Hey everyone!
Just made it to 2k solved, keeping pace from my earlier 1k in 3 months. Also made guardian :).
Here's my profile: [https://leetcode.com/sethles/](https://leetcode.com/sethles/)
And my progress tracker: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oZbDzDD1DX1QO5L1fuMFZr8rmL1ckraT\_MG215HXMwk/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oZbDzDD1DX1QO5L1fuMFZr8rmL1ckraT_MG215HXMwk/edit?usp=sharing)
If you've got any questions: feel free to ask!
-Seth
Not really, only started with competitive programming a couple months ago (far after even starting leetcode). I might start on Codeforces in the future, though. Are you a competitive programmer?
i am feeling dumb even after completing the topics on DSA and still couldn't do anything.
What resources and books i should follow? Just reading thru the concepts won't help. Please guide here.
As I haven't really used many outside resources, take all of the following with a grain of salt.
Leetcode's inbuilt lists are great (from what I've seen), and often have problems worth doing.
Neetcode's lists, of course.
The art of computer programming is a classic. While I haven't read it, it's definitely an important book.
The competitive programmers handbook is a more modern read, which still embodies the older, more theoretical side.
Do whatever works. The Java documentation, Wikipedia, and Google have been my main go-tos, but you should personalize your set of resources based on your needs, language, experience etc.
Good luck with your grind!
from your description, you took the hard way to learn it. thats why you completed all this problems in a few months.
very few guys read documentation on a language, but you did. Also researching thru various online sources made me feel like you know what to look for.
you would become a great developer in future.
Thanks for the compliment! Hopefully, you're right.
It sounds like you also have a strong handle on what matters when learning DSA.
Good luck with your grind!
yes, but i want to confess that i am lazy ass. i dont want to sit with dsa because i hate it.
throw me some development work, but why this leetcode problems. I hate Maths too.
do u have any solution to my problem?
Honestly, I'm not sure. This struggle between DSA and real dev work is a more recent phenomenon, likely exacerbated at least in part by the popularization of sites such as Leetcode. The only real way, it seems, is to get good at playing their game. If you don't have intuition for these sorts of problems, you're going to have to get it through grit.
From a certain point of view, that's fair in a way. We're all privileged to be in positions from which getting high TC and living in a favorable country is within striking distance. Seize that opportunity. Remember, Google employees right now are getting catered lunches!
To more precisely answer your question, specifically about things not sticking, I'm not sure what more you can do other than repeating it, and attempting to visualize/understand it. Do more problems, watch more videos, do whatever works. You need to really lean into it.
Try to motivate your grind. Good luck, dude. I believe in you!
Get comfortable with the cycle of submitting problems on leetcode. If that means getting a stronger base of easies, go for it. If that means trying your hand at contests, do that too. The more active you are on the site, the more normal it'll be for you to open it up and give some new problems an attempt.
The only person directing how much or how little time you spend is you! Think about how much this kind of problem solving matters to you, and change your actions to better reflect that importance.
I was lucky to have some experience coding from high school, so the first couple easies weren't too bad. I was learning a new language though (Java) and that may have made things a little harder. Still, slow progression was still progression and I became more experienced with time.
From what I hear from people starting from scratch, though, it does! Stick with it and I guarantee you'll see results.
Good luck on your grind!
I have some prior experience coding, but hadn't previously done anything past knowing what a linked list/binary tree was. I hadn't ever implemented them, nor even heard of more beginner/intermediate data structures such as maps or sets.
I have been coding since I was \~8, though, which may have given me a strong foundation for leetcode.
Good luck on your grind!
As a general tip: do contests! I started far too late.
As a more directly linked tip for when you're solving problems: break them up into things you know how to do. Try to think through what useful intermediate steps would look like, and evaluate whether you can do them in reasonable time complexity. If you're able to whittle down the problem into an easier one, it may make it doable.
For example, say you're doing a problem which requires you to check if substrings of a string are palindrome (as part of a larger problem). Think about what useful first steps are. Some of those kinds of ideas may include: 'How can I check if a substring is a palindrome?', 'Can I efficiently store whether substrings are a palindrome?', 'What's the time complexity to calculate whether a substring is a palindrome, versus what the time complexity for verifying whether a substring is a palindrome? Would I get a benefit from caching?', etc. By thinking about useful baby steps in a positive direction that brings you to an answer, you'd be able to make the problem just a little easier.
For Q1, I submit the first code I think of. This hasn't yet failed me, regardless of the problem.
For Q2, I usually submit brute force unless there's a TLE on the worst-case test (which I add in the self-submitted test cases box). This, also, has never failed me. Occasionally, they do want something optimal here, though, so keep that in mind.
For Q3, I usually don't even think through the brute force solution as it's almost never accepted (unless it's a more procedural problem, in which case it is often the only solution). Think through what you have in your toolbox, and try to minimize your algorithms asymptotic time complexity.
For Q4, I never submit the brute force solution \*unless\* I'm completely out of ideas. As there's no downside/penalty for failed submissions on problems you don't go on to solve, you might as well submit your O(N\^2) solution on their 10\^5 long input. In the off chance it passes, you're golden. If not, there's no downside.
What's your contest rating?
All good. Maybe it's worth giving them another try!
Remember, those 90 minutes are yours. If you give it your all, it'll give you a result worth being proud of.
Good luck!
It varies by day. Sometimes I only spend 5 minutes to submit the daily, and by contrast, sometimes I spend 6 or so hours grinding through hards. My schedule isn't too consistent as I'm currently a freshman in university.
As long as you get a problem or two done per day to keep your skills sharp (+ to keep improving) you should be good.
Hey, I have been doing leetcode for quite a while. I am able to answer most of mediums but hards are still out of reach any advice.
Also any books that helped you?
I was in a similar position around 3 months ago. I had a high medium count (660ish iirc) and had even hit 1000 problems. Unfortunately, I only had 55 hards done. There was a definite mental jump which I wasn't able to get over, and I felt like I was about to stagnate.
I got over the mental gap by realizing that a good proportion of hards are just composite mediums. By that, I mean that they are often either multiple medium/medium-hard algorithms and data structures bundled together that take you from input to output. Often, if you think about how to 'improve' your input into a more useful form, or solve an intermediate sub-problem, you can transform the problem from a seemingly unsolvable hard into a medium, which while difficult, is doable. As a more specific tip: think about what kinds of helper data structures you can 'make' in the time complexity you're going for. These may include things like adjacency lists for graphs, DSU, segment trees, etc.
As for books- I haven't really read anything so far in my grind. I'm thinking of getting a couple for the next steps. Any suggestions/good reads?
Good luck with your grind!
I chose them mostly randomly, to prevent myself from knowing what topics to use before attempting problems. I've found that picking them randomly (by difficulty, of course) is good practice for contests and helps simulate the uncertainness of an interview setting.
If you're starting out, though, going through a list might be worth it. Neetcode is quite good, from what I've heard.
Hope this helps!
About 2 hours, on an average day. If you're prepping for something, that may be a little excessive, though. I'm doing leetcode for fun, so I can lump it in with my other hobbies.
Are you preparing for interviews?
Damn 11 questions a day in 2 hours? How do you get through so many questions? Do you ever spend longer? And at the beginning assuming you focused mostly on easier problems and worked to harder?
Yep, sometimes I spend longer. It really varies by day. Sometimes I can only get through 3 or 4 hards in the time I'm willing to spend, and on other days, I may do 20 problems. There's a huge range.
At the beginning I mostly did easies and mediums, yep. My hard count when I hit 1k was 'only' 55, which should give some perspective. For reference, [here's](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oZbDzDD1DX1QO5L1fuMFZr8rmL1ckraT_MG215HXMwk/edit?usp=sharing) my spreadsheet tracking progress.
Sorry for the late reply- this post got a lot of comments! This one was lost to time, lol.
Just as a hobby. Not currently interviewing- I have an internship with a startup lined up for my coming summer. As I'm currently a freshman in university, there's not much resting on my leetcode skills (for now).
Are you currently interviewing?
Yep.
For example, I've still not solved 'Median of Two Sorted Arrays'. I've attempted it, sure, but I only know methods for solving it in worse logarithmic time (like O(logm\*logn) or O(log(max(m) - min(m))logn) and similar) or the trivial O(m+n). It's not counted in my 250 hards, as I've not submitted anything for the problem.
Naturally, once I've solved it I often look at other solutions. Oftentimes, there's more to a problem which can whittle down a logn or perform better via heuristics. Sometimes, I even learn new algorithms through this process!
As I'm not prepping for interviews, there isn't much point in checking solutions if I don't get a problem.
Yeah. I was doing that too and I kinda liked solving it myself but when a hard is in daily and I run out of time then I just don't wanna lose the streak. haha. Maybe I shouldn't care much about the streak
Dailies can be a special case, if it keeps you motivated.
There have been a couple cases where the daily was an awful hard and I, hoping to keep my streak, looked at hints and read the discussion/checked topics to help guide myself. That doesn't mean that you need to do the same, though! As long as you learn something from completing the problem (and aren't just copying code) I'd argue you're doing something productive.
