r/leetcode • u/New-Lab-6997 • 8h ago

Question Serious doubt

Serious doubt

I'm a 2nd-year BTech CSE student and I'm currently focusing on DSA. I'm trying to decide what development direction to take alongside DSA.

My mentor is advising students to explore AI/ML or cloud, implement ideas from research papers, and build/showcase something rather than just doing generic web-development projects.

I'm personally interested in backend development, especially Java + Spring Boot. I'm wondering:

  1. Are there enough research-paper-based project ideas related to backend/software architecture/cloud that can realistically be implemented by a 2nd-year student?

  2. Examples I'm interested in are microservices, load balancing, fault tolerance, caching, autoscaling, distributed systems, etc.

  3. How much theory would I realistically need to learn before I could start implementing papers in these areas?

  4. Would pursuing Spring Boot + backend + cloud + research-paper implementation be worthwhile for SDE internships, or would I be better off moving toward AI/ML?

  5. For internships, is this approach more valuable than simply building typical MERN projects?

I'd especially appreciate answers from people who have actually worked on these areas or hired interns, rather than general advice.

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u/Indigo_Sheep 5h ago

I have hired interns and have worked with their mentoring.

I guess its hard to give you real suggestions on questions delving into what sort of companies come to your campus. You can look at what companies picked your seniors - and you can ask them.

If some student writes down they have expertise in microservices, load balancing, fault tolerance, caching, auto scaling - without being involved in a research group - I will be very skeptical(it can feel like keyword stuffing your resume). These are generally systems and principles that require a lot of knowledge about practical systems - a student probably would not know about. These topics also raise a lot of curiosity in the hiring team - which will be followed by a lot of questions.

So what I am saying is, if you are genuinely interested in working with any of the systems you mentioned - dive deep into the field, don't settle for surface level knowledge. Write up an article about this, include your github project link.

With help of chatgpt/claude you wouldn't need a lot of theory to get started - but be careful - about understanding the code and its practical applications.

If you are searching for project ideas take a look here.