Flipkart GRiD 3.0: Journey to 2nd Runner-Up
GRiD is Flipkart’s Flagship Engineering Campus Challenge which provides the opportunity to apply technical knowledge and skills, to compete and complete key challenges.
This is one of the most prestigious pan-India competitions where developers from all around the country get a chance to showcase their skills and bag amazing prizes and opportunities to work with Flipkart. This year was the third iteration of the challenge.
My team Celestial Biscuit with Developergera and Nishtha Goyal participated in the challenge and who knew we would bag the 2nd Runner-Up position. Here’s how we did :)
Eligibility Criteria
This year the challenge was open to all the active batches from B. Tech, B.E. and M. Tech. My team members and I were in 3rd year when we registered for the challenge. Let me give a more detailed account of the eligibility criteria:
Rounds
The Software Development Track had 3 elimination rounds to test participants on their technical, analytical, and ideation skills before the Grand Finale where the Finalists got to present their solutions to the Panel of Domain Experts at Flipkart.
Level 1: E-Commerce & Tech Quiz
The first round was an online test where every team got a set of questions to be answered within 30 minutes. We were asked questions on computer fundamentals, data structures and algorithms, machine learning and a few questions about Flipkart, in short, Technology Awareness + Techstack & Computer Science Fundamentals. The questions were basic and conceptual and required strong fundamentals. But the important factor was accuracy and speed. To clear this round, the cut-off score was 23.5 this year.
Out of 85000+ participants from all over India, a total of only 433 teams were selected for the next round and we were one of them 😊. For the next round, the selected teams had to select a problem statement out of the given four. We were assigned the ‘Smart Bag Creator Challenge’.
Level 2: Online Problem Statement Idea Brief Submission
In this round, qualifying teams from Level 1 had to work on the Idea Submission and develop an Idea brief.
This was the stage where the actual hustle started. For the selection in the next round, it was important for us to understand the requirements of the problem statement and come up with unique, innovative and feasible features for the product. This process involved numerous sleepless nights with a tremendous amount of research work, concept screening, tech stack exploration and whatnot.
Level 3: Demo Video and Code Submission
In this round, all the 92 qualifying teams had to develop the product and submit a Demo Video of the product and its codebase.
This was the round where team Celestial Biscuit had to do what it does the best: bring the product to life. But I can’t deny the fact that this process was full of challenges and obstacles. But as it is said:
The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.
As a team, we overcame all the hurdles and decided to give this our best shot. Each one of us took one aspect of the application and brought it to perfection. One handled aesthetics, one handled bringing the aesthetics to life and one backed the application with machine learning while helping each other along the way.
And finally, our product, FlipSmart (yeah, FlipSmart = Flipkart + Smart bag) was ready for deployment.
Level 4: The National Finale
Two months after the submission, one fine day, I randomly visited D2C Website to see the status of the result, and there it was!! We were in the Top 12 teams selected for the National Finale of the Flipkart GRiD 3.0 Software Development Challenge.
In the final level of the GRiD, finalists were invited to showcase their solutions to the Panel of Domain Experts at Flipkart. It was a two-day long event with two rounds of evaluation (presentation with QnA).
Another round of research work started for this round. We iterated over our presentation, again and again, tried to figure out all the possible questions and prepare accordingly.
Then finally came D-day. The twist here was that on the 2nd day of the finale, we had our End-Term University exam just after 15 minutes of the presentation round. After giving our presentation, we rushed to give our online exam. What a day that was 😃.
Once our exam was over, we joined the award ceremony. Now let me mention a fact. Originally there were only 2 prizes: National Winner and National Runner-Up. But guess what, the judges were so impressed by one of the teams (you know which team🙈) that they announced a new prize category: 2nd Runner-Up. Then finally results were announced. And the rest is history ✨
Perks of Flipkart GRiD 3.0
The experience gained in this journey is itself humongous. The complete journey was full of learning. The challenge gave us an understanding of the complete lifecycle of software development. The interactions with the experts from Flipkart was unforgettable and enriching. The insights that we gained from their experience and their feedback are invaluable.
PPI opportunities were given to all the finalists. All the teams qualifying for Level 3 were given the opportunity to appear in the hiring process of Flipkart for internships and FTE.
Final Word
Challenges and hackathons like this are the perfect opportunities to understand some of the most important crises of the world and an inspiration source for innovation and creativity. They are lifetime experiences. Not only does one get to explore different technologies and their interests but also to form a great and helpful network.
For me, the best outcome of these is time management. Handling a large number of things in a limited time frame, working under pressure are some things that I have learned.
All the first-timers and beginners, see this as an opportunity to learn new things, gain new skills, and boost confidence. And always remember, try to grasp things and techniques from the mentors, fellow participants, and the winning teams.
