Always curious about knowing how technology can put an impact on people’s lives, Prakhar became a software engineer and is working at Paytm with all his dedication and passion for software development.

Prakhar Paniya is working as a Software Engineer at Paytm. He works in the core engineering team working on things that impact crores of people at a time like developing features for the Paytm app.

Prakhar was born and brought up in Udaipur, Rajasthan. He did Computer Science Engineering from SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Delhi. After completing his graduation, he was working at Cognizant and is currently working with Paytm.

When asked how he got interested in becoming a software engineer, Prakhar says that his main motivation for becoming an engineer was that all his cousins and other people around him belonged to the same background, and he was always curious to know how software development can have such a huge impact. He says that he wanted to be a part of that impact and this was the reason he chose Computer Science and decided to become a software developer.

Talking about his role models, Prakhar says that he really gets inspired by the work ethics and work principles of the Kamath Brothers - the Founders of Zerodha. He says that the reason why Kamath Brothers inspire him is that they built a company that is totally bootstrapped and with just forty people in their team they generated a revenue of four thousand crores. Prakhar says that the story of the Zerodha brothers teaches him that if you have a goal fixed in your mind, if you work hard, and if you are true to yourself; you can do wonders.

To deal with stress or to come out of the low moments of life, Prakhar listens to motivational songs. However, the one quote that really motivates Prakhar is, “The only thing that stands between you and your goals are the thousands of excuses you make to yourself for not achieving your goals.”

Talking about the struggles of his life, Prakhar says that we all have different struggles at different phases of life. He says that for him the biggest struggle was to stand out and get a job among the four thousand people sitting in the placement drive of his college. However, he worked hard, gave hundreds of interviews, and landed many job offers and he chose the best one.

To the people who want to become software engineers, Prakhar says that even though there are no set rules to follow, one must go on with a positive attitude. He says that software development is a difficult industry, but hard work is the key. He advises the upcoming software engineers to brush up on data structures and algorithms, which is a very important skill set one must have in this field. Also, master one programming language, be good with analytical and logical thinking, and keep practicing competitive programming on platforms like hackerrank, geeks for geeks, and more. Further, he says that computer science is the field where you need to study every day, explore new technologies and software, and keep up with the trends.

Sharing his views on the importance of education and experience, Prakhar says that education and experience both go hand in hand, you cannot just completely focus on one and ignore the other. Giving an example, Prakhar says that you can learn the basics of how to drive a car, but unless you don’t step into the car and do it practically, you won’t be able to drive it successfully. He says that the same thing goes for experience also. You learn from experiences, but education plays the role of a catalyst in that.

If Prakhar was given a time machine, he would not want to change anything in the past. He says that he does not hold any grudges from the past, and he is very happy with whatever he has achieved in life. However, one thing that he would change is going back in time and studying hard to get good marks in 12th and also improve his handwriting.

To the youngsters, Prakhar tells them to keep on learning, be aware of what’s going on, be passionate about something, don’t waste their time on social media, and most importantly, be clear about what they want in life.

Conveying his message, Prakhar says that you will face a new challenge every single day in your life. And sometimes the challenges come with a deadline and pressure. At that moment, you need to calm yourself, break down the problem, and work on that. He says that everything falls down before something good happens. Don’t feel depressed and hopeless, and try to find out the solution to the problem. Every problem can be solved, you just need a correct approach to solve that problem, says Prakhar