AIR 994 🏆 | Selected in IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay,IISc Bangalore | Exclusive Podcast with Sanyam jain
Sanyam Jain, who scored AIR 994 in GATE CS, shares his preparation journey in this podcast. Despite coming from a Tier-3 college in Jaipur and taking a drop year, he secured selections in IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, and IISc Bangalore for MS by Research programs. He discusses his study strategy, mistakes from his first attempt, and interview experiences.
Summary
This podcast features Sanyam Jain, a 2025 graduate from a Tier-3 college in Jaipur, who achieved AIR 994 in GATE CS and received MS by Research offers from IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, and IISc Bangalore. The host discusses Sanyam's complete preparation journey across two attempts.
In his final year (first attempt), Sanyam scored AIR 388 but had significant gaps — he skipped two subjects (COA and one other), did not complete PYQs, and did not take any test series. He was also unaware of MS by Research programs at that time. These gaps led him to take a drop year for a more structured attempt.
During his drop year, Sanyam primarily used the host's YouTube playlist (watched at 2x speed, often with a friend named Jalaj) along with some paid courses for DBMS, Graph Theory, and CN. He followed a strategy of starting with Discrete Mathematics, building up through subjects, and spending extra time on weak areas like DBMS, COA, and Digital Logic. He completed one full cycle of the syllabus by end of December and then focused on test series in January.
Sanyam used a whiteboard for nightly revision — writing down key concepts from whatever he studied during the day before sleeping. He emphasized selective revision: only revisiting topics where mistakes occurred in PYQs or mock tests, rather than re-reading entire subjects. He also highlighted the importance of understanding proofs deeply, which proved critical during his MS interviews.
For his MS interviews, Sanyam applied to IIT Madras, IISc, IIT Delhi, and IIT Bombay. At IISc, his one-hour ML/LA interview went well when he derived the time complexity of row echelon form from first principles. At IIT Bombay, he attempted the Theory panel (avoiding the Intelligence Systems paper due to unfamiliar NLP topics) and impressed interviewers by proving Prim's algorithm correctness using induction. At IIT Delhi, he cleared a written test (coding + theory) and two rounds of interviews including an ML-focused panel with seven faculty members. He received offers from all three institutions and plans to join IIT Delhi's AI/Intelligent Systems track.
Key takeaways from the podcast include: the importance of proof-based understanding over rote learning, pattern recognition as the foundation of problem-solving, consistent daily revision (especially before sleeping), selective revision based on weak spots identified through PYQs and mock tests, and the critical role of test series for building exam-day speed and accuracy.
Key Insights
- Sanyam argues that his AIR 388 in the first attempt was primarily due to skipping the test series and PYQs entirely — he was still covering theory until the last day, leaving no time for revision or practice, which he identifies as the single biggest mistake.
- Sanyam claims he watched the host's entire YouTube playlist at 2x speed, including all Data Structures, Algorithms, TOC, CN, and DBMS playlists, and attributes his interest in subjects like Discrete Mathematics and Theory of Computation directly to how the host explained proofs — stating it was the proof-based teaching style that built his enthusiasm.
- During the IIT Bombay MS interview, Sanyam was asked to prove that Prim's algorithm always produces a spanning tree — he applied a proof by induction approach learned from the host's lectures, which impressed the panel, who had been asking for formal proofs on every question.
- Sanyam describes using a whiteboard every night before sleeping to reproduce, from memory, everything he studied that day — he credits this nightly self-testing ritual as a major reason concepts stayed retained and didn't need to be re-learned later.
- Sanyam notes that at his IIT Bombay written test, he solved a combinatorics problem using a graph theory approach (taking the complement of a disconnected component) — a cross-subject pattern application that surprised other candidates who had not thought of that method, and which he later cited in his Theory panel interview as an example of his problem-solving approach.
Topics
Full transcript available for MurmurCast members
Sign Up to Access