For applicants and families

Internship screening process

What happens to your internship application: what we read, what we leave out, where AI helps, and how to ask for a person. People decide who moves forward.

Make a request about your applicationSee the steps

Why this page exists

You sent us your work. You should know what happens to it.

More than 6,000 people applied for the last cycle of our internship, for a batch of 8 to 15. For everyone who ticks the AI box, AI assistance helps us read the application closely and find the work behind it; a person reads the rest by hand. It does not decide who moves forward. People on our team do.

The boundary

What we read, and what we leave out

Only what you send us, and the public links you give us. Nothing else.

What we read

  • Your form answers and your CV.
  • The public links you give us, in the form or in your CV: a GitHub profile, a portfolio, a project, something you published.
  • On GitHub, only code you wrote yourself: your own commits and your pull requests that were merged. Forked and starred repositories count for nothing.
  • Your replies, if we write to you.

What we leave out

  • Anything you did not give us. We do not search for you online.
  • Profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X or Threads, and any page that asks for a sign-in. Our automated tools never open them. If you gave us such a link, a person on our team may.
  • Your photo, age or date of birth, gender, marital status, religion, caste or category, your parents' names, nationality, home address or health. Our summary of your CV leaves them out, and they are never part of any score.
  • Your college, as a score. We note where you study, but it is never part of any score.
  • Your gender, as a score. The form asks for it only as an optional question, to check that our screening treats every group fairly. It is never sent to an AI model and never scored.

The steps, in order

Every application goes through the same steps. Nothing on this list rejects, invites or hires anyone.

  1. Your application arrives

    We collect your form answers, your CV and the links you gave us. A CV we cannot read costs you nothing: we use your answers.

  2. We read your CV

    Automated tools turn your CV into a summary of your projects, experience and activities. Anything that does not match your CV word for word is dropped.

  3. We look at your work

    We open the public links you gave us and no others. For GitHub, we count code you wrote yourself, never forks or starred repositories.

  4. We read what you want

    We read where you said you would like to contribute and match it to this year's areas. If you ticked the AI box, AI assistance helps. If you left it unticked, a person does it.

  5. We assess the evidence

    If you ticked the AI box, AI assistance helps us assess real work, clear thinking, how you use AI, and curiosity, for every area open this year. Where it is unsure, a person looks instead. If you left it unticked, a person does all of this by hand.

  6. We write to you about your work

    If you ticked the AI box, we may email you a few questions about your own work, in the area you want, written with AI assistance. If your work also fits another area, we may offer you a choice. Every email is checked automatically before it goes, and a person on our team reads every reply. If you left the box unticked, a person writes to you if they need to know more.

  7. A person decides

    Every application is listed for our team. People on our team decide who to invite to the next round.

If we write to you

The questions we may send

They are about your own work. Each question names something you built, wrote or organised, so it could not be sent to anyone else. We may ask why you made a particular decision, or what broke and how you fixed it. You can ask us anything about the internship in your reply: we answer from the published facts about the internship, and a person on our team replies to anything those do not cover. You are welcome to use AI tools to answer. If you do, tell us what you changed in what they gave you. There is no deadline, and we send no reminders. To stop, reply "stop" and we will send no more automated emails about this application; a person may still write once with the outcome.

Your choices

What you can ask us to do

Use the form below, or reply to any email from us. Asking for a person, opting out or asking to be kept on file does not close your application. Deleting your data does.

  • Review by a person only. We start no further AI step on your application, and a person reviews it by hand. You can also reply to any of our emails and ask for a human review.
  • Opt out of automated screening. We delete the summary of your CV, the scores, the evidence we gathered and the page copies we made. Your application, your CV and the emails you sent us stay with our HR team, who review them by hand. You can also reply "opt out".
  • Keep your application on file. We keep it and may contact you about future internships and roles until you ask us to stop. You can also reply "keep me". To stop, choose "Stop keeping my application and contacting me" in the form below, or reply "stop" to any of our emails. If you never ask to be kept, your application is anonymised 18 months after you apply.
  • Delete your data, or get a copy of what we hold. We handle these as privacy requests and answer within 30 days, as our privacy notice says.
Ask about your data on the Your data page Read our privacy notice

Requests

Make a request about your application

Use the email address you applied with. We will email that address a link to confirm your request before anything changes, so nobody can act on someone else's application.

Who is asking? (required)
What would you like us to do? (required)

We will email that address a link to confirm your request before anything changes.

How we handle what you send is set out in our privacy notice.

Questions from applicants and parents

Does a computer decide whether I get the internship?
No. For applicants who tick the AI box on the form, AI assistance helps us read the application and find the evidence of real work in it; applicants who leave it unticked are read by a person alone. People on our team make every decision about who moves forward. Automated scores decide which questions we ask you, never who moves forward. No automated step rejects, invites or hires anyone.
Can I use AI tools to answer your questions?
Yes. Tell us what you changed in what the tools gave you. How you use AI is part of what we look at, so showing your working helps you.
Is there a deadline to reply?
No. Reply when you can. We send no reminders. If we have not heard from you a week after our last email, we stop asking and write once to say your application is with our team. You can still reply after that: a person reads every reply, and nothing is decided automatically.
Will you look at my social media?
Not with automated tools. They read only what you send us and the public links you give us, and never open LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X or Threads profiles, or any page behind a sign-in. If you gave us one of those links, a person on our team may open it.
Is my college or my background scored?
Your college is never part of any score. We note where you study. Our summary of your CV leaves out your photo, age, gender, religion, caste and similar details, and they are never part of any score. If you tell us your gender on the form, it is used only to check that our screening is fair, and it is never scored.
Do I need a GitHub profile or a portfolio?
No. If we find little of your work, we may ask you about one thing you have done. If your work is private, or you have no public links, say so in your reply. That is a fine answer. Group projects are welcome too: tell us which part was yours.
What happens after I answer your questions?
People on our team read your answers alongside everything else. We may reply with a follow-up question about what you said. People on our team then decide who to invite to the next round. Depending on how many people applied that year, the next round is a walk-in or a group discussion, run by people from our team.
How long do you keep my application?
If you agree to be kept on file, we keep your application and may contact you about future internships and roles until you ask us to stop, which you can do through our request form or by replying "stop" to any of our emails. Otherwise your application is anonymised 18 months after you apply: we remove your name, contact details, CV and anything else that identifies you, and keep only figures such as scores and dates.
Can a parent make a request for an applicant?
A parent can fill in the form, but the confirmation link goes to the email address the application came from, so the applicant has to confirm it. That keeps an application in the hands of the person who sent it.
Why do you email me before acting on a request?
So that only the person who applied can change an application. The confirmation goes to the address you applied with, and nothing changes until you confirm.