The Launchpad · Java Developer Fellowship
Most first jobs teach you
to follow instructions.
This one teaches you to lead.
DT Fellows work full-time alongside founders and directors of ₹100–500Cr companies. Your first career shapes everything that follows. Most jobs give you tasks. Here, you solve problems, understand business context, and make your own decisions.
“Everyone at some point in life should work at DT.”
Feliza Dadachenji, Maths Asst Professor | DT Fellow, 2020
We don't look for the best candidate. We look for the most curious.
Java Developer Fellowship · 3 rounds · 96 hours · No interviews until you've seen how we work.
The big picture
The bridge from strategy to execution.
Every company decides what to do, then does it. The gap between the two is where growth dies. A DT Fellow is the bridge.
GoalThe MD
The number the company must hit.
StrategyThe function head
The plan to hit it, tuned as results come in.
The PlanThe DT Fellow
You build the play that actually works, then step back.
SupervisionTeam leads
Keeps the work on track, week by week.
WorkThe reps
Run the workflow. Send the output.
What V3 does
Find the play. Months of experiments until you find what actually moves the number.
Codify it into PDGMS. The system DT builds. Your play becomes a workflow it can run.
Step back. The platform runs it from then on. The team makes the calls that need a human.
Prove the winning play once. Fewer hires, higher revenue.
The deck
The company, in nine slides.
The same deck we show investors, minus the numbers we keep private. Use the arrows to move through it.
विघ्ननायक · Vignanayaka
The one who removes obstacles to knowledge.
Not obstacles in the world. Obstacles in how you see. Indian philosophy names the capacity to clear the path between you and understanding. That capacity lives in three qualities — the same ones we look for in every DT Fellow.
Made in India for the world.
PDGMS — transforming people, growing businesses.
Three Values
What we look for — in life and at work.
You own the outcome, not just the process.
The Cook
Two cooks make the same dish. Cook A follows the recipe exactly — 2 tsp salt, 350°F, 45 minutes. It comes out edible. Cook B tastes at every step, adjusts the salt because this brand is stronger, checks the oven because hers runs 10 degrees hot, pulls it out early because the edges are browning. Same recipe. Cook B's food is better — not because she's more talented, but because she's paying attention to what's actually happening instead of following instructions.
The Directions
You're driving to a new city. Driver A follows the GPS turn by turn — "turn left in 200 meters." Arrives fine. But when the GPS reroutes around construction, they panic — they don't know which direction they're heading or why. Driver B glanced at the map first: "I'm heading south, the city is by the river, the highway cuts through the center." When the GPS reroutes, they adjust — because they know where they're going, not just what to do next.
The Flat Tire
Two people get a flat tire on a highway. Person A calls roadside assistance and waits 90 minutes. Person B checks the trunk — spare tire, jack, wrench. Watches a 2-minute video. Changes it in 15 minutes. Not because Person B is a mechanic — but because they assumed they could figure it out before assuming they couldn't.
These aren't interview answers. They're ways of being.
Why DT
Two kinds of youngsters.
India produces one. DT hires the other.
Type A · Employee Mindset
Impress. Fit into existing systems. Follow instructions. India's placement system is built to produce and hire Type A.
Type B · Intrapreneur Mindset
Creative. Innovative. Make decisions. Own outcomes. Passion-driven problem solvers.
What Fellows Do
Decision-making power in their 20s.
Most people reach decision-making roles by their 40s. DT Fellows work alongside CEOs and Directors of ₹100–500Cr companies, driving organisational transformation and AI, from their very first full-time role.
Sravan Kumar
Chief of Staff
Pharma company, ₹200Cr+
Works directly with the MD (NASA scientist founder). Brought in AI that cut purchase-to-dispatch from 3 days to 1. Runs decisions that change how the factory floor operates.
Joined as: BBA fresher
Shagun Mishra
AI Programs Lead
India’s largest probiotic manufacturer
Led a 20-member team. Shipped 58 software modules as a fresher in 2023 — before AI tools existed. Now leads AI Programs at a company present in 60+ countries.
Joined as: BTech fresher
Jayaraj
Engagement Lead
Multiple DT client companies
Works with company Directors on growth strategy and execution. Drives organisational transformation across manufacturing and services companies.
Joined as: BTech fresher
The Architects
Tarun Ayitam
15 years of designing the scientific method. Alumnus of IISER Pune (Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science) and TEDx speaker. Tarun encoded 32+ company implementations into PDGMS AI Platform to lower CAC and drive employee ownership.
HERITAGE
Who's been in this room
This programme has been running in different forms since 2011. Fifty participants from six countries have been through it. These are the people whose work and questions shaped what the programme is today.