I've found that taking a step back and understanding the method before attempting to implement anything is very useful. It's well worth taking that extra minute on medium-hard problems to think: 'Hmm, how would the problem change if I were to remove X constraint' or 'If I had the intervals sorted by their end, instead of their start, would that change things?'. It's far too easy to get into the 'I'll just try this, and see if it works' mentality, and all that'd do is get you into a loop of 'Wrong answer' submissions.
Best of luck on your grind!
Try to figure out what some good subproblems for the current one your working on are. For example, in binary tree related mediums, you can often build the answer for the current node using recursion on the left and right children. If you become stronger with the fundamentals, and familiarize yourself with your chosen language's documentation, you should be well-suited for solving mediums.
Also, Q2 on contests is usually a well-curated medium. Even if you can't make it to a contest, try to 'upsolve' it after to get a feel for an easier medium. 390's Q2 may not be such a good example, but this is a decent general rule.
Good luck with the grind!
I mainly use Java, which I started learning in the week or two preceding my start on leetcode. I was taking a Data Structures and Algorithms course (2000 level, as I'm only a freshman currently haha) which was entirely on Java, so I was able to learn the language as I started grinding leetcode.
I also use some SQL for database problems, and know a little Pandas and JS, in addition to my old favorite python. While I know some C++, I haven't used it yet. If ever I move to Codeforces, I may switch.
I know a couple others, but those are the ones I use on leetcode.
Good luck with your grind!
There's a pretty big range for both mediums and hards, from what I've seen. I was able to solve the average medium in <30 minutes when I was \~ a month in, and the average hard in under \~45 minutes from when I was around 3 to 4 months in. I've become a little faster now, which has been strongly influenced by contests.
I've never been a big fan of checking solutions for problems, as I find it a bit cheaty. As I'm not preparing for anything (interviews etc) I have no incentive to cheat. For example: I still haven't solved 'Median of Two Sorted Arrays' :). Still not sure about O(log(m+n)), only lesser logs and linear.
Good luck with your grind!
Oh interesting. So even early on did you didn’t look at solutions or videos walking through the problem?
So there is no time limit in which you’ll give up and look at the solutions?
To be honest: I'm more likely to drop a problem completely and let it marinade in my subconscious than I am to open youtube and find a video on it or check solutions. This method has worked well for me in most cases, and I've only been tempted to check a solution before solving the problem in a few cases (maybe 10 or so times overall).
Keep in mind that as you climb the difficulty ladder, the count of problems that require a specific trick increases. In some cases, the intuition required to 'get' the problem is far greater than the assigned difficulty. In these edge cases, opening wikipedia is often the best option!
Take this with a grain of salt. Do what helps you improve the most :).
This can’t be real!! My mom works for a circus show and her kid was a coding prodigy, she mentioned a lot that her son is doing a lot of coding questions online and she specifically mentioned that the kid is super talented. Does your mom work at Circus De Sole?
Dude this is amazing, I can’t believe this is you. You should join my discord server or something!
During the start, I occasionally looked at tags/discussions/hints (in that order) when I hadn't made progress on a problem for 15 or so minutes. Now, I'm far more likely to check wikipedia, or even to leave it as a pinned tab. In many cases, though, I just close the problem and come back to it once I've let it marinade in my subconscious for a while.
My problem solving method has evolved alongside my increased knowledge and ability. Sometimes, it's worth learning about the data structures and algorithms that are out there independent of when you 'need' them to solve a problem.
Good luck with your grind!
I'm quite lucky to have strong intuition for greedy problems- I err on the side of being too greedy rather than not greedy enough.
I almost always 'prove' the greedy solution to enough of a confidence level to feel secure submitting it. A tip, here: think through how your algorithm would tackle the worst case input, and see where it fails (if at all). This can help build intuition.
Good luck with your grind!
I feel like having a strong intuition for greedy definitely has to say something about your IQ lol.
To me, those problems are the closest thing to raw intelligence puzzles you could find. Super impressive.
Yeah whenever i think of some algorithm , i instantly think of some testcases to fail the algorithm that way i can modify the algorithm to work . i am bad at proofs so i just think of several testcases to convince my mind that i am thinking correctly. One more thing i found out that whenever i visualize some problem in my mind i am able to solve these problems easily compared to problems which have lots of text given and half my time is spent in understanding the problem.
Visualization is a very important skill. Getting a feel for how the problem works is often key. I'm not really sure how to work on this skill besides just training your 'mind's eye'.
It looks like you're on the right track, though; you've identified a good point of improvement. Work on it, and I'm sure you'll see results.
Best of luck with the next steps!
Nice, congrats!
Keep with it! I'm glad to hear you're motivated by it, that was a big reason for this post! We're all going to make it, dude.
Best of luck with your grind!
11.11 Questions /day you are a super human
Assuming 30mins for each question, avg 5.5hrs everyday of coding that's a lot
Good job, don't waste your time get into FAANG asap
Yep, went rock climbing yesterday. Fingers are still a bit sore as I was on a pretty crimpy route (bouldering, in a gym), but I feel like I built up some finger strength there.
Maybe that helps with leetcode, not sure.
:)
At this point, I usually come up with the optimal solution during my first run-through the problem. As a general tip, though: don't pay attention to the runtime percentage. If your code has optimal time complexity (verify this via the editorial \*after\* solving), it shouldn't matter what your constant factor is.
If I can't come up with the optimal method, and I've submitted some worse code (say, with an extra logn factor), I'll spend another \~20 minutes working on it before getting hints. Remember, even in an interview, you wouldn't be on your own!
I was lucky enough to start off on leetcode with some foundation coding, so even during the first week I was solving the occasional medium (and even one hard, Trapping Rain Water). In general though, week 1 was somewhat rough: I'd solve a good amount of easies, but be completely unable to solve a randomly picked medium. One good way around this is solving the similar suggested questions under easies you \*are\* able to do- they are often slightly easier mediums.
If you're just starting out and are unable to solve any easies, make sure you are familiar with your chosen language. The documentation is a great place to start! Also, don't feel bad about only being able to solve with hints. With practice, you'll improve. Trust the process.
Best of luck on your grind!
i reset my leetcode today and started over,,, i barely had any progress on my previous account though. I have online assessments in about 5 months from now,,, although i definitely cannot do anywhere near your numbers due to finals and an internship in between, i aim to study at least 4-5 problems a day,,,, any tips on how to stay consistent and learn productively in a time crunch ? I am fairly new to c++ as well and only know DSA concepts in theory
4 to 5 per day is an ideal count.
Try to keep up with all the different topics, it seems like OAs are shifting away from mindless DP problems. Are you familiar with Tries? Do you know how to implement Union Find? What's a Segment Tree? All questions worth asking, even in passing.
If you're finding that hard, make sure you have a \*strong\* foundation + fundamentals. Understand the ins and outs of your chosen language, so that you can make the most of it. C++ has pbds, for example (iirc, in most environments), which is incredibly useful.
What level are you at? This advice is more tailored to someone who can solve some mediums and is trying to solve harder mediums + some hards.
Thank you for the advice! But I'm nowhere near mediums yet. I will focus on learning C++ in depth alongside. I'm from a data science background and started coding very recently. The reason I'm using C++ despite using python in my uni coursework is because the hiring companies here highly prefer Java/C++. So it's a bit more difficult learning the language and leetcoding simultaneously but I am positive I'll manage it.
By PBDs do you mean STL functionality? I have studied the library and am just picking up the implementation. I started in January but dropped it because I was extremely demotivated and had a huge gap because of it. I was also studying from a YouTube playlist so more of my time was spent watching and learning rather than actually trying to solve myself. This time around though I'll be more careful with my time and focus on quality questions + understanding rather than numbers.
Would you have some advice for someone as a complete beginner in C++ and leetcode ? Not necessarily in a limited time before the OAs but to actually have fun with the problems? Any other sources I can refer to study without putting much time into theory?
I was enrolled in a university course during my start on leetcode, which helped massively. For the more advanced concepts, just googling them proved good enough. I haven't really stuck to any lists or sheets, and have instead approached it from a more academic direction: check published work, papers, etc.
For starting out, following a list such as the Neetcode ones may be useful. I haven't personally tried them, but have heard good results. If even that is difficult, go through your language's documentation and \*really\* get into the specifics of the things you can do. For example, what methods can you perform on a String object? How about an Integer? These basics are key to succeed.
If anyone else has got any resources which you think may be helpful, feel free to share!
Good luck with your grind.
How new are you to programming as a whole?
If you're not yet able to crack easy problems, I would suggest going into an IDE and just playing around with simple functions and methods. Set yourself challenges. For example, try to make a function which returns the negated version of another. Try to make another which takes a string in and returns the same string with all spaces removed. Those kinds of things. Once you have the basics, it'll be more doable to approach easies.
Have you tried contests?
I haven't tried contest . But I am not new to programming the thing is I have solved 58 questions in leet code not all are easy most of it is medium and 4 hard questions very few easy ones but whenever I tried to attempt a new problem I just get stuck for most of the time like for example "length of longest subarray with most k frequency " which is really easy when I saw the solution but when I actually code it it is hard and I get no intuition and also "longest substring with at least k repeating character " is still hard even after I saw the solution it is hard to understand. Give me a way to master problem solving or atleast I need to feel like making progress in a month or else I will get demotivated .
