Home Competition Stories Tips and tricks to reach the national finale of Optum Stratethon 2019 -By Team 32_bits from Jadavpur University

Tips and tricks to reach the national finale of Optum Stratethon 2019 -By Team 32_bits from Jadavpur University

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Tips and tricks to reach the national finale of Optum Stratethon 2019 -By Team 32_bits from Jadavpur University

Our strategy was to leverage the strengths of all our members - each concentrating on what they do best. This gave us room to express our ideas freely. This is one reason why we qualified as the National Finalists of Optum Stratethon 2019.

Our approach to the case study

We worked on the problem statement in bits and pieces for over a week. We struggled to find time late at night, amidst our exams, to make some progress. By the end, we had to push ourselves beyond our limits to complete the work on our case study within the deadline.

7 teams from the Engineering track made it to the finals. The team from IIT Roorkee was the best out there, according to us. Their idea was great and so was their execution and delivery.

How team 32_bits was different

We are classmates and close friends. We have participated in several competitions prior to this, together and we believe that our ability to work together and complement each other is our X-factor. The 3 of us had a strong background in Data Structures and Algorithms - helpful in the preliminaries, with Arnab being the best at this. Daipayan had experience with full-stack development. He also prepared the final pitch and delivered it at the finale. Avigyan had prior experience with Data Science and created the presentation.

To resolve conflicts, we would either just promise a treat to try and coax the other person (that would never materialize). If that failed, we would simply shout at each other and the last person shouting would win.

The judgement criteria and the learnings we garnered

The judgement criterion was pretty transparent. The judges were clear about what they are looking for. The organization was professional - just what you would expect from an organization like this.

One crucial learning that we garnered was the need to continuously iterate and improve your idea - the need to take external feedback into account. The networking session at the grand finale was pretty cool. We got an opportunity to talk to some senior professionals, without even being aware of their designations. They were exceptionally polite and we learnt a lot from them.

We were surprised later to find out that the people we talked to were pretty high up the organizational ladder. We also met and interacted with some of our university's alumni, which again, was an amazing experience. In all, the journey of the entire competition along with the opportunity to witness the grand finale as National Finalists of Optum Stratethon 2019 was a memorable experience.

Edited by

Team 32_bits - Jadavpur University

(Batch of 2017-21)

The 3 of them, Daipayan Mukherjee, Avigyan Das and Arnab Kundu had a strong background in Data Structures and Algorithms where Arnab was the best at this. Daipayan had experience with full-stack development. Avigyan had prior experience with Data Science and created the presentation.

Tags:

Engineering Corporate Competitions Jadavpur University Kolkata Optum Optum Stratethon