Raghu Seelamsetty
Founder, Escape Velocity
2017
Nastaran Bisheban
CTO, KFC Canada
2021
Dave Snowden
Founder & CSO, Cognitive Edge
2021
Dr. Michael Lissack
President, American Society for Cybernetics
2021
Abhinav Gupta
AVP Innovation, Broadridge
2023
Humberto Schwab
Founder, Socratic Design Academy
2020
Dr. Matti Itkonen
Cultural Philosopher, University of Jyväskylä
2021
Kashyap Kompella
Hyderabad Chair, StartupGrind
2017
Jayesh Ranjan
IAS Officer, Govt of Telangana
2017
Dr. David Willows
Director of Advancement, University of Brussels
2021Designations are as on the date when the participant attended the dialogue.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
The work in action.
Roundtable
Hack Your MVP
Live session with practitioners and founders.
Socratic Dialogue
Darwin Day
Jury-style debate on scientific and business questions.
Case Files
A 3-day purchase to dispatch cycle. Every department did their job, but the handoffs were unowned.
The company mapped the actual flow and redesigned the protocol between departments, setup Microsoft CoPilot AI automations.
“3 days became 1 day, recovering 200+ days of capacity per year”
The Proof
DeepThought helped us in deploying and managing high performance elastic teams. DT runs continuous improvement, which means Project2 is better than Project1 and Project3 is better than Project2
Pharma & Biotech Transformation
Before you start — read this
Your mind map gets a few seconds.
Just like an answer sheet.
Picture an examiner with 300 papers stacked in front of them. Yours gets seconds, not minutes. The marks don’t go to whoever wrote the most. They go to the one answer that is clearly their own. Your hand-drawn mind map is that answer sheet.
You draw it by hand
On paper. No printout.
We glance, like an examiner
Seconds, not minutes.
It earns the marks, or it doesn't
Your thinking, or ChatGPT's.
Here’s the test we actually run
ChatGPT
4 seconds📄 [pasted: this entire assignment page]
Here is your diagram: Problem → build a dashboard → train the team → done.
If that is your diagram too —
where is your thinking?
And ChatGPT will hand you confident, wrong answers. We expect you to argue with it, test the logic, and catch what doesn’t hold. The thinking is the part it cannot do for you.
What ChatGPT gave back
“Problem → build a dashboard →
train the team → done.”
Word for word, what ChatGPT said.
Could be any company, anywhere.
Reads like everyone else’s.
Your own thinking
I asked it back: would a dashboard
actually get used? It wouldn’t —
the last one didn’t.
So I drew what really blocks the work.
Specific to this problem. By hand.
We want to meet you.
Most pages we get are exactly what ChatGPT returns. We can tell in seconds. The few we shortlist did the digging, caught its mistakes, and drew something it never could. Where is the thinking? That is the entire test.
How To Approach This
This is an open-book exam.
Books, internet, ChatGPT — all allowed. Finding an answer is not the test. Everyone can do that now. The test is whose thinking ends up on the answer sheet: yours, or the machine's.
Below is the actual work. Every box is something you hand in. If you can't tick it, you skipped that part — and we will see the gap. Garbage in, garbage out.
A · Research
What you produce
AI rule
Use AI to find and explain sources. It does not count as a source. A fact counts only if you can name its real origin.
B · Reasoning
What you produce
AI rule
Use AI to list options and poke holes. Choosing which is right is yours, in your words. If your B answers match ChatGPT’s first reply, you didn’t reason — you copied.
C · The Artifact
What you hand in
AI rule
None of this is AI-generated. Your hand, your voice, your code, your words.
A real example, from this page
This very section was written with an AI. Here is what the person typed back to it, draft after draft, until it stopped being generic:
The AI never once knew, on its own, that it was being generic. A person had to know — and had to keep rejecting until the work became concrete, the boxes above. That rejecting is the thinking. That is the job.
Why this matters
Paste this page into ChatGPT and submit what it returns, and you cannot produce A1, A2, B2, B5, or C2 — they do not exist unless a person did the work. That is how we read a submission in one minute: we look for the boxes a machine can't fill.
Selection Process
4 rounds. Each one teaches you something.
DT doesn't look for experience or qualifications. We look for a mindset. We look for a candidate with a “fire in the belly.”
Role-Specific Assignment
For You
You understand the role through a simulation
For Us
We understand your skillset
48 hours
Video Reflection & Mindmap
For You
You understand DeepThought and PDGMS AI Platform
For Us
We understand if you connect with our vision
48 hours (with R3)
Career Roadmap Reflection
For You
You understand how this aligns with your career
For Us
We understand your mindset
48 hours (with R2)
Virtual Tour
For You
You experience the work culture first-hand
For Us
We understand if you can endure the rigor
6 days (after shortlisting)
This process is rigorous and most applicants are rejected. Proceed only if challenges fuel you.
