My Journey from Student to Java Backend Engineer: Campus Recruitment Insights

Preface

I was a cross‑discipline graduate student who, after two years of study, received several R&D offers in the 2019 fall recruitment from companies such as Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, NetEase, and Huawei.

During the journey I faced many difficulties, fell into many pits, explored various learning methods, and researched campus recruitment, eventually deciding to write all these experiences into a series for future candidates.

University Confusion and Determination

My undergraduate major was Electronic Information Engineering, with almost no computer courses; I only knew C, later learned Java, Android, and front‑end development in junior year.

At that time I was interested in game development, especially NetEase games, but the job requirements demanded a 985 master’s degree, which pushed me to prepare for the graduate exam.

After a month of careful consideration I chose a university for the exam, endured the difficulty of a cross‑discipline study, and succeeded with excellent results.

Graduate Exploration and Planning

Choosing a supervisor and a research direction are crucial for graduate students. I selected my current supervisor hoping for an internship, which turned out to be a good choice.

For the research direction I spent a long time reading books, wavering between data mining, machine learning, game development, Android, and Java Web. Eventually I chose Java Web projects, stepping onto the Java learning path.

My Java Entry Path

During the first year of graduate school I read many computer science books (networks, OS, databases) but retained little. I started learning Java by buying basic books such as "Java from Beginner to Master" and "Effective Java".

Finding books insufficient, I turned to video courses on platforms like Geek Academy, MOOC, and others, and applied what I learned to a project, documenting the experience in a blog.

My Java Advancement Path

Interview experiences at Baidu, Alibaba, and other companies revealed my weak fundamentals, prompting systematic study.

I discovered high‑quality Java backend book lists, including "Deep Understanding of the JVM", "Inside the Java Virtual Machine", and "Java Concurrency in Practice".

Through perseverance I finally obtained an internship offer at NetEase Games and later at another major company.

My Java Internship Journey

At NetEase I worked on a data‑warehouse Java Web application, writing simple backend APIs for less than three months.

After gaining basic workflow experience I left due to family reasons.

Later I interned at a company working on private cloud, learning cloud computing, Hadoop, and OpenStack, while also revisiting fundamentals like operating systems, networks, data structures, and databases.

Explanation of the "cultivation" meme: people who stay up late jokingly say they are "cultivating" instead of sleeping, implying they gain power.

Decision Moment: Internship vs. Fall Recruitment

In early 2018 I faced choices about renewing my lease, continuing the internship, and even bringing my cat back. I decided to return to school to prepare for the fall recruitment.

During the spring recruitment I resisted the urge to apply, but the strong promotion from big companies led me to submit resumes on Niuke, preparing for both spring and fall rounds.

After intensive LeetCode practice (over 100 problems) I received offers from Alibaba and JD.com, but declined Alibaba’s slow process, focusing on the fall recruitment.

Java Mastery Plan

I set a three‑month plan to finish preparation before Alibaba’s early‑batch recruitment in late July.

Java knowledge system: basics, collections, design patterns, concurrency, networking, JVM, JavaWeb, Spring, etc.

Computer fundamentals: OS, networks, data structures, databases, caching.

Backend advanced topics: distributed theory, load balancing, Zookeeper, message queues, distributed caching, system architecture, RPC, micro‑services.

Additional topics: Hadoop ecosystem, OpenStack, Docker (based on internship experience).

I study by reading quality blogs, summarizing, writing my own blogs, and implementing the knowledge.

My blog: https://blog.csdn.net/a724888

Algorithm Study

Review basic data structures and algorithms, read books like "Illustrated Algorithms".

Study "剑指 Offer" (a popular interview book) repeatedly.

Solve about 150 LeetCode problems.

Practice real interview questions and past written tests.

Project Practice

Build projects from Niuke (ZhiHu and Toutiao clones) to gain full‑stack experience.

Use GitHub for version control and release cycles.

My GitHub: https://github.com/h2pl

Fall Recruitment Memories

From early July to early September I submitted dozens of resumes, received offers from Baidu, Tencent, Ant Financial, ByteDance, Huawei, NetEase, and faced rejections from Pinduoduo and others.

Spring recruitment ended in late August, and the official campus recruitment continued with many written tests.

Interview Experiences

Alibaba: middleware R&D, focused on Java basics, no handwritten algorithms.

Tencent: backend development, emphasized networking, OS, and Linux fundamentals.

Baidu: multiple rounds, heavy algorithm coding.

NetEase: Java development for NetEase Cloud Music, deep technical questions and practical coding.

ByteDance: backend R&D in Shanghai, three technical rounds with coding and low‑level questions.

Additional interviews: Amazon, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft.

Conclusion: End Is a New Beginning

After the autumn recruitment, the next steps include thesis, offer decisions, onboarding, and graduation travel.

Image illustrating the journey: