Retrospect

Finally finished with my Bachelors and I find myself looking back and thinking of all that could’ve gone differently which would’ve lead to a situation where I wouldn’t probably be writing this. Now, this post might be bit long and quite boring, but I’ll try my best to make it interesting.

I was interested in computer science ever since I first started learning it as a discipline in my 11th year of school. However, to go from someone who can write a CPP code that can successfully implement a bubble sort algorithm to someone who can compete on an international stage with some of the best teams in the world in online cyber-security competitions certainly requires more than just the interest of a teenager.

Like every other 12th grader, I too wanted to get into one of the IIT’s ( Indian Institute of Technology). My backup plan was to try to get into one of the NIT’s ( National Institute of Technology). I even had a Plan C to try to get into one of the GEC’s ( Government Engineering College). Looking back now, I don’t think I had a clue what I was supposed to do if either of these succeeded. I was good at solving questions that we were asked to practice for the Entrance Examination. But not good enough for either of plan A or B or C to pan out.

My primary objective was to make sure that I didn’t spend too much of my parent’s money. Of course, getting a job with a notable paycheck was on my checklist, but it was not perhaps the most important one. Long story short, I was at a point where I had to decide between one of the GEC’s and a private institute. I had secured a seat in the private institute, but the fees was 1.5 lakh a year compared to the 8000 in GEC. The catch was that my seat in GEC wasn’t confirmed. So, my parents decided to take the road very well traveled and send me to the private institute. I was gonna ask my parents to buy me a gaming laptop (had already one in mind) with the money I would save if I got into GEC and hence was against the prospect.

My dad eventually convinced me that he would buy me the laptop either way. And so, I ended up joining Amrita University’s Bachelors Programme in Computer Science and Engineering.

And that has made all the difference
– Robert Frost

Freshman year in Indian colleges are quite the turning point. I was introduced to a multitude of clubs. Each was attractive in its own way. There were clubs that did a lot of socially positive activities like a Clean-Up drive, Marathons for Car-Free Day. There was a Movie club, Literature club and what not. We were also introduced to these three seniors who had attended the final round of ACM ICPC. And then there was this one club that used to write code for Free and Open Source Software. Deciding which to choose was a pretty tough decision. I even considered joining the radio club.

Finally, I decided to join the FOSS club because I had missed tryouts for joining the Competitive Programming club. I was bored to death in the first couple of weeks. We stayed back from 4:30 PM until 7:30 PM. Most of the time, we were working on finishing a couple of courses on codecademy which were pretty boring. And so, I left the FOSS club and joined the basketball team.

I spent one semester as part of the college basketball team. We attended the Inter-Amrita Basketball Tournament, Kollam District Basketball Tournament. But then, close to the end of the first semester, I noticed that the couple of guys who went to the FOSS club were talking stuff that I couldn’t manage to understand at all. I consider myself a geek and therefore this was unacceptable to me. I guess that ego is what compelled me to get back into the FOSS club.

And so, I’m back in the FOSS club trying to finish those codecademy courses. These courses were a part of a list of tasks that we freshmen had to complete. Almost all of the tasks were boring. The only exception was a game called Bandit from overthewire.org.

It could’ve been the newfound fascination of using the terminal which kept me going, but I managed to finish around 13 levels in a month’s time. And it could’ve been the fact that I was more interested in playing Bandit than learning HTML and creating a webpage that prompted the faculty in charge to talk to me personally. In a lab with 30-40 freshmen, what are the chances that the single faculty who looks after the whole club talks to me ?

The interest I had shown in playing this game prompted the faculty (Vipin Pavithran) to ask me to try out something called PicoCTF. A CTF (Capture The Flag) competition is one in which participants are supposed to find out vulnerabilities in a service that is created by the organisers. Exploiting these vulnerabilities would then give you a string (flag) which you can submit in the CTF website to get points. PicoCTF is one such CTF which is primarily aimed at high school students in the US. I would come to know later that PicoCTF is conducted by one of the world’s best CTF team.

Solving the challenges from PicoCTF were interesting and I was quite fast at solving the first few. I do remember Vipin sir explaining how to solve the first question. He turned around to speak to someone for around a minute or two. And by the time he’d finished, I had solved 6 challenges.

And thus, I joined Team bi0s, the CTF Team from Amrita University, Amritapuri.

Vipin sir was the person who had founded the team bi0s (in 2007) as well as the FOSS club. He had also mentored the team of students from Amrita that had gone for the world finals of ACM ICPC. Most of my achievements can be directly attributed to him.

It actually took me around 6 months to finally solve a CTF challenge during the CTF itself (MMA CTF 2015 : RPS, 50 point Pwnable). The prospect of being called a “hacker” was probably the reason for my interest in sticking with bi0s for the first couple of months at least. Later on, I found out that there was so much more to the field of cyber-security than what is perceived by the majority. This field quickly captured my interest and was a lot bigger than the fantasy of being called a “hacker” by others.

