TL;DR - Interning at APT Portfolio was a great experience and it taught me many things. Looking back, I don't regret my decision of going with APT and not waiting for other core companies. However, I do feel that had someone shared their experiences with us back then, we could have made a much more informed decision. Hence, this article.
It was another rainy evening in August. My friends and I were sitting in the H4 mess, cursing the thing on our plate that was supposed to be food. Most of us were wearing formals which had become a common attire during the entire internship season. A friend was still second guessing his decision of signing the APT Portfolio (Hardware) IAF and was considering flunking the interview which was supposed to happen in an hour or so. Somehow he got the contact of a senior who had interned there the previous summer, made a quick phone call and finally concluded that it was worth a shot. I wasn't as confused because I had faced rejection from Texas Instruments and Google (Hardware) so my core electrical options were running out. As luck would have it, both of us got the news of our selection that night when we were having dinner with our friends (who had also given the interview) at Jughead's. Naturally, the bill for 10 was split between the 2 of us.
Hello reader! I am Mihir Kavishwar, a 4th year Dual Degree (Microelectronics) student. I completed my internship at APT Portfolio this summer. I wasn't planning on writing a long article, but remembering how stressful the internship season can be, I thought I should give this a shot in case this helps at least a few of you. All the opinions shared in this article are strictly personal and I have tried to recall the experiences to the best of my ability. I hoped to keep this succinct yet detailed but some irrelevant jargon might have crept in, feel free to ignore that.

Motivation
To be honest, I really wanted a research internship but I found the whole idea of apping painfully exhausting. Moreover, I figured that I would get to explore research during my DDP so getting some industry experience in summers would be nice. I had interned at STMicroelectronics before in their Analog Design team so I was looking forward to working in Digital this time. I had 5 companies in mind - Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Google, Analog Devices and NVIDIA. When the IAF of APT Portfolio opened for a hardware profile, I wasn't sure if I should go for it. But considering the job description which was very similar to those core companies, the stipend which was a lot more and the fact that my options were limited, I signed up.

Selection Process

Online coding test : Everyone who signed the IAF had to give this test. There were 4-5 simple programming questions. Every question mentioned which programming language to use (either C++ or Python). We were allowed to use some reference material. There were a few multiple choice questions as well. None of the questions were very difficult and anyone who had done CS101 could comfortably attempt them after some practice.
Few students were shortlisted on the basis of the coding test. I think they also considered our resume because some students who didn't perform very well in the test (including me) were also shortlisted.
Interview : We were told that there would be multiple rounds of interview but they finally decided to have just one. Two senior company employees from the hardware team conducted the interviews parallely, so half of us had the same interviewer. My interviewer was very friendly and started with generic questions like - What are your interests? What are your expectations from the internship? Can you explain this XYZ project from your resume? Then he asked some simple technical questions from Digital Systems and Microprocessors. Example questions -
- Model this XYZ scenario as a Finite State Machine
- What is the difference between a latch and a flip flop?
- Write the VHDL or Verilog code for a flip flop with asynchronous reset (we had to write it on a piece of paper)
- How would you implement this boolean logic with just 2:1 Multiplexers?
- Draw the circuit for a 3-bit up counter
- Explain the datapath in a RISC processor
The interview lasted around 45 mins.

Why does a High Frequency Trading firm need a hardware team?
APT Portfolio is one of the fastest growing HFT firms in India. One of the most important things for any HFT firm is the speed of their trading platform. The faster they can execute their trades, the more money they are able to make, as simple as that. But there is a limit to how much you can optimize your algorithms in Software because you are limited by the performance of your general purpose CPU. Therefore, the next logical thing to do for decreasing latency is to implement these algorithms (either partially or completely) in Hardware at the gate level. This is often done using an FPGA. Writing decent RTL code and Verifying it requires good electrical engineering and hence a dedicated hardware team.

Remote Internship experience
IITB announced early vacations this summer and it was very unclear how (and if) the internship would take place. APT was very prompt in its decision to start a remote internship from 15th April, in spite of the short notice they received from IITB. The HR department was great and conducted a very smooth on boarding. I was put in the verification team (which is what most core companies do) because they felt that 2-3 months is a short time for design related tasks. A week before the internship began, we were asked to watch some video tutorials in order to familiarize ourselves with various Verification terminologies. In the first week, we were given some training so that we could understand the Verification infrastructure at APT. After this we were assigned independent projects. My project had both hardware and software parts, details of which I cannot reveal for confidentiality reasons. I had almost daily interaction with my mentor who was very helpful. Work from home made it difficult to interact with the rest of the team and my co-interns, but everyone was very approachable so I had a good time. On the last day of the internship we had to present our work to all the company employees. Overall, it was a nice experience.

My take on APT vs Core Elec Companies (TI, Qualcomm, Nvidia, ADI, etc)
There are several things to consider here and had someone told me about this beforehand I might have given some more thought before signing up the IAF.

Work : After talking to my friends who have interned in different core companies, I think it is safe to say that there wasn't much difference from a technical learning point of view. I have heard positive and negative experiences from different people so I think it really depends on the project and your mentor. Most of the Hardware team at APT already had a lot of industry experience so they knew their stuff. A point to note is that most of the aforementioned core companies use the best available EDA tools to rigorously test their products which are to be produced on a large scale. APT doesn't need to have such rigorous standards, so you might not get an exposure to them at APT. Nevertheless, the tools they use are very effective and more than satisfy their needs. One key difference I noticed between APT and other companies was that APT took all intern projects very seriously and they incorporated the work we did in their main system very quickly. Also, APT didn't have a lot of access restrictions which you typically find in large companies.
Money : APT offers way more money. End of story.
Culture : The culture at APT was great. Everyone was easily approachable. Working remotely made it difficult to interact with people but we tried our best. Everyone was pretty serious about work and even interns were kept quite busy. Our progress was monitored and we were expected to deliver. To quote my supervisor, "It is very easy to hide and get away with poor performance in a large company compared to a smaller one like ours. Whether you consider that a pro or a con is up to you." Having said that, I have heard positive reviews about culture at other core companies as well.
Philosophical considerations : HFT firms exist to make money for themselves by exploiting some of the inefficiencies of the marketplace. They usually don't sell any products. All the investment in building a good trading platform is just to execute trades a few nanoseconds faster. This does allow them to make a lot of profit, which is clearly reflected in the stipend/salary they offer their employees. But the traditional core Elec companies make some of the coolest, state of the art technology that really adds value to society (if you believe in that sort of thing :p). So if you are aiming for a PPO, spend some time thinking if APT would be the right fit for you in the long term.