Official Computer Science Applicants Thread 2022

Had my Cambridge interview today. I think it went OK, but it's hard to tell.

I had two interviews. The first one I don't think I did that well at; I didn't get through many questions before time was up, and I don't think my answer to the personal statement question I was asked was very good.

The second one I did better at I think, in that I answered the questions correctly and I believe I got through all of them, but the questions also didn't seem that hard so maybe it didn't matter very much that I got them right?

I also didn't do fantastically on the TMUA because my preparation was all very last-minute and I wasn't very focused in the exam. Overall I don't think I'll be getting an offer, but I'm not bothered by that as I wasn't initially planning on even applying to Cambridge; obviously the teaching at Cambridge will be great, but I would much rather live in London or Bristol for everything other than education.

Also, I hope this wasn't too much information about the interviews. I think it is adequately vague but lmk if I'm being too specific.

If anyone else has had Cambridge interviews (or interviews at any other unis) I'd be interested to know how it went! And good luck to everyone who is yet to have their interviews

Southampton is really good for CS. Nothing wrong with the course, but make sure you look at it to see if it's what you'd want to study of course. It's just that most people don't have the required grades to apply to somewhere like Southampton, but those that do get accepted almost 100% of the time. It's like this at most unis for CS in the UK except the top 10 or so. If this was like the US where there's no concept of entry requirements and anyone is "qualified" to apply for any course, acceptance numbers would look way different, but unis here are very open about what grades they want, and if you have them, you'll probably get in. It's just that this doesn't apply to the unis where the number of people who have the grades vastly outweigh the number of places they have available.

You shouldn't read into unis giving you offers early. I already got an unconditional offer from Warwick even though they said they would be waiting for the deadline before making decisions. And Warwick is probably top 5/6 for CS. It just means you were a strong applicant, and they believe that regardless of how many applications they have at the UCAS deadline, you were good enough for a spot

This has put me at ease, thanks. Which other unis have you applied to and which one is your target to get in.
BTW I found a cool way to access graduate prospects,
Type in for example "Southampton BSc Computer Science Linkedin" in google and open each link for two pages, this gives you an idea of what students get into after they graduate, Southampton fairs really well compared to alot of universities I compared to using this technique but then again Southampton actually coach you to have an online presence.

One thing I'm starting to like about this course is that alot of people are helpful and want to network, the network itself seems to be worth going back to uni for another degree lol

Has anyone got an offer from Edinburgh computer Science yet?

The other unis I've applied to are Imperial, Bristol, Edinburgh and UCL. My target is Imperial and my 2nd choice is either Warwick or Edinburgh (imo Edinburgh is probably 4th for CS whereas Warwick is 5th, but I can't decide if the improved course and prospects is worth a whole extra year, but a whole extra year does give you more time for internships).

If those are the unis you have chosen I doubt you'll have trouble securing internships wherever you go. You should be employable straight away I would assume, at that point a year in industry would count more towards your learning progression and also your earning level.
I read someones linked in from Southampton that got a BSc then went to imperial to do a masters and now earns around £70k a year.
It's a tough choice, Edingburgh is WORLD CLASS.
Don't think many would pick warwick over Edingburgh for CS.
In terms of research quality and quantity Edingburgh is leagues ahead of warwick? no?
Hope you get into Imperial

Yeah I'm not worried about getting internships, I've been applying for full-time graduate software engineer roles for my gap year and have had some success so far (I have final round PlayStation interview this week), so I assume if I'm making it this far at 18 without a degree, it shouldn't be too difficult to get internships at uni. What I meant was that an extra year at Edinburgh gives me time to do more internships, which would probably help out even more for when I graduate, which could make up for the fact that it's a year longer for the same degree ig.

Edinburgh is definitely better for CS than Warwick yeah, but 4 years for a bachelors is a bit ehh. But again, more internships, so there's a good chance I'll still pick Edinburgh (assuming I get the offer, its 3A* requirements now lol). Also Edinburgh is definitely vastly superior in terms of research, but that's not too relevant for undergrads, it's more relevant for postgrads.

Thanks, hope you get the offers you want too

my point was internships are good for being getting interviews once you graduate, If you are doing so well now and still have at least this summer for internship, and the 2 summers after that gives you 3 internships? before you graduate, I highly doubt any more would bolster your chances to land a job.
so you should be good to go after a 3 year course and instead of spending another year of money and time you could have potentially found a job and had a full year in industry not just an extra couple of months low paying internship.
If you did this instead of doing another year in Uni, you'd also have promotion after that year...

Have you already got a degree? why are you going to uni if you got interviews for software engineering

Ah, I see. Yeah that's the primary reason I would maybe choose Warwick, being able to save a year, even though Edinburgh is better for CS. I guess I'll cross that bridge if/when I come to it, which would be if I got rejected by Imperial and accepted by Edinburgh.

