IIT Hyderabad student bags Rs 2.5 crore package, highest in institute history

When Edward Nathan Varghese walked into IIT Hyderabad as a computer science undergraduate, he did what thousands of students do — focused on coding, classes, and competitions. What he didn’t know then was that four years later, he would walk out with a Rs 2.5 crore job offer, the highest package ever recorded at IIT Hyderabad since the institute was founded in 2008.

The 21-year-old final-year student has received the offer from Optiver, a global trading firm based in the Netherlands. Edward will join the company as a software engineer in July, after converting a two-month summer internship into a pre-placement offer.

Edward’s journey to the record package did not involve multiple interviews or a long placement season. According to media reports, Optiver was the



first and only company he interviewed with during placements.

During his summer internship, two students were selected. Edward stood out and successfully converted the opportunity into a full-time role, beating stiff competition in the process.

He credits his success to a mix of factors — the IIT tag, a flexible academic curriculum, and a strong emphasis on coding and competitive programming from the first year of engineering.

Until now, the highest package at IIT Hyderabad stood at Rs 1.1 crore in 2017. In comparison, the highest offers were Rs 90 lakh in 2023–24 and Rs 66 lakh in 2024–25.

Edward’s Rs 2.5 crore offer not only breaks records but also marks a major moment in the institute’s placement history.