Meet woman, who cracked IIT with full-time job, secured impressive AIR of...; now works at Bill Gates' Microsoft as...

Success comes to those who don't give up. This age-old saying stands true for Ankita Dey, a young woman from West Bengal, who endured many challenges to reach the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). She secured an impressive All India Rank (AIR) of 312 in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE exam) after completing her graduation. She stayed determined, worked hard, and put in extra hours to earn her dream job at the tech giant Microsoft. This is her story.

Ankita's academic journey
Ankita, who had been good at studies since childhood, completed Class 10th and Class 12th from Douglas Memorial Higher Secondary School in Kolkata. She achieved a brilliant 92.8 percent marks in Class 12 exams, after which she pursued a BTech in Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) branch from the Academy of Technology.
Ankita dreamed of studying at the IIT for a long time, so she worked hard on cracking the highly-competitive GATE exam. In 2020, she passed the exam with a top rank and got admission in IIT Kanpur. There, she pursued a Master of Technology (MTech) in Computer Science (CS) branch and was a top student. Today, she works as a Software Development Engineer (SDE) at the American tech giant Microsoft.

Ankita's prep and tips
In an interview, Ankita said she began enjoying coding during her BTech days. However, she had to toil a lot to make her journey a successful one: She prepared for the GATE exam while working in a private job. She revealed she would study every day after returning from work and even on the train to and from her office. On her off days, Ankita would study 6 to 7 hours as part of her GATE prep. She advises students preparing for GATE to attempt as many mock papers as they can.