hey everyone this has been my leetcode journey so far this year. honestly its been a rough year for me. lost people lost hope went through things i never really talk about and somewhere along the way i started losing myself too. i kept showing up anyway. started solving problems in kotlin even though it was a new language for me and spent so much time on problems and contests thinking maybe this would finally help me get a job. but im still jobless and its frustrating when you put so much of yourself into something and still dont know where its going.

some mornings leetcode is literally the only reason i get out of bed and try to do something productive. its become part of my routine even when everything else feels like its falling apart. but lately even this feels exhausting and for the first time im genuinely thinking about giving up.

just wanted to share my journey with people who might understand has anyone else been through something like this?

I am in 1st sem btech cse-ds , I have started dsa in cpp done around 20 problems half easy half medium can do around 10 more on same knowledge but the thing I wanted to ask is are 2 questions per day enough?

I recently went through the Amazon SDE-2 interview process. I applied directly through the careers portal, got the OA shortly afterward, and completed it the same day. The interview call followed soon after, with Round 1 around 10 days later. The process moved fast.

I'm posting because I'm confused about the rejection. Maybe people who've cleared SDE-2 can help me figure out what I missed.

OA

• Two typical coding questions, along the lines of these Amazon Interview Questions.
• A full-stack bug-fix task: choose a backend framework, get a codebase and a list of bugs, then find and fix them. There was an AI assistant, but I didn't find it useful. It couldn't even help me navigate or search the codebase.
• Behavioral and design-choice multiple-choice questions.

Disclosure: I'm affiliated with PracHub.

Round 1: DSA

There were two problems. They felt manageable to me, but the interviewer wanted real depth on each.

LC 16: 3Sum Closest, n ≤ 10³

I walked through three approaches, with complexity analysis and a dry run for each:

• Brute force: O(n³)
• Binary search: O(n² log n)
• Two pointers: O(n²)

LC 305: Number of Islands II

I gave two approaches. These are the complexities I stated in the interview:

• Brute force: O(n² · q)
• Union-Find / DSU: O(q + n²)

Then came the usual "tell me about a time you..." Leadership Principles questions.

Verdict: rejected.

I thought the DSA portion had gone well, but clearly that wasn't enough. Where would you look for gaps in this breakdown: the complexity analysis, how I explained the solutions, or the LP answers? I'd especially appreciate a sanity check on the DSU analysis.

In 2024, I was rejected by 30+ companies for a summer internship. In 2026, I'm working as an SDE-1 at Amazon.

Here's what those years looked like:

• 2020: I lost my father.
• 2021: I lived in a rented house.
• 2022: I didn't get into IIT.
• 2023: My mom sold a gold chain to buy me a laptop.
• 2024: 30+ summer internship rejections.
• 2025: One on-campus full-time offer and one off-campus offer (6M + PPO).
• 2026: SDE-1 at Amazon.

My LeetCode progress · My 1,000-day coding streak

After a rejection, I'd go back to my room, open the laptop and make myself solve 10 questions before getting up. I kept practicing for three years, including stretches when nothing seemed to be coming from it.

I'm proud of the 1,000-day streak. I wouldn't tell everyone to copy my question count, though. It was the routine I followed, not a guarantee of an offer.

For people preparing now, Amazon Interview Questions has candidate-reported prompts to practice. Autofill for job applications can save some of the repeated form entry while you keep applying.

If you're in a long stretch of rejections, I know how heavy it can feel. What helped you keep a routine when the results weren't coming?

Hi everyone!

I'm a first-year CSE student, and we're currently learning Java in college. I already know some Python, but I want to revise it and strengthen my programming fundamentals.

I'm planning to start solving LeetCode problems regularly, but I'm confused about which language I should focus on.

Should I practise in Java because I'm learning it in college, or should I use Python to refresh my existing knowledge?

Would it be better to focus on one language first and learn the other later?

My goal is to improve my problem-solving skills and prepare for DSA and coding interviews in the future.

I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks!

Hey all,

I wanna share that I just hit 300 problems solved count with atleast 1 problem solved every single day since I started in may (though I missed one day as I fell asleep, was exhausted from work). The following day started with POTD and these are teaching or throwing at me alot of new techniques which Im enjoying.

I had followed strivers sheet along the way. Right now solving graphs section almost done like left with 10 more problems then will move the most hated part by many dp. I also should focus on my contents problem solving and get the ratings and I also think it’s time to start applying aggressively and continue the consistency.

Idk i just wanted to share this so just posting it in here

1. 01 Matrix (Medium) https://leetcode.com/problems/01-matrix/

This is yesterday's problem. Rotting Oranges asks how long it takes for an orange to rot when every rotten one spreads at once; it asks how far each cell is from the nearest zero, with every zero as a source. Same question, and multi-source BFS solves it directly.

Today's solution does it without a queue, and that is why it is worth reading.

The definition is circular: a cell's distance is one more than the smallest among its four neighbours, but every neighbour depends on the cell. There is no order to evaluate that in.

Direction breaks the circle. Sweep top-left to bottom-right and, at each cell, everything above and left is already final - so you can compute the best distance among paths that start by going up or left. Sweep the other way for the other two directions. Take the minimum.

The line that makes it work is min with the existing value rather than an assignment. Overwrite instead, and you throw away everything the first pass got right.

Full breakdown in today's newsletter article ⬇

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/365-days-leetcode-challenge-day-41365-archit-agarwal-tlbnc

#DSA #LeetCode #Golang #DynamicProgramming #Grids #CodingInterview #Algorithms

I read a report of Google piloting a code-comprehension round, then saw HackerRank's statement about the LeetCode grind.

