Swiggy’s future-proofing in tech hiring: Developing an Associate SDE role.

Here’s what you need to know about how Swiggy is helping freshers upskill. 

Not all problems are bad. Some push us to think out of the box and some challenge us to level up. This is exactly what happened with Swiggy’s HRBP and Talent Acquisition team when they were tasked with hiring for tech roles. What started with an exclusive upskilling programme —  i++ — in 2021, soon led to a bigger programme and a role in the developer talent segment — Associate Software Development Engineer (aSDE). 

Here’s a walk-through of the challenges, wins and testimonies of how Swiggy went about creating a role for diverse candidates across cities in India and how 12 out of more than 150 of these candidates have already been promoted to the role of SDE1 with many other aSDEs well on track for the next level.

A plus to everything.

“Learnings from the i++ programme helped us understand how we could build an even more structured programme. This was an excellent entry into the talent market, unlike any other. Most of the time, teams go looking for people with skills, but here we are building the whole thing from scratch,” says Lazar Selvarasu, Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition. 

Adding to that, Aditya Kumar, General Manager, HRBP team says, “We also realised that there was a specific talent pool that we had not tapped into and it was important to go across the country and do that.”

The plan was clear, Swiggy wanted to create an emerging developer pool. “We wanted to upskill and train them on the common tech infrastructure framework and tech stack that we use. So creating a programme for competent developers to move up the hierarchy was one of our main goals behind initiating this programme,” Aditya adds. 

Once the ground work was done, the team conducted a programme with five people. “This pilot programme was a nine-week dedicated boot camp where we took them through the basics of web stacks in quick commerce industries or an app-based infrastructure. We also taught them about behavioural competencies around how they can interact with stakeholders,” he says. 

According to the team, the boot camp was a success. “Our success rate was 80 percent. 4 out of the five levelled up. Once we had proof that this worked for us we then started working with a batch of 30 people,” Aditya explains. 

Setting the bar high

So what is the aSDE programme all about? Simply put, it’s a comprehensive upskilling programme which combines the goodness of in-person training sessions and business immersion with best in class “on the job” learning experience.

“This is an eight-week boot camp where we shortlisted early talent and started training them. As part of this, these candidates would shadow some of our top engineering talent and would work on coding at our tech scale and also build understanding about our tech ecosystem. At the end of three months their work was reviewed and the top talent was offered roles in the company,” they add. 

Aditya chips in, “This programme intends to create well rounded developers who can combine tech capabilities with the nuances of the business.”

The target was set high for the Talent Acquisition team, “We had to hire the second batch of 60 candidates in a span of three months, so we went full throttle. We reached out to finishing schools, posted on social media and went big on employee referrals,” Lazar says. 

And the response was overwhelming! With over 57,000 profiles to go through, the team had their work cut out for them. “It was quite a challenge. Setting up interviews, making sure we’re able to reach the right people in such a tight time frame was a huge goal,” he adds. 

Aditya says, “We put together a buddy/mentor system to make it easier for the aSDEs to have a smoother transition into the company. We also knew there was immense potential across different cities in India, but it wasn’t getting showcased. Our aim was to nurture this talent and give them a space to learn and grow.”

So far, Swiggy has hired more than 150 candidates across several tier II and III cities, including Jaipur, Bilawal, Jharkhand, Ranchi, Phagwara, Faridabad, Gorakhpur, Ghaziabad, Sri City,  Coimbatore and Vellore to name a few. 

I am proud to see how the aSDE programme has transformed our hiring practices, empowering a diverse group of talented female engineers and enterprising individuals from finishing schools to excel. By prioritising performance and learnability, we not only foster innovation but also created an inclusive environment where all voices can thrive and lead.

Madhusudhan Rao, Chief Technology Officer, Swiggy

The first bootcamp batch only had 8 percent women, but that number touched 43 percent by the second boot camp in March. 

According to Aditya, a key factor behind the program’s success was the seamless collaboration between cross-functional stakeholders. The core team, comprising members from HR, Learning & Development, trainers, business and tech representatives, worked together harmoniously to ensure that all critical milestones were met. This unified effort played a crucial role in achieving the program’s objectives with both efficiency and effectiveness. 

As Nitesh Garg, Swiggy’s Senior Vice President for Instamart and Central Growth Engineering, aptly noted,

With the aSDE program, we aimed to create a win-win situation where Swiggy could tap into a diverse talent pool, while also providing young developers the opportunity to upskill by solving real-world problems. It was a complex challenge, one that could only be successfully navigated through our ability to operate as a cohesive cross-functional team.

Why the aSDE programme?