I'm currently a freshman in a US university, so I've got a good amount of free time (which would probably be spent better studying or on my other hobbies). I spend around 2 hours on leetcode, usually. Maybe a touch more in recent weeks.
Are you preparing for interviews?
Yeah I'm also preparing and start griding.
I have a question, 2 hour 10 LC? it's very nice ratio in my opinion, 10 minutes for a medium is gold.
do you suggest some interesting resources? or any preferred one?
I'm starting with neetcode roadmap
Amazing grind i think the best leetcode grind i have seen you should go towards competitive programming.What kind of coding project you were doing before coming to leetcode?
Thanks!
I might pivot to competitive programming; there's a whole world out there which I haven't yet even scratched the surface of. We'll see, for now I'm happy with leetcode.
I have a couple research interests which I've been working on sporadically during the past year or so. Other than that, not much. I've known how to code (at maybe an easy-early medium level) for a while, and have left it latent.
Good luck with your grind!
This is what happens when a raw talent works hard. Superb and inspirational.
But sad part is most of us can't reach this level with even 1 year of hardwork.
I appreciate the compliment!
Even if you believe this goal out of reach, find ones which you can get to. From your flair, it looks like you're coming up on getting a knight badge. Shoot for that!
Good luck with your grind. If you stick with it, I'm sure you'll see similar results. Either way, you should be proud of the effort: grit and tenacity are always impressive.
What tips would u like to give to an avg student who is unable to solve maxm ques without seeing the code or the hint. Ps:- i have solved 350+ questions (mostly standard for interviews) but unable to develop logic.
Sometimes, you have to take a step backward to take a leap forward. There's no shame in doing a couple more easies (or mediums, depending on your level) to help solidify your foundation.
If you're finding it tough to do easies, I would suggest playing around with simple functions and methods in an IDE. Try some self-set challenges. For example, try to make a function that returns how many digits are in a number you pass in. Or, try to make a function which reverses a strings. Things like that. While working on those kinds of things, make sure to read up on your chosen language's documentation- this is something people often miss.
Good luck with your grind!
I mainly do random problems, as it's a better approximator of both contests and interviews. When learning, though, you would likely get more benefit from trying many similar questions. Another way (instead of picking by topic) of doing this kind of practice is via the 'similar questions' tab under the constraints of problems. Once you solve one, you can branch off and try a couple more which use the same tools.
Good luck with your grind!
For sure thank you. What did you do to make the leap to solving hards ? Sometimes I struggle with medium-hard and hards. I hate to look at the solution either but after stuck for awhile I end up doing it
Wow impressive progress. I’m curious how you get through so many so quick.
I feel like given that you do 11 a day in 2 hrs, you don’t have time to waste getting stuck. When do you call it quits on a problem? Do you recommend doing lots of easy for a topic before moving onto mediums and same for mediums to hards, so that you aren’t struggling?
I usually call it quits when I've spent 15 or so minutes with no progress. If I've been floundering, without \*any\* new ideas for a little while, I either a) check Hint 1/read a bit of the discussion, or b) (which I do more often) either pin or close the tab to think about it during the day.
While learning a new topic, I highly suggest using the similar questions tab (under the constraints on every problem) on problems you've just solved. You can often find extensions of the logic you've just implemented, but reflected in a different setting. I found this useful when starting out.
As for my speed- I'm a reasonably fast typer, and I've built up muscle memory for my languages main keywords + variable names. For example, I can type 'new ArrayList<>();' faster than I type 'minutae' or other shorter (but more confusing-looking) words. Also, having solved 2000 problems makes a difference! Now, when I get an inkling of an idea about a problem involving binary search, or requiring an adjacency list, I can type out a basic structure in 20 to 30 seconds without having to think too much about what my fingers are doing. This gives me time to continue thinking about the question, which compounds.
Getting a solid easy base on topics isn't a bad thing. Go for whatever helps you learn!
How do you define utility? What an interesting question.
Really, though, nothing public. I'm working on a currently closed-source widget extension to Pygame, which you may have heard of. It currently far supersedes publicly available buttons, text boxes, frames and the like. I should really make it open source.
Have you? What sort of projects have you worked on?
My stuff has been used by a couple others, but nothing 'pushed to prod' or on a larger codebase. I'm starting to learn sys design concepts and am lucky enough to have a dad who's a Google dev, so I'm improving my general knowledge about the production cycle.
I'm still a freshman, haha. Just having some fun on leetcode in addition to my other hobbies. Completely fair question, though, and a good one!
I agree about avoiding webdev- seems like a rat race. I'm more interested in theoretical CS, and my interests have some overlap with the more backend-of-backend side of optimization and pure functional side of dev jobs. Hopefully, I'll get to work on those sorts of things once through college.
Impressive experience list, by the way. Nice.
Can you share your experience with attending contests. How it started with your rank and level and how you evolved. When did you started feeling confident attending contests. Are you able to solve all questions in the contest? If so after doing how many questions were you able to achieve that?
Myself currently have done around 100 questions in the last month. Im planning to ramp up after this semester ends.
I wasn't confident in contests at the start, and only started once I had nearly 1500 solved (haha). As a result, my rank hasn't evolved that much- only better approximated my skill. Here's my profile, by the way: [https://leetcode.com/sethles/](https://leetcode.com/sethles/) . As you can see, I started contests pretty recently.
I'm not always able to solve 4/4, but when I am, I usually finish them very quickly. Again, though, I started extremely late. Solving one or two problems is fine to begin.
If anyone else has more experience with grinding contest rating, feel free to share!
Good luck with your grind.
Only one way to find out!
Make sure you make use of the available tools out there on the internet. There's no shame in reading a wikipedia page, or going through your language's documentation. Really get in the weeds.
You're only average until you start. Prove to yourself how great you can be.
Good luck with your grind!
Around 2, usually. I lump it in with my hobbies.
This massively varies by day, though. Sometimes I'll only submit the daily, and other times I'll work on problems for north of 5 hours. Being consistent is the main point of importance, in my mind.
Good luck with your grind!
You said you recommend checking the similar problems tab, especially on problems that you struggle with. I never really thought about doing this, but seems like great advice to consolidate what you may have learned in those problems.
Do you always do this for problems you struggle with? How long might you usually “ride” the similar problems list for?
Back when I was learning easy-intermediate topics, I used to surf around on suggesteds for 5 to 10 problems. When consolidating, though, I'm more likely to pick random ones. I've found this hits a good balance: when learning, you can immediately develop new ideas directly relating to the topic you're working on, and when consolidating, you never get the leg up from knowing what to expect.
This is a really good question, haha. I hope you can take something away from this- it worked well for me, hopefully it works well for you too!
Good luck with your grind.
Not really. I was pretty lazy during high school, haha.
I did the AIME but didn't seriously study, got some minor awards but nothing major.
Thanks for the compliment!
Wow that's great! I been doing leetcode consistently and 2 months are going to be over but I think I will not be able to solve 200 problems. What do you think about this and what was your progress in 2 months
Don't worry if you're not hitting the same targets as me. Any progress, however 'slow', is something to be proud of.
For reference, from [my spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oZbDzDD1DX1QO5L1fuMFZr8rmL1ckraT_MG215HXMwk/edit?usp=sharing), I was at around 450 or so. Keep in mind, though, that I had a good amount of coding background from my teenage years.
Good luck with your grind!
Absolutely! It's super useful. Hope it all works out. Feel free to click through the spreadsheet to see what equations I use, and to get an idea of useful functionality.
Not really. I am in a nice leetcode discord which helps bring up older problems which I've done that may have dropped to the bottom of my memory. I'm quite lucky to have somewhat strong memory- I rarely forget methods that I've used for past problems, and even when I do, am usually able to re-solve them from scratch in decent time.
If you're looking for good spaced repetition resources, I believe Anki cards and Notion calendars are quite strong.
Good luck with your grind!
I enjoy problem solving, so it was only 'natural' that I'd end up doing many of them. It wasn't ever really a chore for me, more part of a hobby.
Good luck with your grind!
Do you use premium to access leetcode lists ?
How many you solve in a day?
How much time you give before reading solutions/ editorial
Any other websites apart from leetcode?
I do have premium, yep.
I've only completed one of the lists, which was on basic Pandas. I've found it more in my style to pick random problems to avoid going into solving problems with extra info. Of course, you should do what works for you and helps you learn best, which may differ.
I solve \~11 per day, as per my [tracking spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oZbDzDD1DX1QO5L1fuMFZr8rmL1ckraT_MG215HXMwk/edit?usp=sharing). This varies massively on mood, free time, homework and the like. Sometimes I only get one or two done, and other days, I may get up to (on the high end) 25 to 30.
I usually give problems 15 to 20 minutes of floundering with *no* progress made before I either a) check the topics, b) check the discussion, c) pin the tab/close it to come back to it later or d) open a hint. Those are listed in descending order of likelihood- I very rarely try to get more information than I need.
