By Osaf Ali

Hey folks! I’m Osaf — a final year Computer Science student from IIIT Pune, and this is the story of how I found not just my first internship, but also my first real team, first production bug (😅), and first big win; all at Zenduty.

How it all started

It was January 2025, and I was deep into placement season. Out of the blue, Zenduty—one of the only two Python-first product companies came to our campus. I remember thinking, “Wait… this tech stack actually aligns with what I love.”

To my surprise (and excitement), I got shortlisted. The interview was with Ankur, Zenduty’s CTO, and it was genuinely one of the most chill but thought-provoking convos I’ve had. We spoke about my past projects and internships — not just what I built, but why I built them.

Then came the take-home assignment for two hours, covering everything from Python scripting and SQL to OOPs and a bit of DSA. Felt like a rollercoaster, but one I was weirdly excited for. I waited nervously, and then came that email: “You’ve been selected for the SDE Intern role at Zenduty.”

Let’s just say I celebrated with a massive plate of biryani.

Day 1: Mentors & chai ☕

Before my first day, I had a quick onboarding call with VJ from HR, super helpful and welcoming. I got a shiny MacBook and my starter kit. Chintan walked me through the Zenduty product and I quickly realized: this thing is deep. Incident management isn’t just alerts; it's reliability, workflows, escalations, ownership. So. Much. Learning.

Getting my first project

I was paired with Javeed as my mentor and honestly, the guy’s a wizard. He helped me understand Zenduty’s architecture and more importantly, taught me how to figure stuff out without panic-Googling everything.

First challenge?

Writing tests for the Zenduty API and Python SDK. Sounds simple, right? Well… I managed to write tests that ran for an hour (yes, 60 minutes). But I brought it down to 15 minutes through optimization and that felt amazing.

Then I helped the marketing team by creating static email templates. It was a fun break from backend logic.

Later, I moved to frontend automation with Cypress, designing test architecture for our landing pages. Got to collaborate closely with Anish (my fellow intern) and Javeed again.

Every task felt like a real contribution, not intern-y work, but real stuff.

Culture code

What really sets Zenduty apart? The people.

We have “Chai Time” breaks that are less about tea and more about bonding — tech, memes, rants, everything. Nobody ever made me feel like ‘just an intern.’ Whether it was founders or seniors, everyone was approachable and always up for a chat (or a mini debugging sesh).

I’ve learned more from these conversations than any lecture hall ever taught me.

Final thoughts

Zenduty gave me my first taste of product engineering. Of solving real problems. Of shipping something that wasn’t just a college project, but something customers used in production.

To anyone who’s reading this and is considering applying here: do it. You won’t just learn about code you’ll learn how to be a part of a team that actually cares.

Thanks Zenduty for everything. And to Javeed, Anish, Chintan, Ankur, VJ; big shoutout for being absolute legends.

Cheers,

-Osaf Ali
SDE Intern, Zenduty
Osaf Ali Sayed