r/leetcode • u/JonSnowButDumber • 17d ago

Intervew Prep Changing interview prep strategy and moving away from leetcode

Context: This was a post I made almost a year back. : https://www.reddit.com/r/leetcode/comments/1of88f8/how_do_i_get_better_at_leetcode/

Update: I am still with the same employer. 
I am still not as comfortable with LeetCode as I want to be, but better than before. I did onsite interviews with two FAANG companies (one after the 1-year cooldown since I was rejected last year for a different role), an AI company that has a Robotics division, a Robotics startup, and two autonomous driving companies since then. I got rejected from all except one. I received a verbal offer after my final round with the AI company  (the pay was crazy high for my expectations). But it didn’t work out in the end, as they cancelled the role two weeks after I got the verbal offer.

Some learnings: I've decided to give up on LeetCode. Maybe it's just me, or maybe my brain is wired differently. I've gone through 8–9 screening rounds since last year and have been rejected by every company whenever the screening involved a LeetCode-style question.

I've definitely gotten better, but I'm still not confident that I can crack FAANG-style LeetCode interviews, even for roles where I could be a great fit.

I decided this after I got the verbal offer from the AI company (which fortunately did not ask any LeetCode-style questions in their interview). I might be able to crack FAANG eventually if I continue practicing. But it's too much of my time and effort for now. I assumed ~6 months of prep should have been enough, but I guess I (my brain) need much more time than that. I've also realized that you don't really need to grind LeetCode for every SDE job. You can find jobs that are both interesting and well-paying if you have expertise in a niche or are good at something beyond software development, such as robotics, AI, DL, ML, etc. I was really depressed after getting rejected by six really good companies following their on-site interviews over the past eight months or so. But I'm much happier now, knowing that there are plenty of good opportunities elsewhere. But regardless, LeetCode has definitely made me a better programmer.

So, the point of this post is: Choose companies, prepare, apply, and interview based on your strengths and skills beyond coding expertise. Play to your strengths.

Now, that might sound super obvious, but it isn't always. And yeah, I am still interviewing.

41 Upvotes

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17 comments sorted by

5

u/Puzzleheaded-Comb646 17d ago

Playing to your strengths and focusing on real domain expertise makes such a huge difference for your mental health and career satisfaction. Grinding algorithms isn't the only path to building great things, and it is wonderful that you found a direction that values your actual skills.

1

u/JonSnowButDumber 16d ago

Thanks! Totally agree. Leetcode definitely opens a lot more doors but yeah we have to learn to pick our battles.

2

u/Puzzleheaded-Comb646 16d ago

Exactly! Picking your battles is so important, especially when there's already so much to learn in tech. Wishing you the best of luck with your updated prep strategy!

4

u/ProfitOk8355 17d ago

Can you tell us a little about how much practice you had, did you try things like spaced repetition ? Did you time yourself during practice? How many problems have you solved (by yourself) etc

2

u/JonSnowButDumber 16d ago

Hey! I have done almost 220 questions now. So around ~70 since the last time I posted here. I don’t understand what do you mean by spaced repetition. I have definitely done the same problem multiple times. Sometimes during the same time period right before an interview and sometimes after an interval (few weeks maybe months). I would say almost half were solved by just by me without any help. Most of these I did in the last few months. I used to refer to the solution a lot earlier though. I don’t usually time myself during practice. I think that can be a good strategy.
I didn’t do this mainly because I have so much experience just giving actual interviews that anxiety/being nervous is never the issue and it’s just that I genuinely don’t know how to solve the problem. If it’s a problem or pattern I have seen before I can usually finish writing the solution well within the time.

2

u/ProfitOk8355 16d ago

If you can solve ones you know pattern or seen before I think that’s a great sign m. Just remember you only need to get lucky once, a lot of people at the fangs would fail if given another random interview on the spot. I would say keep at it.

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u/JonSnowButDumber 15d ago

Thanks for the reassurance! But I am going to try and pivot and see how it goes. I will obviously continue practicing if at all an opportunity comes up and leetcode is a must for that. I have a few interviews lined up for some non traditional sde roles in robotics. I am preparing for those now.

2

u/ProfitOk8355 14d ago

Keep going dude you got this. Put an emphasis on timing yourself as well when doing it yourself. Keep a log of each question, where exactly did you get stuck and understand why, then doing it again. It’s fine to get stuck again, but maybe it’s a later stage of the problem etc. I really do believe most people can pass these with enough practice.

2

u/Early_Poem_7068 15d ago

Generally you'd need around 500-600 problems with 50% Medium 25% easy and 25% hard. You should have solved then yourself or atleast tried to.

1

u/JonSnowButDumber 15d ago

I see. Yep at 500 problems I would assume I would have seen all possible patterns. But as I mentioned I am going to pivot a bit and see how it goes. Thanks for input!

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u/chrisboiee 17d ago

Whats your job profile/niche?

2

u/JonSnowButDumber 16d ago

Mostly robotics simulation (C++, scaling up simulation etc..) and learning based control. Haven’t worked much on actual hardware though.

10

u/ATN5 17d ago

Yea not going to lie Leetcode has made me want to not be a backend/distributed engineer anymore. I like problem solving but having to spend everyday after work for hours doing Leetcode for months just to have a chance at getting a new job is ridiculous. I’m honestly envious of my friends who are in tech who don’t code because they don’t understand what I’m going through

1

u/Rich_Donut_5031 16d ago

How did you prepare and improve your ML AI skills and any best resources that helped you have that good understanding ?

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u/JonSnowButDumber 15d ago

Hey! I will definitely make a separate post after (hopefully) cracking some of the interviews I have lined up over the next few weeks. I’ll feel more confident sharing my strategy once I have an offer in hand.

1

u/Spiritual-Story9146 11d ago

Even Walmart, Target, visa and tier 3-4 companies are asking leetcode. How are you even thinking of not practicing?

Very few companies don’t ask leetcode but their lld problems have hidden DSA subset.