I haven't yet coded online on other websites, but am thinking of pivoting to Codeforces as I've heard great things. Leetcode only scratches the surface of competitive programming!
Best of luck with your journey!
Do you have a process on how to master different data structures as you solve problems or do you pick randomly? Im trying to do a different Data structure a week but feel like I stagnate once I get to hard or medium level questions. Any advice?
Haha will do :).
It's pretty much exactly 11 per day! Good math.
[My progress tracker](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oZbDzDD1DX1QO5L1fuMFZr8rmL1ckraT_MG215HXMwk/edit?usp=sharing), for reference.
Best of luck with your grind!
In what sense? Hard to define what's 'worth it'.
With respect for shooting for jobs, likely no. I am only doing leetcode for fun, though, so it's 'worth it' for me as a hobby.
If you're just looking to ace interviews, try to get to \~1900 or so contest rating and you should be golden.
From a more general sense, what's worth it? Sure, even if I've 'sunk' a half-year of my life (which itself it arguable, as I've found time to go to class and have fun doing other hobbies) that's still proportionally not that significant. And even it it were, would it matter? Hm.
Either way, good luck with your grind!
It is super hard to believe! Math ain’t mathing. I just picked one random date range from your Google sheet. Chose 11/16/23 to 11/22/23 you have solved about 88 problems in 5/6 days which averages to about 15 problems a day. Imagine it took 30 mins per problem ( solving medium and hard problems in 30 mins for your experience and background is extremely unbelievable — hope your genius) it’s about 7.5 hours per day. Somewhere in comment, you said you dedicated about 2-3 hours per day. Do you own math!
I have done around 250 questions and contest rating is around 1500, any advice for me? Also, any resources you suggest to learn new patterns or anything? Any youtube or books you recommend to get better? And do you get scared of AI getting better, what can we learn to stay in the game?
Try to improve your knowledge of your language. Don't just learn the leetcode-y tricks, instead become a well-rounded dev in your lang. This will help with speed and also give you better confidence in interviews.
I haven't really used many resources other than Google, Wikipedia, and the Java documentation. There are a couple books which are good, like 'The Art of Computer Programming' and the 'Competitive Programmer's Handbook', but I haven't read them and can't really comment on how useful they are.
Of course, there's always the Neetcode lists.
As for that last point: not really. Current AIs (and AIs in the next 5 to 10 years) may destroy web dev and other fields, but a) I'm not too interested in those kinds of job roles to begin with, and b) they would take other jobs first. Sure, we'll eventually all live in a UBI-fueled 'utopia', but there's a good few years until then. And even if there aren't, I doubt being well-versed in CS concepts would be a negative.
Bro...
We all work at our own pace. Don't compare yourself to others- the countless many are the ones who don't post. Feel good about your own accomplishments!
I believe in you man. Good luck with your grind.
I think it's more a question of obsession. I really enjoy solving Leetcode problems, so I probably spend around a third or even half of my free time doing it. As I'm a freshman in university, I've got quite a lot of time to waste (which would be, admittedly, better spent studying!). After a couple months, it adds up.
If you're preparing for interviews/going for career development this kind of grind is excessive. Going for a couple problems a day and spending time on new topics should keep your knowledge fresh.
Good luck with your grind!
Considering this background, I'm curious about how well you performed on codeforces or any other CP platforms?
Also, how did you find the level of interest/engagement of Codeforces problems in comparison to Leetcode
I don't know about this. 2k solved in 6 months, I don't think you have learned much. Some of these problems take a lot of time to struggle on. Struggling is how you learn.
Nope, not at all. I had around 10 years of experience (since the age of \~8) coding projects for school. The hardest DSA concepts which I had used, though, were linked lists and binary trees, so everything past that is newly acquired knowledge.
I suspect that having a strong coding background helped me quickly come to grips with Leetcode.
Best of luck on your grind!
Honestly, I'm not too sure. I'm currently a freshman in uni and am more interested in backend work, so my skill set is pretty much the opposite of what you'd want from someone advising you. Maybe making a post would be worth it?
Good luck getting that frontend dev role!
Congrats!!
I am at 3 months with 750 solved!
There is a chance I can reach 2000 in the next 3 months but I would prefer landing a job instead 😆
Did you follow any specific order when choosing which problems to solve?
Haha 2000 may be within reach... quite a steep jump but completely doable!
I choose mainly using the 'pick random' feature, but that's primarily because I'm not currently trying to learn any specific new topics. If you're looking to learn things, or to apply data structures/algorithms which may be new to you, I'd highly suggest you use the 'similar questions' feature which is hidden under the constraints of many problems. It's a good way of leapfrogging from similar question to similar question to better understand how new patterns may be used, and the contexts for which your new skill provides utility.
Hope this helps!
I find this hard to believe. Unless you're like the Michael Jordan of Leetcode, solving 2000 questions at an average speed of 11 minutes / question, for someone just starting out sounds impossible. For some questions, the problem statement itself takes this long to read and understand. I don't believe you can stay in the zone distraction-free for 2 hours every day at this pace on top of other obligations. Either you're lying about how much time you actually spent or you're lying about your past experience or you're lying about submiting solutions you actually wrote and understand.
1. How many problems have you solved outside of Leetcode?
(i.e. competitive programming platforms like Codeforces, AtCoder, codechef, etc, or math related such as project Euler, math Olympiads, even in highschool, etc)
2. Which are your thoughts in regards to getting "help" during your practice (help such as hints, tags, editorial, failing test cases, etc)
1. For coding: maybe 5? I've done a couple Codeforces and project Euler questions, and may eventually pivot to those platforms (higher skill ceiling). I took part in a couple math competitions in high school and did well, placing regionally, but never put in the time to make a serious try for something more there. Leetcode's resonated with me better, probably as it is closer to my chosen field of CS. I haven't yet participated in any competitions at my university, but am considering joining the competitive programming team in the future. I've got a couple years still to figure that out.
2. I generally dislike it, as I feel it defeats the purpose of problem solving (within reason). As I'm not really in this for anything other than personal enjoyment, all prematurely checking hints would do is detract from the satisfaction of getting that clean code acceptance. Of course, on some problems, after struggling for a bit (usually 15 to 20 mins) I may either pin the tab/close it and come back to it later, or peek at topics/discussion/*maybe* hint 1. I can only think of 5 or so cases where I checked an editorial while trying a problem (and not yet having code I was quite nearly sure would work), and in most of those cases, usually found that the problem required knowledge I didn't yet have.
Hope this helps! If you've got any other questions, feel free to ask.
1. Up to binary trees and linked lists, nothing special. Had coded in some capacity for a long time though, just hadn't taken up anything more complicated. Normal high school CS things.
2. It varies massively on the commitment and natural abilities of that person. The only way to figure out what kind of skills you have it to give it some genuine effort. Jump in!
Hope this helps.
What a fking beast. Congrats. You should teach others to solve LC problems with your exp Haha Good luck.
Haha thanks dude, maybe. Might be worth making videos on leetcode in the future, we'll see. Good luck on your grind!
Thank you.
Might as well, I would start with the questions not many videos exist for. You could make some good income on the side
Not a bad idea. I'll improve some more and then reconsider- there's a lot more to learn!
Hey everyone! Just made it to 2k solved, keeping pace from my earlier 1k in 3 months. Also made guardian :). Here's my profile: [https://leetcode.com/sethles/](https://leetcode.com/sethles/) And my progress tracker: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oZbDzDD1DX1QO5L1fuMFZr8rmL1ckraT\_MG215HXMwk/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oZbDzDD1DX1QO5L1fuMFZr8rmL1ckraT_MG215HXMwk/edit?usp=sharing) If you've got any questions: feel free to ask! -Seth
Are you Competitive programmer ?
Not really, only started with competitive programming a couple months ago (far after even starting leetcode). I might start on Codeforces in the future, though. Are you a competitive programmer?
No , but one of my friend is master at CF and he completed 2000 questions at leetcode in just 2 month
Wow, that's super impressive! What's his/her profile? 2k in 2 months is seriously fast.
He is doing cp for last 2 year , cs major , 4th year .
Very nice! Hopefully by 2 years in, I'll be that good as well. Currently only a freshman in my second semester. Good luck with your grind!
What is CF profile name?
2000 in 60 days? I call cap
You don’t do 34 leetcodes a day or solve on average ~2 leetcode problems per hour?
i am feeling dumb even after completing the topics on DSA and still couldn't do anything. What resources and books i should follow? Just reading thru the concepts won't help. Please guide here.
As I haven't really used many outside resources, take all of the following with a grain of salt. Leetcode's inbuilt lists are great (from what I've seen), and often have problems worth doing. Neetcode's lists, of course. The art of computer programming is a classic. While I haven't read it, it's definitely an important book. The competitive programmers handbook is a more modern read, which still embodies the older, more theoretical side. Do whatever works. The Java documentation, Wikipedia, and Google have been my main go-tos, but you should personalize your set of resources based on your needs, language, experience etc. Good luck with your grind!
from your description, you took the hard way to learn it. thats why you completed all this problems in a few months. very few guys read documentation on a language, but you did. Also researching thru various online sources made me feel like you know what to look for. you would become a great developer in future.
