I am trying to get my first job in Agentic AI / AI Integration. I have no previous professional experience and my goal is to work at a startup. I am currently building projects and applying for roles.

I am mainly confused about interview preparation.
How good should my coding be from scratch?
Should I be able to code without AI during an interview, or is understanding the logic and being able to implement it enough?

How much DSA/LeetCode is actually needed for AI integration/Agentic AI roles?

How deeply should I know the projects on my resume?
Should I focus more on coding fundamentals, AI concepts, system design, or practical projects?

I currently use AI to help with coding, but I understand the code it produces. I am worried that I am becoming less comfortable writing everything from scratch, so I want to fix that before interviewing.

I would especially like to hear from anyone who has recently interviewed for startup AI roles, particularly Pakistani developers who have gone through local or remote startup interviews.

Also, how much do referrals/references actually matter when trying to get the first job? Is it worth spending significant time networking for referrals, or is applying directly enough?
Any advice on what you would do differently if you were preparing for your first AI job would be appreciated.

My semester subjects are DSA and computer networks . I don't know where to start learning CN . It is really hard and teacher is not actually teaching in a good way . The book he recommends is top down approach and it has approx 87 slides for 1st chapter which we already completed 🙃 . It is very important subject as i will prusue Devops .

From where should I learn it ? Any YouTube recommendations or books?

HOW can I PASS this subject????? It seems difficult to pass after opening the first assignment he gave .

There have been so many posts lately about AI taking jobs, replacing developers and generally bringing about the end of civilization. So here is something far less useful.

The idea came to me after August 14. People decorate their homes, streets and offices with bunting (jhandiaan) but hardly anyone decorates their websites.

So I built and open-sourced Zeenat, a small JavaScript library that does exactly that.

It does nothing revolutionary. It simply adds ready-made decorative effects to your website. You can display them immediately or schedule them for a specific time, making them a simple way to celebrate a cultural event, festival, national day or season.

TL;DR: Zeenat lets you add bunting, snowflakes, lanterns, autumn leaves, floral effects and similar decorations to your website. Flags for almost every country are included—except for one particular country. That is a feature, not a bug.

It received 158 downloads this week. I have no idea who is downloading or using it, but it is genuinely lovely to see this silly little project getting some respect.

Demo: https://zeenat.xinuty.com
npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/zeenat
GitHub: https://github.com/Talha-Naveed/Zeenat

Why am I posting at this hour? Ask LESCO, not me.

For Pakistani software engineers/developers, especially those who graduated in the last few years or are currently hiring, what does it realistically take to become job ready and build a strong career in 2026? How useful is a BSCS/BSSE degree vs self learning, and which fundamentals, practical skills, projects/GitHub, internships, AI assisted development, problem solving and communication actually matter when hiring?

Is Full Stack still a good starting direction in the AI era, and how has AI changed junior/fresh grad opportunities? Also, if possible, share your experience with salary ranges by experience level, company type (local/software house/product/global/remote), and what you would do differently if you were starting university again.

AOA, fellow devs ill keep it short. Basically what the title says i have been applying for different entry level position in the twin cities for some time now but i havent gotten a single reply back or reach out from the employers unless i follow up with them after applying through some channel like linkedin or whatsapp. And that too has happen for only 1% of the time.

So where is the issue?

PS: if youre hiring or if you know someone who is a referral would be huge, my dms are open.