So,I don't really know anything about internships,that's why I created this topic.My questions:

First:

I'm asking from a programmer's perspective.

How long does an internship last?

Is it possible to finish the internship,wait a year,and then go to the same company where you did the internship and get a job?

Do you have to be in college/finish college to apply?

If you get accepted,do they help you with food,a place to stay etc?

Do you have to show a portofolio/take an exam to be accepted?

Programmers take internships (ie, work without pay)? Depressing. Where I work, we've given summer jobs to college students (engineers/programmers), but they were paid to do the things they had the skills to do.

So,I don't really know anything about internships,that's why I created this topic.My questions:

First:

I'm asking from a programmer's perspective.

How long does an internship last?

Is it possible to finish the internship,wait a year,and then go to the same company where you did the internship and get a job?

Do you have to be in college/finish college to apply?

If you get accepted,do they help you with food,a place to stay etc?

Do you have to show a portofolio/take an exam to be accepted?

It depends on the place I guess, but where I work, it's like this:

1. Generally 3 or so months, they're always summer internships from college (at least our development interns). Typically junior or seniors, although recently we've gotten some post-graduates.

2. Of course, that's kind of the point. A "try before you buy" sort of deal. Also why they're usually juniors or seniors. If we like you, we'll offer for when you graduate.

3. Depends on the place I guess. But for us, yes. Have to be well within your degree program or have graduated. Think about it, you need to actually have programming skills and knowledge and be able to demonstrate it.

4. Again depends on the place. We deal locally, there's a small stipend (I believe) our interns get. But other than that, no. For larger companies, like Microsoft, I think they do stuff like that.

5. Yep, on both accounts. We have a watered down version of our exam we give to interviews for a full time position that we give to the interns. There isn't an expectation a junior will ace it, but if you have knowledge and can hold a technical conversation and talk about algorithms, complexity, how you approach problems, etc then that's good. Having some sort of portfolio to show is also ideal (whether its an internship or full time position). And not bogus stuff either, but legitimate projects that have some sort of complexity. A good candidate ideally has such projects that are non-academic as well, and its something we look for.

Of course, every company is different and may have different standards in how they evaluate candidates. But I would imagine there are common threads. At least out our office, we treat our interns well and they actually work. Usually non-production code, like small internal dev tool projects. But if they show promise, there have been cases where they've done more interesting work.

FYI, I work in the CAD industry, not a game company. Probably harder to intern at one of those places due to a number of factors (location for one).

Well,I saw Valve already took interns from highschool.

And,right now I'm working on a 3d game engine with dx.Shouldn't that be enough to prove that I know what I'm doing? Is the college a must?

I would say in most cases, college/university is a must, there are exceptions, I have a gaming buddy who got into the games industry and he's still at school. Put a portfolio together and send it away if you are confident. They should just pay you. It's no different to any other job. You will just get paid a lower rate. After 2nd year, we can apply for internships.