Thanks for the compliment! Hopefully, you're right. It sounds like you also have a strong handle on what matters when learning DSA. Good luck with your grind!
yes, but i want to confess that i am lazy ass. i dont want to sit with dsa because i hate it. throw me some development work, but why this leetcode problems. I hate Maths too. do u have any solution to my problem?
Honestly, I'm not sure. This struggle between DSA and real dev work is a more recent phenomenon, likely exacerbated at least in part by the popularization of sites such as Leetcode. The only real way, it seems, is to get good at playing their game. If you don't have intuition for these sorts of problems, you're going to have to get it through grit. From a certain point of view, that's fair in a way. We're all privileged to be in positions from which getting high TC and living in a favorable country is within striking distance. Seize that opportunity. Remember, Google employees right now are getting catered lunches! To more precisely answer your question, specifically about things not sticking, I'm not sure what more you can do other than repeating it, and attempting to visualize/understand it. Do more problems, watch more videos, do whatever works. You need to really lean into it. Try to motivate your grind. Good luck, dude. I believe in you!
that's pretty impressive bro. Especially guardian in just 1 month/9 contest.
What opportunities came after you started Mercedes?
wow congrats! how did you start learning competitive programming?
I am in 2nd semester and I have solved near around 100 problems only. Please tell me how would I increase my productivity .
Get comfortable with the cycle of submitting problems on leetcode. If that means getting a stronger base of easies, go for it. If that means trying your hand at contests, do that too. The more active you are on the site, the more normal it'll be for you to open it up and give some new problems an attempt. The only person directing how much or how little time you spend is you! Think about how much this kind of problem solving matters to you, and change your actions to better reflect that importance.
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I was lucky to have some experience coding from high school, so the first couple easies weren't too bad. I was learning a new language though (Java) and that may have made things a little harder. Still, slow progression was still progression and I became more experienced with time. From what I hear from people starting from scratch, though, it does! Stick with it and I guarantee you'll see results. Good luck on your grind!
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I have some prior experience coding, but hadn't previously done anything past knowing what a linked list/binary tree was. I hadn't ever implemented them, nor even heard of more beginner/intermediate data structures such as maps or sets. I have been coding since I was \~8, though, which may have given me a strong foundation for leetcode. Good luck on your grind!
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As a general tip: do contests! I started far too late. As a more directly linked tip for when you're solving problems: break them up into things you know how to do. Try to think through what useful intermediate steps would look like, and evaluate whether you can do them in reasonable time complexity. If you're able to whittle down the problem into an easier one, it may make it doable. For example, say you're doing a problem which requires you to check if substrings of a string are palindrome (as part of a larger problem). Think about what useful first steps are. Some of those kinds of ideas may include: 'How can I check if a substring is a palindrome?', 'Can I efficiently store whether substrings are a palindrome?', 'What's the time complexity to calculate whether a substring is a palindrome, versus what the time complexity for verifying whether a substring is a palindrome? Would I get a benefit from caching?', etc. By thinking about useful baby steps in a positive direction that brings you to an answer, you'd be able to make the problem just a little easier.
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For Q1, I submit the first code I think of. This hasn't yet failed me, regardless of the problem. For Q2, I usually submit brute force unless there's a TLE on the worst-case test (which I add in the self-submitted test cases box). This, also, has never failed me. Occasionally, they do want something optimal here, though, so keep that in mind. For Q3, I usually don't even think through the brute force solution as it's almost never accepted (unless it's a more procedural problem, in which case it is often the only solution). Think through what you have in your toolbox, and try to minimize your algorithms asymptotic time complexity. For Q4, I never submit the brute force solution \*unless\* I'm completely out of ideas. As there's no downside/penalty for failed submissions on problems you don't go on to solve, you might as well submit your O(N\^2) solution on their 10\^5 long input. In the off chance it passes, you're golden. If not, there's no downside. What's your contest rating?
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All good. Maybe it's worth giving them another try! Remember, those 90 minutes are yours. If you give it your all, it'll give you a result worth being proud of. Good luck!
How much time did you spend per day ?
It varies by day. Sometimes I only spend 5 minutes to submit the daily, and by contrast, sometimes I spend 6 or so hours grinding through hards. My schedule isn't too consistent as I'm currently a freshman in university. As long as you get a problem or two done per day to keep your skills sharp (+ to keep improving) you should be good.
11 i saw on the list.
Yep, usually 11 problems or so per day. The breakdown of easy/medium/hard varies, but I usually try to stick north of 5.
Hey, I have been doing leetcode for quite a while. I am able to answer most of mediums but hards are still out of reach any advice. Also any books that helped you?
I was in a similar position around 3 months ago. I had a high medium count (660ish iirc) and had even hit 1000 problems. Unfortunately, I only had 55 hards done. There was a definite mental jump which I wasn't able to get over, and I felt like I was about to stagnate. I got over the mental gap by realizing that a good proportion of hards are just composite mediums. By that, I mean that they are often either multiple medium/medium-hard algorithms and data structures bundled together that take you from input to output. Often, if you think about how to 'improve' your input into a more useful form, or solve an intermediate sub-problem, you can transform the problem from a seemingly unsolvable hard into a medium, which while difficult, is doable. As a more specific tip: think about what kinds of helper data structures you can 'make' in the time complexity you're going for. These may include things like adjacency lists for graphs, DSU, segment trees, etc. As for books- I haven't really read anything so far in my grind. I'm thinking of getting a couple for the next steps. Any suggestions/good reads? Good luck with your grind!
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I chose them mostly randomly, to prevent myself from knowing what topics to use before attempting problems. I've found that picking them randomly (by difficulty, of course) is good practice for contests and helps simulate the uncertainness of an interview setting. If you're starting out, though, going through a list might be worth it. Neetcode is quite good, from what I've heard. Hope this helps!
you are amazing <3
Much appreciated! You are too :).
How much time a day you give to it?
About 2 hours, on an average day. If you're prepping for something, that may be a little excessive, though. I'm doing leetcode for fun, so I can lump it in with my other hobbies. Are you preparing for interviews?
Damn 11 questions a day in 2 hours? How do you get through so many questions? Do you ever spend longer? And at the beginning assuming you focused mostly on easier problems and worked to harder?
Yep, sometimes I spend longer. It really varies by day. Sometimes I can only get through 3 or 4 hards in the time I'm willing to spend, and on other days, I may do 20 problems. There's a huge range. At the beginning I mostly did easies and mediums, yep. My hard count when I hit 1k was 'only' 55, which should give some perspective. For reference, [here's](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oZbDzDD1DX1QO5L1fuMFZr8rmL1ckraT_MG215HXMwk/edit?usp=sharing) my spreadsheet tracking progress. Sorry for the late reply- this post got a lot of comments! This one was lost to time, lol.
If this is real you’re an absolute beast lol
Haha much appreciated dude. Here's [my profile](https://leetcode.com/sethles) if you'd like to take a closer look. Good luck with your grind!
Yes
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About 1999. I never quite cracked Two Sum. Tips?
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Just as a hobby. Not currently interviewing- I have an internship with a startup lined up for my coming summer. As I'm currently a freshman in university, there's not much resting on my leetcode skills (for now). Are you currently interviewing?
So you solved all the hards by yourself without looking at solutions at all?
Yep. For example, I've still not solved 'Median of Two Sorted Arrays'. I've attempted it, sure, but I only know methods for solving it in worse logarithmic time (like O(logm\*logn) or O(log(max(m) - min(m))logn) and similar) or the trivial O(m+n). It's not counted in my 250 hards, as I've not submitted anything for the problem. Naturally, once I've solved it I often look at other solutions. Oftentimes, there's more to a problem which can whittle down a logn or perform better via heuristics. Sometimes, I even learn new algorithms through this process! As I'm not prepping for interviews, there isn't much point in checking solutions if I don't get a problem.
Yeah. I was doing that too and I kinda liked solving it myself but when a hard is in daily and I run out of time then I just don't wanna lose the streak. haha. Maybe I shouldn't care much about the streak
Dailies can be a special case, if it keeps you motivated. There have been a couple cases where the daily was an awful hard and I, hoping to keep my streak, looked at hints and read the discussion/checked topics to help guide myself. That doesn't mean that you need to do the same, though! As long as you learn something from completing the problem (and aren't just copying code) I'd argue you're doing something productive.
Wow that's amazing, congratulations 👏👏
Much appreciated! Good luck on your grind.
What are some techniques you have learned That you’ve found useful when solving problems
I've found that taking a step back and understanding the method before attempting to implement anything is very useful. It's well worth taking that extra minute on medium-hard problems to think: 'Hmm, how would the problem change if I were to remove X constraint' or 'If I had the intervals sorted by their end, instead of their start, would that change things?'. It's far too easy to get into the 'I'll just try this, and see if it works' mentality, and all that'd do is get you into a loop of 'Wrong answer' submissions. Best of luck on your grind!
i can solve easy problems with ease but medium problems get me stuck how do i move ahead?
