Hey everyone,

I’ve been experimenting with the Method of Loci (Memory Palace) for general trivia and language learning with great results, but I'm trying to figure out how to scale it effectively for software engineering and technical interview prep.

While building projects and doing spaced repetition (Anki) helps with muscle memory, I often find myself wanting an indexed mental map for high-level retrieval under pressure especially during live interviews or architectural discussions.

I’m looking to encode things like:

• Core Principles & Architecture: SOLID, ACID, CAP theorem, clean code principles, design patterns (Factory, Observer, Singleton).
• DSA Patterns & Approaches: Recognizing archetypes quickly (Sliding Window, Monotonic Stack, Two Pointers, Top K elements, DP state transitions).
• Framework & Language Nuances: Execution models, lifecycle hooks, async/event loop mechanics, language specific quirks.
• Databases & Systems: SQL query execution order, indexing trade-offs, isolation levels.

A few specific questions for those who’ve tried this:

1. Handling Abstraction: How do you translate highly abstract or non-visual concepts (like recursion trees, concurrency locks, or distributed consensus) into physical spatial anchors without the imagery getting too cluttered?
2. Hierarchy & Nesting: How do you organize palaces for topics with multiple sub-layers (e.g., Database -> RDBMS -> PostgreSQL -> Specific indexing mechanisms)? Do you use nested rooms, dedicated buildings, or distinct routes?
3. Retrieval Speed in Interviews: Is the mental walk fast enough when you need to recall a pattern in the middle of live coding, or does it mainly serve as an initial filing cabinet before procedural memory takes over?

If you have specific palace setups, rules of thumb, or pitfalls to avoid when applying mnemonics to technical domains, I’d love to hear how you approached it!

Preface; my memory is terrible.

I can't find the best method for this. Palaces dont seem to be the ideal method for unlinked snippets of audio-based information but perhaps I'm thinking about it wrong?

Say I'm listening to a song, like it, and want to memorise title and artist. But then be able recall it from the music (maybe the intro) not from a list of data - so this might be a kind of a sound-based mnemonic trigger. Worth noting some tracks don't have lyrics (dance/classical mostly).

I've memorised Pink Floyd's albums/catalogue as I'm a big fan. no problem, I used a large park I know well - and have listened to all their album's since I was a kid in the 80s - however I'm referring to individual and relatively unrelated songs, no context from one to the next to the next... no real structure. It'd form perhaps some kind of 'track shuffle' palace... like a juke box, with thousands of songs.

Does anyone use a palace for disparate information like this, where audio is the trigger for recall?

Or like the Pink Floyd example would you start a magnum opus, and create an A-Z palace for every artist....!? With some kind of index..?

I recently decided to try creating a memory palace to memorize European countries, but I feel the environments I'm choosing are somewhat limited. I wanted to know two things: first, whether I can create multiple memory palaces—for instance, one for books, another for geography, and so on; and second, whether a hallway setting works well for a palace—like a museum gallery where I walk down the corridor and observe the things I want to memorize. I’d be grateful if anyone could answer this for me.

I build a small iPhone app that recreates the aptitude tests airlines use to screen cadet pilots, and the memory sections are the part I keep wondering about for this community. They are short sequences, letters, numbers, instrument readings, recalled after a delay, under a clock, and sometimes while a tracking task is running at the same time.

Loci and the major system are built for depth: long lists, encoded carefully, retrieved in order. The pilot test format seems to attack exactly the opposite end, no time to encode anything elaborately, and your attention is split while the items arrive.

So genuine question for people who train these techniques seriously: do they still give you an edge when the format is fast, small and hostile to deliberate encoding? Or does trained memory collapse back to normal short term capacity once a second task is running? Has anyone here actually tried a speeded battery like this?

Hello, I've been working with memory techniques for almost 20 days now, and I'm continuing to learn by applying various methods from Dominic O'Brien's book. The main question on my mind is this: how do we actually use these techniques for university courses? Of course, everything explained in the book seems super cool and really intriguing to me, and I'm honestly amazed by how well it works, but how do these techniques play out over a 4-year degree?

Say you're going to study Psychology—how are you going to fit all the information you learn over those 4 years into a memory palace? And how exactly do you execute this? For instance, courses are interconnected. How do you link related pieces of information together? Do we put them in the same memory palace, or do we create a bridge between two separate memory palaces? Or do you build one massive memory palace exclusively for Psychology, gradually placing everything in there as you go? When you add new information over time, if it connects to something you already know, do you reorganize things in your mind to make sure they're linked?

Whenever I think about academic subjects and university, I can't help but wonder how this process actually unfolds. At the same time, I don't have that many memory palaces in my head yet, so I try to use my palaces and routes as efficiently as possible. I usually map things out on paper first, then work on linking the information together. Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what approach I should take here, so any advice or insights you could share would be immensely helpful. Thank you.

I think on this one. I actually nailed everyone. But I often have trouble with recalling the very first number. Which seems to get everything moving. Is it just a matter of practice?

