How Not to Prepare for a Mid-Sem

yeah , so it all started on 3rd Oct. My team and I registered for this hackathon ( and prolly forgot about it) a long time back , and had no idea when it was scheduled , cus it got postponed due to some reasons. I just got an email the night prior to this , that we are selected for the next round , on campus(NSUT) , and that we’ll have to be there by sharp 10 am. That is when we contemplated , if we had to participate in this hackathon , as we had our first mid sem exam on the 5th.

However , as it turned out , none of us wanted to miss this opportunity , so we said screw it , with legit no preparation at all , both for the exam as well as the hackathon :)

The PPT Round

Three problem statements were shown to us around 11 30 , and we were given approximately 2-3 hrs to submit a ppt .

Out of the three , the one that stuck the most with us was the GST reconciliation system in which we had to build an AI-driven tax reconciliation system that analyzes invoices, transactions, accounting records, and tax data to identify discrepancies, errors, and potential compliance issues.

So we started brainstorming about ways in which we can make this entire thing work , when Barkha ( she’s crazy good at UI/UX) started drafting a rough design of how the ppt should look , what can get us the most retention/novelty , and what goes where .

After all this , we went to work , and submitted the ppt around 1:30 , confident that we’ll get shortlisted for the next round.

The Demo/Prototype Round

The next thing that i remember was waking up by a phone call by my teammates , around 5 , that we have to submit a functioning prototype and a video demo , all by 1 30 am . So i got to work , and started implementing the functionalities , out of which the most novel was establishing a relationship between e-permits and FastTAGs , that can help the government by flagging down possible fraudulent transactions. Aryan came up with the name HALF CA , as our app comprises all the things that a CA does , and a lot more. Then Sameer and I started handling the deployment , and started thinking about the video demo.

I don’t know how we did this , but we completed the entire thing around 1 35 am ( dw , the deadline got extended by 30 mins :) ) , after being sleep deprived for idk how long , and submitted it , waiting for the results , which were supposed to come around 4 30 am.. And , don’t you forget , we have an exam on the 5th , and no preparation for it.

I am not gonna bore you with the details , but here’s the demo video for the same.

The Top 10

It was 3:47 am, some of us dozed off , the others were anxiously waiting for that one notification , of the names of the shortlisted teams. I was half asleep , and was thinking how i am gonna study for the exam , when all of a sudden , we see the message , and our name in the shortlisted teams , alongside 9 others. So we started making the pitch deck , did some final changes , had our market plan , and went to sleep , for 2-3 hrs.

The final round started , we were given the 6th spot , and so started the pitch. We explained our entire product to the judges , the market plan , and how do we plan to scale in the future etc. The question round was the one where we were a bit unsure , cus we thought that we were not able to explain our target audience to the judges clearly. Hoping for the best , we sat back on our seats , waiting for the results .

We came 2nd that day. i am not telling you all this because there’s something motivating or inspiring in this , i actually don’t know why i am telling you this , but it is maybe because i want you to know , that sometimes it’s worth taking that risk. Also , we totally bombed that exam , so Richa Ma’am , if you’re reading this , kindly consider giving grace marks.

anyways , until the next crazy story that happens with me , adios amigos !