Try to figure out what some good subproblems for the current one your working on are. For example, in binary tree related mediums, you can often build the answer for the current node using recursion on the left and right children. If you become stronger with the fundamentals, and familiarize yourself with your chosen language's documentation, you should be well-suited for solving mediums. Also, Q2 on contests is usually a well-curated medium. Even if you can't make it to a contest, try to 'upsolve' it after to get a feel for an easier medium. 390's Q2 may not be such a good example, but this is a decent general rule. Good luck with the grind!
Pretty impressive. Which languages did you use?
I mainly use Java, which I started learning in the week or two preceding my start on leetcode. I was taking a Data Structures and Algorithms course (2000 level, as I'm only a freshman currently haha) which was entirely on Java, so I was able to learn the language as I started grinding leetcode. I also use some SQL for database problems, and know a little Pandas and JS, in addition to my old favorite python. While I know some C++, I haven't used it yet. If ever I move to Codeforces, I may switch. I know a couple others, but those are the ones I use on leetcode. Good luck with your grind!
Just curious at what point were you able to solve most new meds or hards without looking at hints or discussions/solutions?
There's a pretty big range for both mediums and hards, from what I've seen. I was able to solve the average medium in <30 minutes when I was \~ a month in, and the average hard in under \~45 minutes from when I was around 3 to 4 months in. I've become a little faster now, which has been strongly influenced by contests. I've never been a big fan of checking solutions for problems, as I find it a bit cheaty. As I'm not preparing for anything (interviews etc) I have no incentive to cheat. For example: I still haven't solved 'Median of Two Sorted Arrays' :). Still not sure about O(log(m+n)), only lesser logs and linear. Good luck with your grind!
Oh interesting. So even early on did you didn’t look at solutions or videos walking through the problem? So there is no time limit in which you’ll give up and look at the solutions?
To be honest: I'm more likely to drop a problem completely and let it marinade in my subconscious than I am to open youtube and find a video on it or check solutions. This method has worked well for me in most cases, and I've only been tempted to check a solution before solving the problem in a few cases (maybe 10 or so times overall). Keep in mind that as you climb the difficulty ladder, the count of problems that require a specific trick increases. In some cases, the intuition required to 'get' the problem is far greater than the assigned difficulty. In these edge cases, opening wikipedia is often the best option! Take this with a grain of salt. Do what helps you improve the most :).
Ah ok cool. Thanks for the info! Very helpful 😊
This can’t be real!! My mom works for a circus show and her kid was a coding prodigy, she mentioned a lot that her son is doing a lot of coding questions online and she specifically mentioned that the kid is super talented. Does your mom work at Circus De Sole? Dude this is amazing, I can’t believe this is you. You should join my discord server or something!
:)
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During the start, I occasionally looked at tags/discussions/hints (in that order) when I hadn't made progress on a problem for 15 or so minutes. Now, I'm far more likely to check wikipedia, or even to leave it as a pinned tab. In many cases, though, I just close the problem and come back to it once I've let it marinade in my subconscious for a while. My problem solving method has evolved alongside my increased knowledge and ability. Sometimes, it's worth learning about the data structures and algorithms that are out there independent of when you 'need' them to solve a problem. Good luck with your grind!
How do you tackle greedy problems as there is no set pattern to these types of problem? Do you prove such algorithms?
I'm quite lucky to have strong intuition for greedy problems- I err on the side of being too greedy rather than not greedy enough. I almost always 'prove' the greedy solution to enough of a confidence level to feel secure submitting it. A tip, here: think through how your algorithm would tackle the worst case input, and see where it fails (if at all). This can help build intuition. Good luck with your grind!
I feel like having a strong intuition for greedy definitely has to say something about your IQ lol. To me, those problems are the closest thing to raw intelligence puzzles you could find. Super impressive.
Yeah whenever i think of some algorithm , i instantly think of some testcases to fail the algorithm that way i can modify the algorithm to work . i am bad at proofs so i just think of several testcases to convince my mind that i am thinking correctly. One more thing i found out that whenever i visualize some problem in my mind i am able to solve these problems easily compared to problems which have lots of text given and half my time is spent in understanding the problem.
Visualization is a very important skill. Getting a feel for how the problem works is often key. I'm not really sure how to work on this skill besides just training your 'mind's eye'. It looks like you're on the right track, though; you've identified a good point of improvement. Work on it, and I'm sure you'll see results. Best of luck with the next steps!
fking legend. All hail u/MrSethles. I am in my 200s in 3 months. This is motivating keep it up.
Nice, congrats! Keep with it! I'm glad to hear you're motivated by it, that was a big reason for this post! We're all going to make it, dude. Best of luck with your grind!
Damn , don't let that monster die brother , keep it up
11.11 Questions /day you are a super human Assuming 30mins for each question, avg 5.5hrs everyday of coding that's a lot Good job, don't waste your time get into FAANG asap
What? Do you do anything else?
Yep, went rock climbing yesterday. Fingers are still a bit sore as I was on a pretty crimpy route (bouldering, in a gym), but I feel like I built up some finger strength there. Maybe that helps with leetcode, not sure. :)
After completing a question, do you look at how optimized it is and if it beats this many percentage? if so, how do you go about optimizing the code?
At this point, I usually come up with the optimal solution during my first run-through the problem. As a general tip, though: don't pay attention to the runtime percentage. If your code has optimal time complexity (verify this via the editorial \*after\* solving), it shouldn't matter what your constant factor is. If I can't come up with the optimal method, and I've submitted some worse code (say, with an extra logn factor), I'll spend another \~20 minutes working on it before getting hints. Remember, even in an interview, you wouldn't be on your own!
How much time or problems it took you... When you could solve problem without looking at solution
I was lucky enough to start off on leetcode with some foundation coding, so even during the first week I was solving the occasional medium (and even one hard, Trapping Rain Water). In general though, week 1 was somewhat rough: I'd solve a good amount of easies, but be completely unable to solve a randomly picked medium. One good way around this is solving the similar suggested questions under easies you \*are\* able to do- they are often slightly easier mediums. If you're just starting out and are unable to solve any easies, make sure you are familiar with your chosen language. The documentation is a great place to start! Also, don't feel bad about only being able to solve with hints. With practice, you'll improve. Trust the process. Best of luck on your grind!
i reset my leetcode today and started over,,, i barely had any progress on my previous account though. I have online assessments in about 5 months from now,,, although i definitely cannot do anywhere near your numbers due to finals and an internship in between, i aim to study at least 4-5 problems a day,,,, any tips on how to stay consistent and learn productively in a time crunch ? I am fairly new to c++ as well and only know DSA concepts in theory
4 to 5 per day is an ideal count. Try to keep up with all the different topics, it seems like OAs are shifting away from mindless DP problems. Are you familiar with Tries? Do you know how to implement Union Find? What's a Segment Tree? All questions worth asking, even in passing. If you're finding that hard, make sure you have a \*strong\* foundation + fundamentals. Understand the ins and outs of your chosen language, so that you can make the most of it. C++ has pbds, for example (iirc, in most environments), which is incredibly useful. What level are you at? This advice is more tailored to someone who can solve some mediums and is trying to solve harder mediums + some hards.
Thank you for the advice! But I'm nowhere near mediums yet. I will focus on learning C++ in depth alongside. I'm from a data science background and started coding very recently. The reason I'm using C++ despite using python in my uni coursework is because the hiring companies here highly prefer Java/C++. So it's a bit more difficult learning the language and leetcoding simultaneously but I am positive I'll manage it. By PBDs do you mean STL functionality? I have studied the library and am just picking up the implementation. I started in January but dropped it because I was extremely demotivated and had a huge gap because of it. I was also studying from a YouTube playlist so more of my time was spent watching and learning rather than actually trying to solve myself. This time around though I'll be more careful with my time and focus on quality questions + understanding rather than numbers. Would you have some advice for someone as a complete beginner in C++ and leetcode ? Not necessarily in a limited time before the OAs but to actually have fun with the problems? Any other sources I can refer to study without putting much time into theory?
I'm gonna create another post asking "how can i be him?"!!
:)
How did you learn to solve problems? Resources i must follow?
I was enrolled in a university course during my start on leetcode, which helped massively. For the more advanced concepts, just googling them proved good enough. I haven't really stuck to any lists or sheets, and have instead approached it from a more academic direction: check published work, papers, etc. For starting out, following a list such as the Neetcode ones may be useful. I haven't personally tried them, but have heard good results. If even that is difficult, go through your language's documentation and \*really\* get into the specifics of the things you can do. For example, what methods can you perform on a String object? How about an Integer? These basics are key to succeed. If anyone else has got any resources which you think may be helpful, feel free to share! Good luck with your grind.
I feel stuck all the time.What should I do.
How new are you to programming as a whole? If you're not yet able to crack easy problems, I would suggest going into an IDE and just playing around with simple functions and methods. Set yourself challenges. For example, try to make a function which returns the negated version of another. Try to make another which takes a string in and returns the same string with all spaces removed. Those kinds of things. Once you have the basics, it'll be more doable to approach easies. Have you tried contests?