I don't have a degree, no (I'm 18 lol). I'm still planning on going to uni because the field I'd like to work in in the future (operating systems/kernels/general low-level stuff) requires not just an understanding of computer science, but also an understanding of electrical/computer engineering, which is basically impossible to self-teach, so I think a CS + electronics degree would be a very worthwhile investment, even if I could go straight into work.

"I've been applying for full-time graduate software engineer roles for my gap year and have had some success so far (I have final round PlayStation interview this week)"

how come you are applying for a graduate position if you are not a graduate?...

After I read you being interested in
"CS + electronics degree would be a very worthwhile investment"

it got me intrigued haha

have you started learning a programming language?
I'm studying C++, almost half way through the book "walter savitch problem solving with c++"
then I'm learning algorithms and data structure.
I'm interested in creating amazing software that helps problems and that will be used by many people also in the future I want to own my own company but that's decade away atleast.

how come operating systems and kernels interests you?

I kind of applied just because. Unlike for universities, there's no application fees for jobs, so you can kind of just apply for whatever you want. I didn't expect to even get the first interview, let alone make it to final stage but here we are haha. To be honest I doubt I'll get it, jobs at companies like that are really really competitive and they'll probably give the job to someone with a few internships and a CS degree under their belt. I guess the reason I got so far without a degree was just due to having lots of personal projects and programming experience. I'm not really expecting to get the job, it just serves as good interview practice and getting this far already makes me optimistic for after I get my degree .

Yes, I know quite a few languages. C and Python are my main two but I'm also familiar with x86 assembly, HTML/CSS/JavaScript and a few others.
OS/kernels and low-level stuff in general interest me because I just find writing software that actually manipulates and controls/defines the underlying hardware really cool. It's kind of strange because most people hate their OS/computer architecture classes but I love it.

very impressive, what if they offer you full time work, would you still carry on with your degree? I remember reading about another one of your post a while back saying you been into this for like 4 years, it shows from how much you've progressed, I'm hoping I can also cultivate my enthusiasm and find my future career fun, fulfilling and lucrative lol.
what's your dream job or where do you see yourself in 5 years time

I mean even if they offer me full-time work, I imagine I still need the CS&Electronics degree for my long-term goals. Plus, I'd want the uni experience and if I could get a job before, I should be able to get an even better job after adding a degree to my resume. And yes, just like everyone else I was terrible when I started, but it's really just about being consistent. You don't have to do tons and tons a day, but a little a day over a long period of time will still produce huge gains

My dream job would be maybe working on the Windows kernel (hopefully Windows is still relevant by then and Linux won't have completely taken over hahahaha, as much of a Linux fanboy as I am). I could also see myself working on the Android kernel or the iOS/MacOS kernel (I do dislike Apple, this would be if I didn't get Google/Microsoft). But yeah anything low-level that makes a difference in the world is amazing to me :P

great motivation dude! I really hope you get into imperial, touch wood. I want to work for FAANG in about 10 years time, no real reason just I always admired tech and looked up to google so it's something to aim for I guess. Stay in touch now and then and see where we are. Let me know how it goes with uni choices.

Damn it's not everyday you see someone that actually looks UP to those companies lol. Most people rant about how they're perfect examples of evil capitalism. Tbh I kinda 'look up' to them myself though, so fair enough.
P.S. You're forgetting it's MAANG now... shame shame (jk)

without FAANG where would we be? without google where would we be? where are we going with google..
The sun can cause cancer or skin burn which is painful but what about the fact without the sun we won't be here. Most of society are slowly turning rotten because of Google and social media, I can see that and understand that but that's their problem, if they are too stupid to harness google for their own good then I'm not going to let that slow me down on achieving my potential. Also in terms of an employer, working for google is a dream!
Every company you ever work for will have positives and negatives, people just like to blame other people for their problems and don't take ownership of their own lives and live in a constant state of suffering. while the winners work their way out of the system and build a system that produces a positive cycle...instead of a negative downwards cycle into the abyss

I had my Imperial interview today! I personally didn't find it too bad. Kind of just like how most people have described it in the past, and the problem-solving part wasn't overly tricky either. I don't want to be too optimistic, but I think it went decently
Good luck to anybody with interviews, Imperial or elsewhere!

Hey I had mine as well! I think they made it deliberately easy as they wanted to confirm we were a 'strong candidate, and we believe that you are potentially the kind of student who would flourish in our department' (just quoting from the email) rather than having to prove it which something like the Oxbridge interview does. Therefore you had to do ridiculously bad to not get an offer at this stage, especially because they only interview 9-11% of their applicants for Computing.
Or maybe that is what I am choosing to believe ....