Out of the 150 plus participants, 12 have already been promoted to the role of an SDE1. Madhusudhan Rao, CTO Swiggy says,

We began noticing early signs of performance spikes in the batch, which prompted us to introduce an expedited career progression for high-performing aSDEs. This was facilitated through our Emerging Developer Program- a structured mechanism of regular talent reviews, allowing us to identify top talent quickly and provide them with accelerated career growth opportunities. By leveraging these reviews, we ensured that standout developers were recognized and fast tracked in their career to a seasoned developer, further motivating them to excel and contributing to the overall success of the program.

Explaining how this helped her in her career, Madhurima Poddar, an aSDE at Swiggy says, “It has been a fast ride. It was a knowledge-intensive programme that improved our concepts. It gave us a lot of context on the kind of work here, and what one can expect at Swiggy as opposed to someone who just gets hired at Swiggy outside of this programme.

One important thing the programme taught me is to emotionally detach from the code I’ve written, as we constantly had to refactor and rethink our approach as the requirements evolved. This pushed me to write extensible code and at the same time not over-engineer. These exercises are designed in such a way that we had to continually rethink and refactor our code to cater to the evolving requirements optimally, without clinging to the previous design. This helped me write extensible codes that allowed for future modifications. This was a big learning experience for me.

Madhurima Poddar, aSDE

While Madhurima says that the first few weeks of the bootcamp keep you on your toes, she says it was “all worth it in the end”. “This experience sets the pace for what is to come, it gives us a realistic view of how SDEs function and helps us prepare for our future roles.”

Speaking about his experience with the programme, Faiz Bachoo Shah who recently got promoted to the role of an SDE1 says, “I joined the programme in April 2023. It was a good starting point in this field as it introduced me to the day-to-day activities of a developer at Swiggy and how to deal with things that come our way. As part of the tech team immersion, I also got to work with real-life Swiggy features, which enriched my experience.”

What advice would he give to fellow aSDE programme members or anyone who wants to join the aSDE programme? Faiz says,

Make the best use of the programme and the resources given to you. As an aSDE our responsibilities are different, so to level up I would suggest learning Golang and Java. Also, communication is key, make sure your peers and managers are kept in the loop about foreseeable delays, take more initiative and see how you can help different teams.

Close on the heels of Faiz is Karthiram A., another participant of the aSDE programme who has been promoted to the role of an SDE1. “I was thrilled when I got to be part of this initiative. Prior to this, I had just started working as a frontend developer for a startup. The bootcamp and the work that followed gave me a deep understanding of the tech space at Swiggy. We got practical knowledge when we were tasked with helping out on certain projects. My advice to people looking to grow in this programme would be to always be hungry to learn more. Whether it is languages or looking for more work, this helps immensely.”

What also helped Faiz and his batchmates was the mentor or buddy programme. “It was the right amount of help. My mentor was always there to help me understand difficult issues, but they gave me enough leeway to handle challenging situations on my own. This was the best part as it helped me manage things on my own,” adds Faiz who was part of the new year tech war room and also worked on completely digitising the billing process for Instamart among many other high value projects. 

Aman Kashyap, who joined Swiggy as an aSDE shares how this helped him follow his dreams. “My family) went through a difficult financial situation. To help them I started working in a leather factory in Kanpur. After I saved enough money, I joined a finishing school and it was there that I started working as a delivery executive after my classes.

Aman adds,

This programme has helped me get back to doing what I love the most: Software development. I didn’t think I would ever get a chance to work in a field that I love. Once I heard about the programme I knew I had to apply. This truly changed my life.

While adding, “It’s been a great experience learning the inner workings of a quick commerce company. The programme is designed in such a way that there is just the right amount of pressure on us. We get to learn without being overwhelmed.”

Speaking about the experience of working with aSDEs on his team, Tushar Tayal, director of engineering Swiggy says,

Working with several aSDEs on my team has been so refreshing! They bring fresh perspectives, creative problem-solving, and have a genuine hunger to contribute.  What they lack in experience, they more than make up for with their learning capacity. That’s what really excites me about their future potential. They’re adaptable, quick to pick up new skills, and open to feedback, which makes them incredibly coachable.

“What’s truly delightful is their innovative thinking. One of them proposed some good UX improvements and implemented them on his own, while  another actually figured out a major optimisation in our CICD pipeline and fixed it!” he adds.

So what does this mean for the future of hiring at Swiggy? Lazar says, “These level up programmes have given us a chance to explore and go beyond the talent that one usually finds in metros. The success of this project has helped us understand how we can make space for diverse candidates across the country and bring forth that insight to help the company and the tech space grow.”