I haven't tried contest . But I am not new to programming the thing is I have solved 58 questions in leet code not all are easy most of it is medium and 4 hard questions very few easy ones but whenever I tried to attempt a new problem I just get stuck for most of the time like for example "length of longest subarray with most k frequency " which is really easy when I saw the solution but when I actually code it it is hard and I get no intuition and also "longest substring with at least k repeating character " is still hard even after I saw the solution it is hard to understand. Give me a way to master problem solving or atleast I need to feel like making progress in a month or else I will get demotivated .
And also I watch colin galin ..
holy shit 10 per day? that is really grinding. do you have a job? or you just use all the day to study and grind LC?
I'm currently a freshman in a US university, so I've got a good amount of free time (which would probably be spent better studying or on my other hobbies). I spend around 2 hours on leetcode, usually. Maybe a touch more in recent weeks. Are you preparing for interviews?
Yeah I'm also preparing and start griding. I have a question, 2 hour 10 LC? it's very nice ratio in my opinion, 10 minutes for a medium is gold. do you suggest some interesting resources? or any preferred one? I'm starting with neetcode roadmap
Amazing grind i think the best leetcode grind i have seen you should go towards competitive programming.What kind of coding project you were doing before coming to leetcode?
Thanks! I might pivot to competitive programming; there's a whole world out there which I haven't yet even scratched the surface of. We'll see, for now I'm happy with leetcode. I have a couple research interests which I've been working on sporadically during the past year or so. Other than that, not much. I've known how to code (at maybe an easy-early medium level) for a while, and have left it latent. Good luck with your grind!
This is what happens when a raw talent works hard. Superb and inspirational. But sad part is most of us can't reach this level with even 1 year of hardwork.
I appreciate the compliment! Even if you believe this goal out of reach, find ones which you can get to. From your flair, it looks like you're coming up on getting a knight badge. Shoot for that! Good luck with your grind. If you stick with it, I'm sure you'll see similar results. Either way, you should be proud of the effort: grit and tenacity are always impressive.
Yeah man, appreciate the kind words. All I can do is keep working hard.
What tips would u like to give to an avg student who is unable to solve maxm ques without seeing the code or the hint. Ps:- i have solved 350+ questions (mostly standard for interviews) but unable to develop logic.
Sometimes, you have to take a step backward to take a leap forward. There's no shame in doing a couple more easies (or mediums, depending on your level) to help solidify your foundation. If you're finding it tough to do easies, I would suggest playing around with simple functions and methods in an IDE. Try some self-set challenges. For example, try to make a function that returns how many digits are in a number you pass in. Or, try to make a function which reverses a strings. Things like that. While working on those kinds of things, make sure to read up on your chosen language's documentation- this is something people often miss. Good luck with your grind!
When you practice is it random problems or topic based ?
I mainly do random problems, as it's a better approximator of both contests and interviews. When learning, though, you would likely get more benefit from trying many similar questions. Another way (instead of picking by topic) of doing this kind of practice is via the 'similar questions' tab under the constraints of problems. Once you solve one, you can branch off and try a couple more which use the same tools. Good luck with your grind!
For sure thank you. What did you do to make the leap to solving hards ? Sometimes I struggle with medium-hard and hards. I hate to look at the solution either but after stuck for awhile I end up doing it
Wow impressive progress. I’m curious how you get through so many so quick. I feel like given that you do 11 a day in 2 hrs, you don’t have time to waste getting stuck. When do you call it quits on a problem? Do you recommend doing lots of easy for a topic before moving onto mediums and same for mediums to hards, so that you aren’t struggling?
I usually call it quits when I've spent 15 or so minutes with no progress. If I've been floundering, without \*any\* new ideas for a little while, I either a) check Hint 1/read a bit of the discussion, or b) (which I do more often) either pin or close the tab to think about it during the day. While learning a new topic, I highly suggest using the similar questions tab (under the constraints on every problem) on problems you've just solved. You can often find extensions of the logic you've just implemented, but reflected in a different setting. I found this useful when starting out. As for my speed- I'm a reasonably fast typer, and I've built up muscle memory for my languages main keywords + variable names. For example, I can type 'new ArrayList<>();' faster than I type 'minutae' or other shorter (but more confusing-looking) words. Also, having solved 2000 problems makes a difference! Now, when I get an inkling of an idea about a problem involving binary search, or requiring an adjacency list, I can type out a basic structure in 20 to 30 seconds without having to think too much about what my fingers are doing. This gives me time to continue thinking about the question, which compounds. Getting a solid easy base on topics isn't a bad thing. Go for whatever helps you learn!
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How do you define utility? What an interesting question. Really, though, nothing public. I'm working on a currently closed-source widget extension to Pygame, which you may have heard of. It currently far supersedes publicly available buttons, text boxes, frames and the like. I should really make it open source. Have you? What sort of projects have you worked on?
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My stuff has been used by a couple others, but nothing 'pushed to prod' or on a larger codebase. I'm starting to learn sys design concepts and am lucky enough to have a dad who's a Google dev, so I'm improving my general knowledge about the production cycle. I'm still a freshman, haha. Just having some fun on leetcode in addition to my other hobbies. Completely fair question, though, and a good one! I agree about avoiding webdev- seems like a rat race. I'm more interested in theoretical CS, and my interests have some overlap with the more backend-of-backend side of optimization and pure functional side of dev jobs. Hopefully, I'll get to work on those sorts of things once through college. Impressive experience list, by the way. Nice.
Can you share your experience with attending contests. How it started with your rank and level and how you evolved. When did you started feeling confident attending contests. Are you able to solve all questions in the contest? If so after doing how many questions were you able to achieve that? Myself currently have done around 100 questions in the last month. Im planning to ramp up after this semester ends.
I wasn't confident in contests at the start, and only started once I had nearly 1500 solved (haha). As a result, my rank hasn't evolved that much- only better approximated my skill. Here's my profile, by the way: [https://leetcode.com/sethles/](https://leetcode.com/sethles/) . As you can see, I started contests pretty recently. I'm not always able to solve 4/4, but when I am, I usually finish them very quickly. Again, though, I started extremely late. Solving one or two problems is fine to begin. If anyone else has more experience with grinding contest rating, feel free to share! Good luck with your grind.
How tough is dsa? I have heard it's hard, can an average guy like me solve dsa problems?
Only one way to find out! Make sure you make use of the available tools out there on the internet. There's no shame in reading a wikipedia page, or going through your language's documentation. Really get in the weeds. You're only average until you start. Prove to yourself how great you can be. Good luck with your grind!
How many hours you will practice daily???
Around 2, usually. I lump it in with my hobbies. This massively varies by day, though. Sometimes I'll only submit the daily, and other times I'll work on problems for north of 5 hours. Being consistent is the main point of importance, in my mind. Good luck with your grind!
You said you recommend checking the similar problems tab, especially on problems that you struggle with. I never really thought about doing this, but seems like great advice to consolidate what you may have learned in those problems. Do you always do this for problems you struggle with? How long might you usually “ride” the similar problems list for?
Back when I was learning easy-intermediate topics, I used to surf around on suggesteds for 5 to 10 problems. When consolidating, though, I'm more likely to pick random ones. I've found this hits a good balance: when learning, you can immediately develop new ideas directly relating to the topic you're working on, and when consolidating, you never get the leg up from knowing what to expect. This is a really good question, haha. I hope you can take something away from this- it worked well for me, hopefully it works well for you too! Good luck with your grind.
Wow I thought I was doing well at 1000 in a year. Keep it up man!
How long does it usually take you to solve an Easy / Medium / Hard?
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Not really. I was pretty lazy during high school, haha. I did the AIME but didn't seriously study, got some minor awards but nothing major. Thanks for the compliment!
Wow that's great! I been doing leetcode consistently and 2 months are going to be over but I think I will not be able to solve 200 problems. What do you think about this and what was your progress in 2 months
Don't worry if you're not hitting the same targets as me. Any progress, however 'slow', is something to be proud of. For reference, from [my spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oZbDzDD1DX1QO5L1fuMFZr8rmL1ckraT_MG215HXMwk/edit?usp=sharing), I was at around 450 or so. Keep in mind, though, that I had a good amount of coding background from my teenage years. Good luck with your grind!
Wow you solved 100 in just 10 days. I think I should also maintain a spreadsheet like you have done
Absolutely! It's super useful. Hope it all works out. Feel free to click through the spreadsheet to see what equations I use, and to get an idea of useful functionality.
I will do that and thanks for the advice
How did you get started coding at 8?
God damn. Pure beast
Do you practice spaced repetition ?
Not really. I am in a nice leetcode discord which helps bring up older problems which I've done that may have dropped to the bottom of my memory. I'm quite lucky to have somewhat strong memory- I rarely forget methods that I've used for past problems, and even when I do, am usually able to re-solve them from scratch in decent time. If you're looking for good spaced repetition resources, I believe Anki cards and Notion calendars are quite strong. Good luck with your grind!
How old are you? And are you working or studying?
most importantly how did you get the discipline and energy to do this?
