My Journey with JP Morgan Chase & Co. — From Code for Good Hackathon, Summer Internship to PPO

In this piece, I’ve shared my complete journey with JP Morgan Chase: from participating in the Code for Good Hackathon, to securing a Summer Internship, and finally receiving a Pre-Placement Offer (PPO).

The Beginning

It was late March 2024. I was in my second year of college (4th semester) when I received an email from my college announcing that JP Morgan Chase would be hiring interns for their Summer Internship Program 2025.

The eligibility criteria were clearly mentioned:

• Degree: B.Tech / B.E (ONLY)
• Batch: 2026 pass-outs
• Streams: Computer Science / Information Science / Information Technology
• Academic Requirement: Minimum 8.5 CGPA or 85% (till date)
• Backlogs: No active backlogs
• Education Gap: Not more than 1 year (if any)

I was honestly surprised to see internship hiring happening so early, especially for an internship scheduled for the next year. JP Morgan Chase was also the first company visiting our campus, which added to the excitement and pressure.

Without wasting time, I updated my resume and submitted the interest form. After the first round of shortlisting, selected students were asked to register through the official company link shared by the college.

Online Assessment (OA)

After the registration deadline, another round of shortlisting took place. About a week later, selected candidates received the Online Assessment (OA) link, which had to be completed within two days.

The OA was conducted on the HackerRank platform and consisted of:

• Duration: 1 hour
• Questions: 2 coding problems
• Difficulty Level: Medium to Hard

The questions tested core DSA concepts such as arrays, bit manipulation, searching and sorting techniques, Dynamic programming, linked lists, and string manipulation. The key focus here was to pass as many test cases as possible for each question, as partial solutions were also evaluated.

This was a technical round designed to assess your understanding of data structures and algorithms, through your problem-solving and coding skills.

HireVue Online Interview

By mid-April, after clearing the OA, we were invited to complete the HireVue Online Interview.

This round required us to record video responses to:

• Two HR-style questions
• Time limit: 2 minutes per question
• Retries: One retry allowed per question

The questions in this round were largely situational and behavioral, aimed at understanding how you think and respond in real-life scenarios. They focused on aspects such as handling disagreements within a team, managing pressure during tight deadlines, reflecting on personal weaknesses and the steps taken to improve them, and highlighting meaningful contributions you’ve made while working on team projects. Interestingly, there was no strict deadline mentioned in the email, so I took some time to prepare my answers properly.

A few important tips for this round:

• Dress neatly (formal or smart casual works fine)
• Choose a calm, distraction-free background
• Ensure good internet connectivity
• Most importantly, be confident, natural, and honest

This round is about how you think, communicate, and handle real-life situations.

Next Stop: Hackathon

I gave it my best, and after what felt like a long wait, I finally received the email confirming my selection for Code for Good Hackathon 2024, to be held in Mumbai. This was my first national-level hackathon, and the mix of excitement and nervousness was unreal. While I had participated in a few hackathons earlier, those were mostly with friends and familiar teammates. This experience was going to be very different.

For Code for Good, teams were formed by JP Morgan Chase itself, ensuring that students from the same college were not placed in the same team. We were also asked to submit our area-of-expertise preferences, ranking frontend, backend, and full-stack development. This helped create balanced teams with complementary skill sets, allowing everyone to contribute effectively.

In the weeks leading up to the hackathon, we attended several online orientation sessions to understand the process and expectations. Travel expenses were reimbursed, although accommodation had to be arranged independently. We also participated in Git and GitHub training sessions, hackathon rule briefings, and interactive team-building activities conducted on Slack. These Slack channels quickly became more than just discussion spaces — they were full of memes, jokes, and casual conversations, which helped ease the nerves and build camaraderie even before meeting in person.

Team Formation & Preparation

Three days before the hackathon, we received our team details. We connected on LinkedIn and scheduled a Google Meet to introduce ourselves, discuss individual skill sets, and plan a rough distribution of responsibilities. This early coordination played a crucial role in ensuring smoother collaboration during the event.

Day 1: Hackathon Begins

The two-day hackathon took place on 15th June, and as I arrived at JP Morgan Chase’s Mumbai office, I was genuinely astonished by the scale, architecture, and interiors of the building. After registration, we were provided with event T-shirts, ID cards, and breakfast, and soon headed to the seminar hall.

There, we were briefed on how the hackathon would proceed. Representatives from three NGOs presented their problem statements and explained what they were looking for in a solution. Teams then selected the NGO they wanted to work with through a fastest-finger-first poll, which added an element of excitement and urgency right at the start.

Once the NGOs were finalized, we moved to the working area. Each team was assigned two mentors, whose role was not only to guide us technically but also to evaluate our performance as part of the Summer Internship assessment. We began by designing the project layout, identifying core features, distributing tasks, and diving straight into development.

Mentorship, Work & Midnight Energy

Later in the evening, we headed for dinner and it was genuinely amazing. With a wide variety of food options, dinner became a great bonding moment where we spoke with teammates and mentors about work culture, tech stacks, and their professional journeys. The office pantry was accessible throughout the night, stocked with coffee, snacks, cakes, soft drinks ; everything needed to keep us going.