Your Journey
3 rounds. 96 hours. Step by step.
The clock starts when you send the consent message on Internshala.
Hour 0
Hour 48
Hour 96
Send Consent
Start · Internshala chat · Receive R1 link
Round 1: Assignment
0-48h · Internshala · Receive R2 + R3
Round 2: Mindmap
48-96h · Internshala (photo) · Submit immediately
Round 3: Career Roadmap
48-96h · Form + Internshala · Then confirm below
Confirm all three rounds done
Right after R3 · Internshala chat · DT asks you questions
Shortlisting
After close · Internshala · Zoom link for tour
Virtual Tour
Tue / Fri · Zoom 5-9 PM · Interview
Round 1
Role-Specific Assignment
Complete a simulation for the role you've applied for.
Timeline
48 hours from receiving the assignment
Submission
Assignment + hand-drawn sketch of your thought process
Guidelines
- You may use AI to complete the assignment. Set guardrails against AI hallucination.
- DO NOT use AI for the hand-drawn sketch. It must show YOUR thought process.
- Read the detailed guidelines in the shared repository carefully before starting.
Want to stand out
Add a 100-day plan to your assignment.
The assignment shows you can do the work. A 100-day plan shows something rarer. It shows you can lead. Imagine the company gives you three months and a free hand. Show how you would change the way it thinks and works, not just finish your own tasks.
A hundred days is twelve weeks, about three months. Break it into three phases.
See the system
Learn how the company actually runs today.
- Read the P&L and find where money is made and where it leaks.
- Watch how decisions get made and where work gets stuck.
- Talk to people across the floor, not only the leaders.
What is really broken here, underneath what everyone says is broken?
You are on track when
You can name the one thing that holds the whole place back.
Prove one change
Pick the one problem that changes the most, and design a system for it.
- Build a system, not a one-time fix.
- Run a small pilot with one team.
- Get one visible win that people can see for themselves.
What is the smallest change that makes the organisation behave differently?
You are on track when
One team already works the new way and likes it.
Make it the new normal
Turn the pilot into something that runs without you.
- Change habits, not heroics.
- Let AI carry the routine so people carry the judgment.
- Hand the system to the team and step back.
How does this keep running after you stop pushing it?
You are on track when
The change shows up on a real number, like a cost, a cycle time, or a defect rate.
An IC plan reads like this
“I will finish these tasks and ship these features.”
A leader’s plan reads like this
“I will change how the team decides, so the work keeps happening without me.”
Put your 100-day plan on one page and add it to your assignment. Most people send only the tasks. The few who send a plan for changing the company are the ones we remember.
Round 1 is not the finish.
This selection runs over three rounds. Round 1 is the assignment you just read. Round 2 is the mindmap and Round 3 is the career roadmap. You have to finish all three before we take your application forward.
Once all three are done, send us one message on Internshala so we know, written in your own words like this:
“I have completed all three rounds. These were the Round 1 assignment, the Round 2 mindmap, and the Round 3 career roadmap.”
After that the DT team will ask you a few questions and invite you to the Virtual Tour.
Round 2
Video Reflection & Mindmap
Watch the 38-minute video below. Take detailed notes. Then draw a hand-drawn mindmap capturing how the ideas connect.
Timeline
48 hours (shared with R3, after R1)
Video
38-minute walkthrough of DT mission, CARR, and PDGMS
Deliverable
Hand-drawn mindmap on paper (submit photo on Internshala)
Guidelines
- Take detailed notes while watching. 3-4 pages minimum with finer arguments, not just headlines.
- Do not ignore unfamiliar words. Google them or ask AI to explain in your mother tongue.
- Hand-drawn only. NO AI. If we find AI usage in the mindmap, you will be eliminated. If your goal is fitness, you don't take a car.you actually run.
- Analytical detail matters. The bar is high. Many get eliminated due to mindmaps that lack detail. This is a map of how ideas relate, not a summary.
- On the same mindmap, mark what you intend to observe about Scientific Thinking during the Virtual Tour.
- Submit on Internshala immediately after completing Round 2. Do not wait for Round 3.
What good looks like
A web of ideas, not a list of points.
Aim for at least 30 nodes on one hand-drawn A4 sheet, connected richly like the one here. Most people stop at ten boxes in a row. The ones who think keep finding links between ideas, and the page fills up. If your sheet looks thin, you have not gone deep enough yet.
Round 3
Career Roadmap
Every other round tested what you can do. This one asks whether you can see yourself honestly.
We are looking for three things. They sound similar, but they do different work.
Two people, five years from now.