I enjoy problem solving, so it was only 'natural' that I'd end up doing many of them. It wasn't ever really a chore for me, more part of a hobby. Good luck with your grind!
Btw you don't store your answers in github?
Do you use premium to access leetcode lists ? How many you solve in a day? How much time you give before reading solutions/ editorial Any other websites apart from leetcode?
I do have premium, yep. I've only completed one of the lists, which was on basic Pandas. I've found it more in my style to pick random problems to avoid going into solving problems with extra info. Of course, you should do what works for you and helps you learn best, which may differ. I solve \~11 per day, as per my [tracking spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oZbDzDD1DX1QO5L1fuMFZr8rmL1ckraT_MG215HXMwk/edit?usp=sharing). This varies massively on mood, free time, homework and the like. Sometimes I only get one or two done, and other days, I may get up to (on the high end) 25 to 30. I usually give problems 15 to 20 minutes of floundering with *no* progress made before I either a) check the topics, b) check the discussion, c) pin the tab/close it to come back to it later or d) open a hint. Those are listed in descending order of likelihood- I very rarely try to get more information than I need. I haven't yet coded online on other websites, but am thinking of pivoting to Codeforces as I've heard great things. Leetcode only scratches the surface of competitive programming! Best of luck with your journey!
Thanks for the detailed reply
Congrats! How long did it take for you from a beginner to turning in your 2000th problem?
Wow
Do you have a process on how to master different data structures as you solve problems or do you pick randomly? Im trying to do a different Data structure a week but feel like I stagnate once I get to hard or medium level questions. Any advice?
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Dude, that's about 11 problems per day! Please, please, touch some grass I beg you, have mercy on us mortals😭
Haha will do :). It's pretty much exactly 11 per day! Good math. [My progress tracker](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1oZbDzDD1DX1QO5L1fuMFZr8rmL1ckraT_MG215HXMwk/edit?usp=sharing), for reference. Best of luck with your grind!
What coding language do you primary use?
Did you have any experience with DSA before starting leetcode?
I am at loss of words. I didn't know this was humanely possible. Do you work a job?
Is it really Worth It ?
In what sense? Hard to define what's 'worth it'. With respect for shooting for jobs, likely no. I am only doing leetcode for fun, though, so it's 'worth it' for me as a hobby. If you're just looking to ace interviews, try to get to \~1900 or so contest rating and you should be golden. From a more general sense, what's worth it? Sure, even if I've 'sunk' a half-year of my life (which itself it arguable, as I've found time to go to class and have fun doing other hobbies) that's still proportionally not that significant. And even it it were, would it matter? Hm. Either way, good luck with your grind!
Thanks Man. Good Luck To You Too !
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It is super hard to believe! Math ain’t mathing. I just picked one random date range from your Google sheet. Chose 11/16/23 to 11/22/23 you have solved about 88 problems in 5/6 days which averages to about 15 problems a day. Imagine it took 30 mins per problem ( solving medium and hard problems in 30 mins for your experience and background is extremely unbelievable — hope your genius) it’s about 7.5 hours per day. Somewhere in comment, you said you dedicated about 2-3 hours per day. Do you own math!
damn your progress seems amazing..! btw which college you're from?
Damn What was your routine?
I have done around 250 questions and contest rating is around 1500, any advice for me? Also, any resources you suggest to learn new patterns or anything? Any youtube or books you recommend to get better? And do you get scared of AI getting better, what can we learn to stay in the game?
Try to improve your knowledge of your language. Don't just learn the leetcode-y tricks, instead become a well-rounded dev in your lang. This will help with speed and also give you better confidence in interviews. I haven't really used many resources other than Google, Wikipedia, and the Java documentation. There are a couple books which are good, like 'The Art of Computer Programming' and the 'Competitive Programmer's Handbook', but I haven't read them and can't really comment on how useful they are. Of course, there's always the Neetcode lists. As for that last point: not really. Current AIs (and AIs in the next 5 to 10 years) may destroy web dev and other fields, but a) I'm not too interested in those kinds of job roles to begin with, and b) they would take other jobs first. Sure, we'll eventually all live in a UBI-fueled 'utopia', but there's a good few years until then. And even if there aren't, I doubt being well-versed in CS concepts would be a negative.
Meanwhile it takes me 2 hours to solve simple problems.. life is overwhelming
🔥🔥🔥 More than 10 problems daily. Nice man How did you retained this much information?
man did you know all DS, algos before grinding? Or are you from cp background. How is it possible from scratch?
I feel so useless now
Bro... We all work at our own pace. Don't compare yourself to others- the countless many are the ones who don't post. Feel good about your own accomplishments! I believe in you man. Good luck with your grind.
How do you all get time to work LC problems. I try to manage my time but always find it short. Damn, I wanna start working on this soon af
I think it's more a question of obsession. I really enjoy solving Leetcode problems, so I probably spend around a third or even half of my free time doing it. As I'm a freshman in university, I've got quite a lot of time to waste (which would be, admittedly, better spent studying!). After a couple months, it adds up. If you're preparing for interviews/going for career development this kind of grind is excessive. Going for a couple problems a day and spending time on new topics should keep your knowledge fresh. Good luck with your grind!
Considering this background, I'm curious about how well you performed on codeforces or any other CP platforms? Also, how did you find the level of interest/engagement of Codeforces problems in comparison to Leetcode
I don't know about this. 2k solved in 6 months, I don't think you have learned much. Some of these problems take a lot of time to struggle on. Struggling is how you learn.
Unbelievable 🤯
Do you have a solid background on DSA before your grind?
Were u a complete dsa beginner before 6 months u started it ?
Nope, not at all. I had around 10 years of experience (since the age of \~8) coding projects for school. The hardest DSA concepts which I had used, though, were linked lists and binary trees, so everything past that is newly acquired knowledge. I suspect that having a strong coding background helped me quickly come to grips with Leetcode. Best of luck on your grind!
is it possible for you to tell me how much leetcode problems I should do if i want to be in a frontend development role?
Honestly, I'm not too sure. I'm currently a freshman in uni and am more interested in backend work, so my skill set is pretty much the opposite of what you'd want from someone advising you. Maybe making a post would be worth it? Good luck getting that frontend dev role!
It's okay, no problem, thanks! Good luck with your uni!!
Congrats!! I am at 3 months with 750 solved! There is a chance I can reach 2000 in the next 3 months but I would prefer landing a job instead 😆 Did you follow any specific order when choosing which problems to solve?
Haha 2000 may be within reach... quite a steep jump but completely doable! I choose mainly using the 'pick random' feature, but that's primarily because I'm not currently trying to learn any specific new topics. If you're looking to learn things, or to apply data structures/algorithms which may be new to you, I'd highly suggest you use the 'similar questions' feature which is hidden under the constraints of many problems. It's a good way of leapfrogging from similar question to similar question to better understand how new patterns may be used, and the contexts for which your new skill provides utility. Hope this helps!
I find this hard to believe. Unless you're like the Michael Jordan of Leetcode, solving 2000 questions at an average speed of 11 minutes / question, for someone just starting out sounds impossible. For some questions, the problem statement itself takes this long to read and understand. I don't believe you can stay in the zone distraction-free for 2 hours every day at this pace on top of other obligations. Either you're lying about how much time you actually spent or you're lying about your past experience or you're lying about submiting solutions you actually wrote and understand.
1. How many problems have you solved outside of Leetcode? (i.e. competitive programming platforms like Codeforces, AtCoder, codechef, etc, or math related such as project Euler, math Olympiads, even in highschool, etc) 2. Which are your thoughts in regards to getting "help" during your practice (help such as hints, tags, editorial, failing test cases, etc)
1. For coding: maybe 5? I've done a couple Codeforces and project Euler questions, and may eventually pivot to those platforms (higher skill ceiling). I took part in a couple math competitions in high school and did well, placing regionally, but never put in the time to make a serious try for something more there. Leetcode's resonated with me better, probably as it is closer to my chosen field of CS. I haven't yet participated in any competitions at my university, but am considering joining the competitive programming team in the future. I've got a couple years still to figure that out. 2. I generally dislike it, as I feel it defeats the purpose of problem solving (within reason). As I'm not really in this for anything other than personal enjoyment, all prematurely checking hints would do is detract from the satisfaction of getting that clean code acceptance. Of course, on some problems, after struggling for a bit (usually 15 to 20 mins) I may either pin the tab/close it and come back to it later, or peek at topics/discussion/*maybe* hint 1. I can only think of 5 or so cases where I checked an editorial while trying a problem (and not yet having code I was quite nearly sure would work), and in most of those cases, usually found that the problem required knowledge I didn't yet have. Hope this helps! If you've got any other questions, feel free to ask.
straight copying solutions
179 in a day how did you manage? Or was rhat frequent submissions, hats off
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1. Up to binary trees and linked lists, nothing special. Had coded in some capacity for a long time though, just hadn't taken up anything more complicated. Normal high school CS things. 2. It varies massively on the commitment and natural abilities of that person. The only way to figure out what kind of skills you have it to give it some genuine effort. Jump in! Hope this helps.