I had a one-on-one interaction with my mentor, which felt more like a friendly conversation than a formal interview. She asked about my previous experiences, the technologies I was currently learning and asked technical questions around that, and my long-term goals. The discussion was relaxed yet insightful, making it easier to express myself honestly.

As the night progressed, we resumed working on the project. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) were available on the floor to help resolve technical challenges. Like most hackathons, we eventually ran into the classic Git merge conflict 😅and the SMEs helped us resolve it efficiently.

For the night shift, a different mentor was assigned to our team. He continuously reviewed our progress and provided feedback on how we could improve both technically and structurally. Despite the late hours, the energy in the room was incredible with developers coding intensely, teams brainstorming, and an atmosphere buzzing with creativity. To keep spirits high, the organizers even arranged fun activities like push-ups, dancing, and singing.

I later had another one-on-one with my second mentor, who asked about my contributions to the project, challenges I was facing, how I was resolving them, and my past achievements.

The D- Day

By early morning, we had completed most of the major features of our project. However, we were still struggling to integrate everything smoothly and were racing against time to resolve a compilation issue before the 10 a.m. evaluation. Despite the pressure, we kept debugging, discussing, and trying different approaches until the very last moment.

After breakfast, the evaluation phase began. There were two rounds of judging, and by then we had our presentation ready, rehearsed our pitch deck, and prepared to demonstrate the project. While the final product wasn’t exactly what we had initially envisioned, it represented solid effort, learning, and teamwork under tight constraints. The judges asked a few questions during the evaluation, focusing on our approach, problem-solving choices, and how we had implemented the solution.

Once the evaluations were over, we received JP Morgan Chase backpacks, and then headed back to the seminar hall, right where the hackathon had begun, for the final results announcement.

Our team didn’t win. But the experience itself felt like a win in many ways. It was my first time traveling alone by flight, my first visit to a new city, and an opportunity to meet and work with incredibly talented people. I made new friends, gained invaluable exposure, and learned lessons that went far beyond coding.

Even as the iPad winners celebrated with bright smiles, the hope of one day working at JP Morgan Chase still reflected in many of our eyes, including mine. After the lunch, with bags packed full of chips, chocolates, and memories, the hackathon came to an end. Every participant received a certificate of participation, but more importantly, we all walked away with stories, confidence, and experiences that would stay with us far longer.

From Selection to Onboarding

Yes !!!! I was selected for the Software Engineering Program (SEP)🥳

After the selection, we were asked to fill out detailed forms where we mentioned our preferred tech stacks, programming languages, and tools we were familiar with from the given choices. This information plays an important role in aligning interns with suitable teams and projects. We were also required to provide our preferred location, although it was clearly mentioned that location allocation would depend on availability and was not guaranteed.

The internship was an 8-week program. Before it officially began, JP Morgan Chase conducted several onboarding sessions to introduce us to the firm, explain the structure of the internship, outline different phases, and clearly set expectations from interns.

Before Day 1, I was also connected with my team manager and assigned buddy. They became my first points of contact for understanding the team’s tech stack, work culture, and project expectations. This early connection helped me brush up on relevant technologies and feel more prepared before the internship started.

Internship Experience

The internship offered a mix of hands-on development and structured learning. Some interns worked on specific standalone projects, while others contributed to ongoing production-level systems. Alongside working on the project, there was sufficient time allocated for learning, understanding internal tools, and adapting to the firm’s workflows.

Throughout the internship, the manager and buddy continuously assessed our performance — not just based on technical output, but also on our willingness to learn, problem-solving approach, ability to propose new ideas, and overall professionalism.

There were two formal evaluations:

• A mid-term evaluation after 4 weeks
• A final evaluation around the 7th week

The evaluation format differed across teams. Some involved detailed presentations explaining the work done, challenges faced, and learnings gained, while others focused on demonstrating a complete project or feature contribution during the standup. Expectations and evaluation criteria were communicated by the respective managers.

To perform well, it is important to be curious, confident, proactive, and eager to contribute. Showing initiative, asking the right questions, and being open to feedback made a noticeable difference.

Beyond Work

Beyond the technical learning, the internship was also about people and experiences. I met incredible individuals, built meaningful connections, made close friends, and participated in team outings, lunches, and informal discussions. The people at JP Morgan Chase are extremely helpful and welcoming, and this environment made learning both enjoyable and impactful.

An internship shouldn’t be just about work — it should be a blend of learning, growth, and fun, and this experience truly embodied that.

PPO & Final Outcome

I’m grateful to share that I received a Pre-Placement Offer (PPO) from the firm, along with an opportunity for a 6-month attachment internship with JP Morgan Chase as a Software Engineering Program (SEP) Analyst.

Have questions or want to know more? You can reach out to me anytime on LinkedIn. If you found this article useful, please give it a like 👏 and share your thoughts in the comments as your experience or questions might help other aspirants too!