Just before spring break started, FIU SCIS students networked with one of the biggest companies in tech, Facebook. With the end of the recruiting season for summer internships around the corner, Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) Advance collaborated with the Facebook recruitment team to set up two events for all FIU Computing and Engineering students to participate in. The first event for the day was a Resume-Dropoff event, where students had the opportunity to drop off their resumes to recruiters and software engineers from Facebook. Students were also allowed to solve a sample coding challenge that typically shows up on Facebook technical interviews for software engineering positions. Later into the day, Facebook had a coding competition where students had the chance to flex their programming skills in front of Facebook engineers and receive a brand-new Oculus Go. Participants were given a coding question that was the equivalent to a medium difficulty ranking on the popular website LeetCode, a site where people practice their coding skills. Participants had 15 minutes to come up with a solution in any language of their choice, given that it was correct. In the end, five students were able to come up with algorithms that they showcased to qualified Facebook engineers, where they were judged on the functionality and optimality of their code, as well as how well they were able to communicate their ideas. However, as with most competitions, there must be one winner. Aysrler Paz, a SCIS student, and former IBM and Google intern, impressed everyone, including the engineers, with his unique algorithm and won the competition. Want to shoot your shot at some of the world’s largest and most innovative tech companies? Stay tuned for updates from UPE’s Advance program, which is dedicated to preparing students for a successful career in technology through professional development. You can stay updated by joining the UPE Discord and look out for upcoming events and announcements: https://discord.gg/upefiu.
Written by: John Quitto-Graham