Reading about a field tells you almost nothing about whether you will enjoy it. Building something in it tells you within a fortnight.

Hackathons and coding competitions are the quickest test, because they compress a project into a weekend and reveal what you gravitate toward under pressure. Real projects are the better test, since a capstone or industry-sponsored project forces you to live with a technology long enough to see its frustrations. Certifications are worth taking as you go, because they leave evidence on a resume of the exploration you did.

The MCA at SIMS is structured to allow this. Value added programmes run across all these areas, certifications include IBM, Cisco, AI and cloud tracks, and there are coding labs, hackathons, internships and industry collaborations with ICT Academy and the Cyberverse Foundation. Students also work on AI-based major projects and industry-sponsored capstones, with research methodology and scientific writing available for those heading toward research.

One warning worth giving. Trying everything and committing to nothing leaves a student with six shallow certificates and no depth in any of them. Explore widely in the first year, then pick a direction in the second and go deep enough to build something substantial before placements begin.

Nobody chooses well from a brochure. You find out by building something in each direction and noticing which one you keep going back to on a Sunday evening. Two years is enough time to do that properly, and the MCA at Soundarya Institute of Management and Science is set up for it, with certification tracks across AI, data, security, cloud. MCA college in Bangalore North

Come and see what the current batch is building. Write to admissions@soundaryainstitutions.in or call +91 6269000092, and ask to see the labs while you are here.