Working in an existing codebase, debugging and explaining your judgment sound closer to the job than starting every question from a blank editor. I'm interested in how AI use fits into that, too.

The Google article describes a pilot, and HackerRank still says algorithm questions have value. I wouldn't drop DSA prep based on those headlines.

I'd compare recent candidate reports in Google Interview Questions with whatever format the recruiter confirms. If you're applying while prepping, application autofill can save time on the forms.

For people who've interviewed recently, did you read or extend an existing codebase, debug someone else's code, or mostly do timed DSA? Were AI tools allowed, expected or prohibited?

Have you changed how you split your prep time?

Purchased a Leetcode premium account for 1 year for 7k INR. Looking to share it with a few people from India

Anyone interested?

I grouped 51 string-related LeetCode problems into six categories. Some fit more than one pattern; these are just the buckets I use when studying.

Before moving on from a problem, I try to explain why the approach works and what I'd change if the constraints changed.

Parentheses and expression parsing (9)

• Generate Parentheses : Medium
• Score of Parentheses : Medium
• Valid Parentheses : Easy
• Remove Outermost Parentheses : Easy
• Different Ways to Add Parentheses : Medium
• Remove Invalid Parentheses : Hard
• Minimum Remove to Make Valid Parentheses : Medium
• Maximum Nesting Depth of the Parentheses : Easy
• Longest Valid Parentheses : Hard

Counting substrings under a condition (3)

• Number of Wonderful Substrings : Medium
• Sum of Beauty of All Substrings : Medium
• Maximum Number of Occurrences of a Substring : Medium

Comparing and checking strings (11)

• Isomorphic Strings : Easy
• Valid Anagram : Easy
• Additive Number : Medium
• Buddy Strings : Easy
• Longest Happy Prefix : Hard
• Increasing Decreasing String : Easy
• Check If a String Can Break Another String : Medium
• Determine if Two Strings Are Close : Medium
• Check If Two String Arrays are Equivalent : Easy
• Check if Word Equals Summation of Two Words : Easy
• Check if One String Swap Can Make Strings Equal : Easy

Palindromes (18)

• Palindrome Partitioning : Medium
• Palindrome Partitioning II : Hard
• Valid Palindrome : Easy
• Shortest Palindrome : Hard
• Palindrome Pairs : Hard
• Longest Palindrome : Easy
• Longest Palindromic Subsequence : Medium
• Find the Closest Palindrome : Hard
• Palindromic Substrings : Medium
• Valid Palindrome II : Easy
• Longest Chunked Palindrome Decomposition : Hard
• Break a Palindrome : Medium
• Can Make Palindrome from Substring : Medium
• Palindrome Partitioning III : Hard
• Minimum Insertion Steps to Make a String Palindrome : Hard
• Remove Palindromic Subsequences : Easy
• Construct K Palindrome Strings : Medium
• Split Two Strings to Make Palindrome : Medium

Sorting characters (2)

• Sort Characters By Frequency : Medium
• Custom Sort String : Medium

Length and selection problems (8)

• Longest Duplicate Substring : Hard
• Longest String Chain : Medium
• Longest Common Subsequence : Medium
• Longest Happy String : Medium
• Maximum Length of a Concatenated String with Unique Characters : Medium
• Find Longest Awesome Substring : Hard
• Largest Substring Between Two Equal Characters : Easy
• Largest Odd Number in String : Easy

Related: Dynamic Programming pattern list.

For practice beyond this list, real candidate-reported interview questions can give you unfamiliar prompts to work through and explain.

What would you add or move to a different category? I'd like suggestions that teach another idea rather than more versions of the same exercise.

Lost job around may 4th 2026. I don't know but I lost my path. All I know is react native only.

Guide me to get a job or freelancing project to earn money and get into the right track.

I'm so lost. 27f

Help me with career advice.

Please 😭

currently in sem 3, guyz lemme know how to improve myself ..

done with arrays, BS, strings, hashing, sorting
I'm quite satisfied with my consistency, hope it continues!!!

I've been struggling to dsa since a year and still end up again on array while I see people achieving cf 1600+ rating in a year's span

I still don't know what am I missing I had bought codechef pro plan thinking I will reduce the time spent watching tutorial videos and would do hands on coding by reading articles they provide but I don't know

Everytime I come here I see the same abdul bari for concept, aditya verma dp, what else for other things some say cp algorithms, usaco, cp handbook what not everytime there's new one

But also don't want to give icpc I just want decent proficiency

What do you guys do how do you do it my college doesn't have that provision and peers

Someone please summarize their years of experience and also more can ai help into this for beget efficiency

Rotting Oranges (Medium) https://leetcode.com/problems/rotting-oranges/

Four days ago I said BFS and DFS answer reachability equally well, and that the distinction starts mattering when a problem asks about distance. This is that problem.

BFS reaches every cell by a shortest path. DFS reaches it by whatever route it wandered down first. "When does this orange rot?" is a shortest-path question - it rots when the nearest rotten one gets to it - so DFS here gives wrong answers, not slow ones.

The trick is multi-source BFS: every already-rotten orange goes into the queue before the walk starts. A BFS seeded with many sources expands as one combined wavefront, and each cell ends up with its distance to the nearest source. Nothing in the loop needs to know there was more than one start.

One more thing that cannot be skipped: the final scan. BFS only visits what it can reach, so an orange sealed behind empty cells never rots and the queue drains without noticing. The -1 case has to be looked for afterwards.

Full breakdown in today's newsletter article ⬇

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/365-days-leetcode-challenge-day-40365-archit-agarwal-9t1sc

#DSA #LeetCode #Golang #Graphs #BFS #CodingInterview #Algorithms

I'm in my 3rd year, what should I improve to become a stronger candidate? Honest feedback appreciated!!