My CloudSEK Internship Experience

This article is about my internship at CloudSEK.

CloudSEK is a cybersecurity company that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify and manage digital threats!

A lot of my seniors at Point Blank were working / had worked at CloudSEK. So, when I got to know CloudSEK is looking for interns I HAD to apply! In this blog post, I will describe the application process, the interview process, and my experience working at this company.

Intro

I am Akash Singh, a third year engineering student and Open Source Contributor from Bangalore.
Here is my LinkedIn, GitHub and Twitter

I go by the name SkySingh04 online.

Selection Process

This was probably one of the most in-depth recruitment process I had ever been a part of.

• Application :

I had initially found the open intern position on LinkedIn. After applying there, I had asked my seniors at Point Blank to provide a referral for the same. I ended up working in the same Pod (team) as my senior Aditya. Shortly after which, I received a confirmation email and my interview was scheduled.

• HR Round :

This round was conducted to ensure I will be able to provide the necessary commitment of 3 months to the internship, along with general discussions about my past internships and experience and why I wanted to work at CloudSEK.

• Interview Round 1 :

This round was headed by my team leader. We went over my resume, my past experiences with Golang including my Google Summer of code project. This was followed by some system design questions and then DBMS / SQL fundamentals with a database design problem as well.

If you have a good grasp of CS Fundamentals and Database fundamentals, this round should be easy enough. You will have a positive experience if you are confident in the skills you've listed on your resume. Be thorough with your Projects.

• Interview Round 2 :

This round was taken by the tech lead of Core Platform Engineering team. The thing that gave me an advantage in this round was my DNS Server Project
which was written in RUST . The interviewer took keen interest in my project and we discussed it for half an hour. This was then proceeded by a System Design question, which was to be designed and implemented in GO.This really had me sweating and I am actually surprised I was able to implement it.

If you have interesting projects and are thorough with the implementation and various nuances of it, you are good to go! Stay confident and try to solve the system design question while considering all edge cases. The company is okay if you google during the interview.

• SELECTED! 🎉

The thing I realised about CloudSEK was, whatever questions / topics they had covered during the interviews, they had direct application during the job. This was a breathe of fresh air from all the leetcode based hiring (xD)

My Experience

Working as a Backend Engineer intern at CloudSEK was a transformative experience where I gained hands-on exposure to advanced development practices, cloud services, and CI/CD pipeline management. My primary focus areas included maintaining and developing microservices for the CloudSEK Community Server, which was entirely written in GO. I tackled various tasks ranging from writing controllers to exploring OpenTelemetry for monitoring, adding both breadth and depth to my skillset, along with designing Databases using POSTGRES and MongoDB (yes now the interview questions make sense).

I worked primarily from office during my internship. The office was always full of snacks, unlimited caffeine and hardworking individuals alike.

I explored various monitoring and observability tools, such as Grafana, Loki, and OpenTelemetry, to set up and analyze metrics effectively. This deep dive helped me understand the importance of real-time insights for backend health, helping us quickly identify bottlenecks and optimize resource allocation. Additionally, I learned so much about Load testing, writing Integration and Unit tests, and fell more and more in love with Golang❤️.

I was also exposed to Gitops and secret managements, writing scalable microservices and monorepos, generating documentation using Swagger and deploying my services using Kubernetes! The fact that I was given the full liberty to design, implement and deploy my own services meant that I had to take care of everything from writing tests to building the CI/CD pipeline to deploying the changes using ArgoCD.

CloudSEK is a RFC-First company. What this means is, before you actually start coding, you are supposed to write a Request for Change (RFC) document for whatever changes you are introducing / service you are building. I had to write many RFC's while working on the Cloudsek Community Server , which used to go through multiple rounds of reviews. This documentation helped align our team on design decisions and ensured clarity on the objectives, benefits, and technical details of upcoming features. Completing the RFCs taught me the value of clear, technical communication in project planning.

Along with all of this learning, I was also exposed to so many AWS tools such as Simple Storage Service (S3), Simple Queuing Service (SQS) along with tools like Kafka, Redis etc. Oh and did I mention, you cannot survive a day in CloudSEK without Docker? Haha, yes I worked with lots of Docker and CI pipelines during my internship and it was super fun!

My Introduction To Cybersecurity

One of the highlights of my internship at CloudSEK was my first real exposure to cybersecurity. I not only had the chance to work on projects directly impacting cybersecurity solutions, but I also completed an internal course, CloudSEK External Threat Monitoring Solutions, which deepened my understanding of the field. This course provided valuable insights into identifying and managing digital threats, leveraging tools and techniques used by cybersecurity professionals to protect organizations against external attacks.

The course wasn’t just theoretical—it included a Capture The Flag (CTF) challenge that put my problem-solving skills to the test. Engaging with real-world cybersecurity scenarios and tackling CTF challenges gave me a hands-on experience that solidified my foundational knowledge in cybersecurity.

Even though cybersecurity was not my field of interest, this exposure only increased my field of knowledge. Thanks to the CPE team for making me do this!

Conclusion

CloudSEK is an amazing place to be a developer. I’m incredibly grateful for the support and camaraderie of my team. Each senior I worked with brought a wealth of knowledge and was always eager to share, making every project not only a task but a learning opportunity. From brainstorming sessions to coding sprints, the team’s dedication and passion for cybersecurity were infectious.

The office itself was a constant source of motivation—with an endless supply of coffee, snacks, and a culture that genuinely valued hard work and curiosity. Truly one of the best offices in Bangalore to work at!

You will learn and grow as the team is open to trying new technologies. They keep on adopting new tools and technologies thus there is always something to learn! I’m excited to take all that I’ve learned here into my future endeavors, carrying with me the invaluable experience of working at a company that’s genuinely making a difference in the digital landscape.

Thanks for reading my article :)