The person who performs
Says “I learned the importance of communication.”
Gets hired everywhere. Sounds great in meetings.
Same problems keep following her, job after job.
She genuinely does not understand why.
The person who is honest
Says “I was the bottleneck because I never checked.”
That sentence cost her something to write.
Changed one specific behaviour. Then compounded.
Can see what is actually broken. Starts with herself.
We hire the second person.
If you answer these 20 questions honestly, you will know something about yourself that you did not know before you started. That is true whether we select you or not. The whole thing takes about an hour. You can perform all of it. Smart candidates usually do. But the person who performs walks out with nothing, and we can tell the difference.
The 20 Questions
Twenty questions. Five dimensions.
Each dimension shows a different angle of how you operate.
These are not trick questions, and there is no scoring rubric you can reverse-engineer. Some of them will be easy to answer honestly. Others will make you want to construct a version where you come out looking good. When that urge kicks in, pay attention. That is the question that matters most. Answer from a real memory. If you do not have one for a particular question, say so. “I have never been in this situation” is an honest answer, and a made-up example is not.
The Process
Three steps.
You have read the questions. Now here is how the rest of Round 3 works, and why each step is designed the way it is.
The Reckoning
Three more questions.
These matter most in the entire round. Answer them in your own words on Internshala. Five lines each. No AI. We can tell.
Whether you join DT or not, you now see something about yourself that you did not see an hour ago. That is the actual skill. The people who can do this are the people who can sit across from a founder, see what is actually broken, and say it without flinching. That is what DT Fellows do.
Now share it.
Go to Internshala. Send us your three answers. Five lines each. No AI. We will read every word.
Complete Round 3 on InternshalaAfter all three rounds
Finished all three rounds? Tell us on Internshala.
When you have submitted your Round 3 career roadmap, send one message on Internshala so we know you are done with every round. You can write it in your own words like this:
“I have completed all three rounds. These were the Round 1 assignment, the Round 2 mindmap, and the Round 3 career roadmap.”
Once we read it, the DT team will ask you a few questions and then invite you to the Virtual Tour.
Round 4 · After Shortlisting
Virtual Tour
We show you how we work first. Interviews happen after the tour, not before.
Schedule
3 days tour + 3 days shadowing. 5 PM – 9 PM via Zoom.
Orientation Days
New cohorts start on Tuesdays and Fridays.
What You'll See
Hypothesis Framing
Real business problems framed as hypotheses, not complaints
PDGMS Workspace
Threadbuilder, Rigorbuilder, Self-Gratitude, Journal in action
Constraint Classification
Not “I’m stuck” but which type of stuck, routed to the right team
The 5×5 Grid
5 value chain functions × 5 authority levels, live
Commitment
What we ask. What we invest.
This is a full-time commitment. Proceed only if you can dedicate the required time and energy.
Schedule
9:30 AM – 6:30 PM
Monday – Saturday
Duration
12 months minimum
Full-time fellowship
Compensation
₹12 LPA
Engineering roles
L&D Investment
₹5,000/month
DT invests in your growth
Location
Bengaluru
Experience: 1+ years required
Internet
High-speed required
Stable for video calls
Rules of Engagement
AI policy. Per round.
Round 1.Assignment
Use AI tools freely. Set guardrails against hallucination.
Round 1.Hand-drawn Sketch
Shows YOUR thought process. Hand-drawn only.
Round 2.Mindmap
Hand-drawn on paper. AI usage = elimination.
Round 3.ChatGPT Bot
The ChatGPT bot IS the tool. Use it as designed.
Round 3.Internshala Message
Your own words. No Grammarly, no LLMs.
All Communication with DT
We want YOUR thinking, not a language model's.
Consent to Proceed
Before starting, you'll reply on Internshala with:
“I understand that:
- The selection process is long, rigorous, and most applicants are not selected.
- I may be rejected even after significant effort.
- I will remain professional in all communication.
- I will not use LLM/AI tools in the chat thread.
- I will complete Round 1 within 48 hours and R1+R2+R3 within 96 hours.”
FAQs
Common questions. Clear answers.
Open Roles
Pick your path into the DT Fellowship.
Each role has a unique Round 1 assignment. The selection experience (rounds, mentorship, the work) is the same.
The Launchpad
Other jobs give you a title.
This one gives you a seat at the table.
Sravan went from BBA graduate to Chief of Staff. Shagun shipped 58 modules as a fresher. They weren't trained for it. They did the work, alongside founders, on real problems, with real stakes.
“Everyone at some point in life should work at DT.”
Feliza Dadachenji, Maths Asst Professor | DT Fellow, 2020
We don't look for the best candidate.
We look for the most curious one.
Challenges should fuel you, not frustrate you.