Bi0s was India’s best CTF team in 2011 and 2012. It started to deteriorate in 2013 up until 2015.

2016 was perhaps the year that changed it all. We played almost every CTF that was up on CTFTime. The 2014 team bi0s, consisting of a total of 3 people, had grown to around 10. At the end of 2016, bi0s was the number 1 team from India that competed in CTF’s as per CTFTime.

We struggled hard for it. Every day we would stay back in the lab until 10:00 PM after classes. If it was a holiday, we’d stay in the lab from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM. During CTF’s we’d bunk the classes and stay in the lab playing the competition. Sometimes, we’d end up spending the entire night in the lab. Our wardens were kind enough to let us do so. We had camps in the vacations where the seniors would take classes for us. I learned more in those few classes than I would in all 4 years of my undergraduate studies put together. And as a result of all these efforts, we finally managed to get back our spot in the scoreboard.

Our efforts didn’t go unnoticed by the University. In my 6th semester, we were provided with this glorious manifestation called ‘Attendance Exemption’. We could now, bunk classes and prepare for CTF’s instead. The attendance cutoff of 75%, for us was reduced to 25%. And now, bi0s members in the second year also get that same privilege. In addition to that, we were awarded grace marks from the department for performing well in these competitions.

Our chancellor, Mata Amritanandamayi is a pretty interesting character. I had already known about her as a religious leader from my parents. I had a great amount of respect for her considering all the humanitarian activities that she had conducted. The whole team would often go see her to inform about our achievements and the issues that we face. Sometimes she would have solutions, sometimes she would just nod. But some times, she would come up with some really good ideas. She was the one who introduced the idea of grace marks and attendance exemption. She also told Vipin sir to start teaching cyber security concepts to school children as well. And thus was born InCTF Junior.

And now, its the end of 2017 and we’ve maintained our first position in India and improved our international rank. We conducted the 6th edition of InCTF which is also the first time that InCTF went international. Of course there were issues during the CTF, unintended vulnerabilities, wrong files. But it went better than we feared.

We currently boast of having around 15 undergrad students who play as part of bi0s. Around 3 others who are working, that occasionally, show up for some of the important CTF’s. And then a crowd of 40 freshmen who are very enthusiastic about joining bi0s.

Coming to the end of my post, the reader might be curious as to the status of my career. Did I get into an MNC ? Did I get a package more than 10 lakhs per annum ? Nah.

Joining bi0s had the added advantage of giving me a clear picture of the sort of life I’d have if I chose a job in some MNC and the life I’d have if I chose a career in research. And I guess I’m better suited for research rather than industry.

What would’ve happened if I had scored a little better in the entrance examinations ? What would’ve happened if I had joined GEC ? What would’ve happened if I had stuck with the basketball team ?

I’ll never know. I might have become just another face in the crowd of Bangalore’s IT sector.

But there’s one thing that I do know. Not many other universities in India are going to give you an entire lab with free WiFi and Bio-metric access. Not many other universities in India are going to give students an exemption from the 75% attendance rule just because they play some online game. Not many other universities will give you extra grace marks because you’ve done well in these competitions.

Sure the fees is higher than other government funded universities, but what if I told you that you can get a 90% scholarship on your fees based on your merit in the Amrita Entrance examinations ?

Getting through 10th and 12th grades in India, followed by the entrance examination is perhaps an unavoidable rat race. What you do in an engineering college, apart from the regular curriculum, is perhaps what determines whether or not you get out of the race before its too late.

So instead of prioritizing your list of colleges to join based on their prestige, I’d suggest you prioritize based on the extra curricular activities available. If there are none, start one. I’m sure you’ll find like minded people.

I’m speaking about the Computer Science and Engineering course when I say that, most of the core companies only use your CGPA as a preliminary requirement. The real test is whether or not you have the skills that they’re looking for. So, even if your CGPA barely made the cut, or if you have a perfect 10, they’re only interested in the skills that you have. And you don’t develop those skills by studying a day before the exam.

If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
– Isaac Newton

All my notable achievements were made possible because I had the luck to join Amrita University and more importantly, bi0s.

As I reach the conclusion of this post, I’m preparing to leave for my six month internship at University of Southern California. Its a new beginning. Perhaps a catalyst for more. But I’ll never forget how I reached here. It wasn’t my 10th marks, it wasn’t my 12th marks, it wasn’t my entrance exam rank, it wasn’t my CGPA. It was simply because I had chosen to pursue my interest with fervor rather than chill out in the hostel playing computer games.

It was never an easy task. There were times when I was frustrated that my efforts weren’t yielding any fruits, when I was tempted to quit and go have fun with the rest of my classmates, when I was depressed about skipping out on trips that everyone went except me because I had a CTF. But looking back now, maybe it all worked out for the best. I would be lying if I said that I had no regrets. I guess it doesn’t matter what we choose, we’ll have regrets either way.

And, with the end of my Bachelors course, I’m about to embark on a new journey. To make more such decisions, and even more regrets.

The end.