Campus Placement Preparation: The 90-Day Action Plan
A day-by-day strategy to prepare for campus placements — covering aptitude, coding, group discussions, and interviews. Start 90 days before placement season.
Campus placement season can make or break the start of your career. Students who prepare systematically for 90 days consistently outperform those who start cramming two weeks before. This guide breaks down exactly what to do each month — no fluff, just action items.
Month 1 (Days 1-30): Build the Foundation
Week 1-2: Aptitude and Reasoning
Most companies start with aptitude tests that eliminate 60-70% of candidates. Focus on quantitative aptitude (percentages, profit/loss, time-speed-distance), logical reasoning (puzzles, seating arrangements), and verbal ability (reading comprehension, para jumbles). Practice 50 questions daily from RS Aggarwal or IndiaBix.
Week 3-4: Data Structures Fundamentals
Start with arrays, strings, linked lists, stacks, and queues. Solve 3-5 LeetCode Easy problems daily. Focus on understanding patterns, not memorizing solutions. By the end of month one, you should be comfortable with basic array manipulation, string processing, and stack/queue applications.
Month 2 (Days 31-60): Level Up
Week 5-6: Advanced DSA
Move to trees, graphs, dynamic programming, and greedy algorithms. These topics appear in 80% of coding rounds at product companies. Solve 5 problems daily, mixing LeetCode Medium and Easy. Start timing yourself — most coding rounds give 60-90 minutes for 2-3 questions.
Week 7-8: Resume and Projects
Build or polish 2-3 projects that demonstrate real skills. A full-stack web app, a data analysis project, or an open-source contribution carry more weight than coursework. Write a one-page resume following the Action Verb + Task + Result format for each bullet point.
Month 3 (Days 61-90): Interview Ready
Week 9-10: Mock Interviews and GD Practice
Form a group of 4-6 friends and practice group discussions twice a week on current affairs topics. For technical interviews, do mock interviews on Pramp or with seniors who have been through the process. Record yourself to identify filler words and body language issues.
Week 11-12: Company-Specific Preparation
Research the companies visiting your campus. Study their previous year question patterns on GeeksforGeeks. Prepare thoughtful questions to ask interviewers. Practice your introduction until it feels natural, not rehearsed.
Daily Routine Template
- Morning (2 hours): Aptitude practice + current affairs reading
- Afternoon (3 hours): DSA problem solving on LeetCode/HackerRank
- Evening (1 hour): Resume refinement, project work, or mock interviews
- Night (30 min): Review what you learned, plan tomorrow