He remains sincerely grateful to Parul University’s placement department for the opportunities that let him prove himself, a reflection of his belief that skill and opportunity together create success.