Students from both these institutes will have a bias for their respective colleges. If you ask IIIT Bangalore students, they will recommend you choose their college. The same is the case for NIT Calicut students.
Reach out to one senior from both these colleges who belongs to the CSE department. Ask them about the infrastructure, faculty, curriculum, placements, and other important aspects of their respective department. Don’t ask an NITC student about IIITB, and vice versa. This is because they might have misconceptions about the other institute.
I would recommend IIIT Bangalore. The institute has top-notch faculty, placements, research facilities, campus quality, and hostels. Moreover, it doesn’t follow any reservation criteria for admissions, unlike NITC.
Try to approach seniors from both these colleges, and research a bit on the IIIT Bangalore CSE department. Also, IIIT Bangalore offers iM.Tech in CSE, and not B.Tech.
My brother has visited both institutes. So, I know a little bit about NIT Calicut and IIIT Bangalore. If you're talking about B. Tech in CSE, NITC is undoubtedly the best.
NITC remains ahead in terms of ranking compared to IIITB. But this doesn't necessarily mean that IIITB is not a good college. IIITB is a pretty new college and has only been offering M. Tech in IT for a long time, and this is one of the reasons why it does not have much recognition among students.
IIITB does not have a B. Tech program, but recently it started offering a 5-year Integrated M. Tech program. Right now, the second batch is about to pass. The first batch has passed out with remarkable achievements. IIITB has been more of an M. Tech-focused institute since its start. The faculties are really good here.
Placements: When it comes to placement IIITB gets the upper hand. Being situated in Bangalore, the college also attracts a lot of software companies.
Infrastructure: In terms of infrastructure, NIT Calicut is way better than IIIT Bangalore.
Academics:
So, go through the above-mentioned points and make your decision wisely.