One of my friends went to NIT Calicut and he was able to provide some information regarding admission at the institute. 

• If you have completed your standard 12th or equivalent examination in India then for securing a seat at NIT Calicut, you need to appear for the JEE Mains entrance examination. 
• The marks and cutoff greatly vary every year. It also depends on your Home state and Other state categories. If you are from Kerala then you will have a 50% reservation. Thus you will have good chances of getting admissions compared to Other state students.
• In case you are an NRI and completed standard 12th equivalent abroad, you need to clear the SAT with a good score to get a seat at NIT Calicut. In addition to these, there are few seats reserved for the students of SAARC countries.
• If you are from OBC/SC/ST category, you will have a lesser cut-off.

So, you should focus on your preparation to get a good score in JEE Mains in order to get admission at NIT Calicut.

NIT Calicut is a prestigious college. It has been ranked 23rd in the NIRF Ranking for Engineering 2020. All these rankings depend on various factors. 

In NIRF Ranking, graduation outcome, perception, teaching, learning & resources, outreach & inclusivity and others get analyzed. Some of these parameters are essential to make a decision, and some are irrelevant for the students.

However, NIT Calicut is one of the top choices for admission by JEE Main aspirants after NIT Trichy, NIT Surathkal, NIT Warangal, and NIT Allahabad. NIT Calicut is famous for its CSE and ECE branches.

IIIT Hyderabad CSD would be a better option between the two if you like to study Computer Science as per the standards of US Universities. Otherwise, you can go for NIT Calicut CSE.

• IIIT H has a good brand name in the industry and this will definitely help in your career. Even if you wish to pursue higher education, you can get into top colleges because of the tag of IIIT H. 
• The institute focuses more on research as part of their curriculum, therefore it will definitely help in the higher studies. 
• Exclusive companies visit the campus during placements such as Tower Research, Rubric Inc, Apple, etc. 
• Google also hires interns at IIIT Hyderabad based on your GPA.

However, you should make the decision on your personal preference.

I have a few friends from NIT Calicut and they talk about how great the coding culture is on campus. Here is what I gathered from my conversation with them. 

• Of all the programming languages available, C is the one you will learn in your first year and most of your B.Tech journey will include it. This is the most basic programming language so if you are good at it, you will be able to get by easily.
• There are a few compulsory lab electives that include data structures and algorithms, assembly level programming, DBMS, Software Engineering, and many others. You will be able to explore these in different semesters.
• You should also choose electives according to your interests and what you plan to do in the future. You will be able to learn about tech and software from projects as well as programming in the electives.
• Many groups, clubs, and associations also conduct hackathons and coding competitions.
• If you are looking into competitive coding, you should interact with students who discuss problems from CodeChef, topcoder, Hackerank and Hackerearth.

You will be able to explore a lot in NIT Calicut if you are interested in Coding. 

After doing some research on the internet, I finally came to a conclusion that NIT Calicut is considered among the top 5 NITs and IIIT Allahabad is the best IIITs, that is IIITH and IIITB. Let me mention some facts that you should know about.

• If you are interested in pursuing IT-related branches, then IIIT Allahabad will be a good choice. They even offer an advanced curriculum.
• At NIT Calicut you will get non-circuit branches also like Civil, Mechanical Engineering, etc.
• NIT Calicut and IIIT Allahabad are Tier 3 and Tier 4 institutes respectively.

According to the reviews online, I got to know that both are equally good institutes. You can opt to study in any of the institutes, as they are both prestigious and reputed institutes.

According to the rules laid down by the college, you will not be allowed to get a laptop for the first year of your college but many bring laptops anyway. It will help you with your presentations, assignments as well as design. Your work will become quite simple and effective.

You can also use it for recreational purposes like watching movies, shows, and series. Over the weeks, the rule is relaxed pretty much and students will start getting their laptops to class over the second semester.

From the second year, the restriction will go away entirely. Although having a laptop in the first year is against the rules and regulations of the hostel, they don’t usually object if you bring one. 

One of my friends is in his last year and hasn’t experienced anything related to ragging. Although there might be some fun interaction with the seniors but no extremities that hurt.

Here are some insights of NIT Calicut in the context of ragging.

Dress code ragging

• Although earlier you needed to be careful about wearing fancy clothes and accessories, now it's not a thing. 
• You can wear anything while being careful about your belongings which is common in every college.

Physical abuse

• In the past incidents of beating up were heard but now due to proper affidavit and law enforcement, you won’t face anything like that. 
• If you are a fresher you might be asked to dance or do sit ups, etc. 
• Sometimes the seniors will tell you to address them as Sir’s and Maam’s.
• However, if you see anything is going out of hand, a complaint can be lodged anytime and strict action will be taken.

Academic performance

• Sometimes you will find seniors asking you to do their assignments, bunk classes, or not to take any part in any club activities, etc. 
• On the contrary, you can also find seniors who do not let you go out of track and prepare you for the upcoming workload.

My friend has done assignments and called his seniors sir but nothing more than that. Nobody is forced to do anything if somebody does then he will be subjected to strict punishments as mentioned above. Even the assignment thing doesn’t last for long as there have been many instances where teachers could identify the handwriting and many students have been caught in this act. So, you can relax as there are no chances for extreme ragging or bullying of any kind.

This will entirely depend on your interest as you are comparing two different colleges and two different branches. If you are interested in one particular branch, don’t decide between the two colleges as they are both NITs.

You should first see where your interest lies and choose an option accordingly. If you are not sure, I will suggest you take CS in NIT Patna which is the better option. Here are the recent placement highlights for NIT Patna. 

Regarding civil engineering, let me tell you that even if you land up at an NIT, you will have to prepare for GATE or ESE exams since the placement scenario is not that great.

With civil engineering, you will have to do a lot of hard work but with CSE, you will be able to enjoy college life and get good placements at the end of your degree unlike civil. 

In the end, it boils down to your interests and what you are looking for.