ngkabra

The article talks about a 2-dimensional grid which starts at (0,0) (bottom right) and extends infinitely to the right and the top, so all (x,y) for non-negative integers x,y exist. But x or y negative does not exist. Given a list of possible jumps e.g. (+1,+10) or (-20,+13), and a target destination, e.g. (700,1). Does there exist a series of valid jumps that takes you from (0,0) to (700,1) without ever going off grid (i.e. into negative territory)?

This problem might or might not be NP-Harder. However, now extend the problem to higher dimensional grids. At some number of dimensions, the problem becomes definitely NP-Harder (i.e. NP-hard, decidable, but not in NP)

It works in pre-interview filtering rounds because companies hiring processes are usually broken and the smartest people are not working on those aspect.

If, on the actual job, you're copy-pasting buggy ChatGPT code, someone will notice. If the other people at the company don't notice and do something about it, the company isn't likely to survive for too long.

That would be Chandraayan: moon + journey/path. Chandrayaan is moon + vehicle.

While that is sort of true for a take-home test, there is still value in giving candidates an online or in-person programming task that needs to be completed in a small amount of time (e.g. 1 hour)

Sounds good in theory. But if enough companies started doing this, I can guarantee you that Indian companies will spring that will offer to create an open source project for you for $100 to $1000 depending on complexity of project, and amount of activity the github profile would show. I wish I was kidding.

Right. In fact, in my opinion, the most important thing a conference provides is the quality of the peer-review and the selection process. So a conference that claims peer-review, but does not provide it, is really taking your money and not providing value for it.

> The problem is more like not teaching the students how to find a reputable path to publication and not weighing the quality of the venue.

Actually, in my opinion, most of the students couldn't care less about publications. They just want their degree, but the system refuses to let them have it without the publication. Hence they're forced to publish at conferences that publish without checking.

The problem is indeed with the system that requires publications, and then accepts publications in dodgy conferences. What else can be expected of the students in this situation?

Actually, I did not get worked up about the existence of such conferences. My main gripe is against the education system and the ridiculous requirement that makes it mandatory for all post-graduate students to have 2 published papers before they are granted their degree. Given the current state of research and higher education in India, the inevitable result of this requirement would be that students will be forced to pay to publish at such conferences.

I know that this is a problem, and I don't blame you.

However, one of the admissions committee members of a top-10 US university told me how they deal with this problem.

That they keep track of good universities in India, and what GPA is considered good in India. Occasionally, they take a chance with a student with an interesting resume from an unknown University, and continue selecting from there if that student does well. Repeat this process, and over time they end up with a good list of sources of good students from India; and they ignore applications from all other Indians.

Thanks. I've updated the intro of the post to make this clearer.

The PhD applications problem is a different issue. We're churning out a million engineers every year, and a good fraction of them are convinced that getting into a Masters/PhD program in the US is the gateway to riches and a better life. A few of these students are smart enough to know where to apply and how to apply, but most of them are clueless enough to actually spam any faculty email addresses they can find from any US university. And yes, they're mass emails, in the sense that they send out these mails to 10s of people without bothering to customize them.

The important thing to remember is that India is a vast and varied country. We have the worst students, but we also have the best students - so don't completely ignore all emails from all Indian sounding names; one of them might just be from the next superstar at your school :-)

Nope. If you can't afford to pay for the conference, your paper does not get published at all (of the two papers I got accepted, I paid for one and that appeared, while the one I did not pay for did not appear). And once you pay, then actually attending the conference is optional.