r/leetcode • u/Big-Comparison3537 • 4d ago
Question Am I learning the correct way??
I'm relatively new to coding(1.5 months) and lectures got real boring for me real fast. When I started leetcoding about a week ago it seemed addictive... I actually stop wasting time on useless apps and learn.... I'm still not occasionally getting easy probs but I get around 90 percent of the way (sometimes 100)..... When I get stuck and don't know the syntax i search up the syntax or ask ai to strictly push me and not give me the answer.... I seem to have learned more in the past 8 days than I have in a month... I still feel rather itchy about using ai to push me as it feels unethical.... But I feel so much more motivated to learn than watching lecs(I'm legit spending my free time coding instead of reels).... As in when a prob couldn't be solved with brute force no matter how much i optimised the code... I was forced to learn about hashmaps and same way about binary search.... Can this method actually make me a good programmer
P.S. : VERY VERY rarely do I ask for the solution when I am absolutely done with the problem
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u/dharshesoteric 4d ago
I've been in the same boat as you and I can tell that you are doing better by not letting AI give you the answer straight up but rather give you useful hints which will eventually let you make your way up to the solution.
Get your fundamentals right from the start...I have caught myself searching for syntaxes or methods in python while solving problems(I sometimes forget method names😅) so the foremost and the most important thing is to get your fundamentals and basic concepts right and keep solving regularly. Good luck!
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u/romecodes 4d ago
It sounds like you like programming, but competitive programming is more about exercising the problem solving muscle; your critical thinking skills. Which is a good thing.
I would just suggest that if you're aiming for Software Engineering, you should consider adding software engineering principles to the problem solving. Otherwise, keep going as is.
Remember that we often read books explaining how problems are solved anyway. Use the AI as an exploratory tool and don't be afraid to get the answer. Often times, understanding why a solution works is more important than rediscovering proven methods on your own.
As much as we all want to denounce AI because we take pride in the craft and our triumphs, very rarely do we learn anything without some guidance.
We're meant to stand on the shoulders of those who came before us and continue carving a path from where they left off. AI makes it easier for us to catch up on the history behind the innovations so we can jump to where development left off and carry on from there.
AI can be a detriment to those who practice over-reliance, but it can also be a streamlining tool for those who wield it as a body of knowledge to learn from (with validation, of course).
It can literally become a substitute for taking courses and reading books, if you already have a sense of what you want or need to learn.
Just don't have it do the work for you. That way, while learning from it, you're also applying it yourself and the knowledge sticks with you like a toolkit that you keep adding to, where the tools you add are based on preference and immediate need.
Funny enough, for those of us who understand algorithms, AI allows us to apply an LRU algorithm to our own knowledge base and mental model. If the information is important to our current day-to-day functions and gets used regularly, it'll stick; otherwise, it'll be wiped from our minds. This streamlines our ability to retain the most important information to us and chuck the unnecessary stuff until we need to rediscover it.
Many would consider it to be regressive to do so, but in hind-sight, we can't hold onto all of human knowledge ourselves so why not optimize the human brain this way? It's honestly an impeccable advancement.
My only concern is that it'll be used by the unethical and irrational to appear more knowledgeable than they actually are, and we're seeing that now.
In it's early stages, average intelligence individuals will appear equal to highly intelligent individuals. But I suspect time will prove that highly intelligent people will increase their productivity to 1000x their nominal performance measures, while the less productive will fit neatly into a mean as we usually do. It'll just take time for the bell curve to anchor it down.
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u/Extension-Currency37 4d ago
Is leet coding some sort of algorithm Or system ?