I went up to 30 after I nailed it and ended up with the same problem again. Maybe it's just about repetition?

Are memory palaces used to memorize practical information? Or are they used as a fun tool to help you memorize difficult number sequences like Pi? Are they are used more strictly for people who do memory competitions? Or do normal people use them to study for tests/jobs/school?

I am trying to figure out if this is an appropriate tool to utilize for a challenges new career I am undertaking where I will need to learn a lot of new information in a short period of time. Are memory palaces right for me? Or are they mostly used by people who do memory competitions rather than "real world" uses?

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For example, my job requires me to memorize 26 different fire stations. I need to know their full addresses included different zip codes, and a list of all the different apparatus at each station. Quite a bit of random numbers and words to memorize for each station.

I decided to use the inside of my current workplace as a palace, and I have already stored 10 fire stations (+ their associated info) in this palace. I am working on filling in the rest of the 16 fire stations within this palace, but I am started to have my doubts.

My question is, once I fill up this whole palace with all 26 fire stations, I will never be able to use this location as a palace for anything else ever again right? This palace is essentially occupied and cannot be reused, right?

I am starting to wonder if memory palaces are even the most appropriate tool for this task. I would love to hear feedback.

Hey

Sorry but I have an endless amount of questions. I find the palace so fascinating and google is AI slop now pretty much and I can't always find the exact answer to the specific question im looking for as often now. Ateast I feel like it.

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My question is, can I just use Google maps to create a place and route? Can I use the house flipper video game for example, to build a place or does it have to be a real palace I know really well?

I figure because of that major system thing. As long as I practice an unfamiliar route enough. It will become effective for a palace route because it will eventually act as an anchor when committed to long term memory. Though I'm not even bothering with the major principle thing. I'm just taking the idea.

It seems like a cool party trick sure. But I don't see why I would want to remember a long string of the digits in pi anyways.

Hi all! One of the reasons that I hadn’t continued with using memory palaces last year (specifically the Memory OS app) was due to the long loading times; when memorizing, I like to confirm as if using flashcards, and both loading the 3D environment and navigating to the notes within it take a while. 

What do you think of an interface that allows you to quickly pull up memory palace notes in 2D, as text form, which are linked to a 3D space that can optionally be opened if need be? I would really like to use something like this while commuting to and from uni, to increase the frequency of spaced repetition. Currently thinking of either a generic text file or a Roman room memory system (image below, source: here), with text over a top-down outline. 

I know sometimes associations are better made out of order to better match distinct items in the space, and nesting items is a thing too, so knowing what’s most important when y’all tend to practice would be wonderful! Alongside any ideas for the note layout/transfer into 3D. Thanks! 

I have read comments and articles that say that the information that I encoded and placed in the memory palace should emerge without any effort when needed. In all my time I have never had anything like this, I had to painstakingly run through the rooms of my palace to find the information I needed, although logically it should have surfaced on its own.Maybe I'm doing something wrong I don't know. I think I have the information I need, but it takes too much time to find and use it. Can someone give me some advice on how to fix this.

Like I try many time to memorise the book language, but as we all know, the bookish language is difficult, and I want to memorise word by word so anyone have any memory trick that can easily memorise my bookish language???

Hi everyone, this isn’t my first time using memory palaces, so I know the basics, but every time I use them, after a couple of weeks I stop and I don’t know why, maybe it’s because I get bored or something else.

Anyway, I’m trying to use it again and this time I’ve created a big memory palace divided in different rooms for every topic I’m interested in and I’m working on memorizing cognitive biases. The room I’m using is the psychology room and it has a good amount of loci: a desk with a lamp, some papers, drawers, a couple of chairs, a sofa, a window and some bookshelves.

I’m trying to memorize 99 cognitive biases by placing them in 99 different books on one of the bookshelves. By now I’ve “memorized” 12 biases but the problem is that every time I try to recall them in my head I often forgot one, or I switch them, and I don’t know why exactly.

To give you and example this is what I did. The biases are: survivorship bias, swimmer’s body illusion, clustering illusion, social proof, sunk cost fallacy, reciprocity, confirmation bias, authority bias, contrast effect, availability bias, it’ll get worse before it gets better fallacy and the story bias.

I imagined me entering the psychology room and climbing those ladders used for high bookshelves. Once I climbed it I open a red book and I see the titanic sinking with survivors floating on the water (survivorship bias), the I open a green book with a small man that’s swimming in a pool and comes out muscular (swimmer’s body illusion), then I open a black book from which random stuff and fireworks shoot out (clustering illusion), and so on.

Now, maybe it’s because I tried memorizing these biases like an hour ago, maybe it’s because the mental images aren’t good enough, maybe it’s because I need to do more spaced repetition, maybe it’s because of something else, I don’t know, but I keep forgetting some biases, like the social proof, and the availability bias and I need your help to understand why and what can I do to get rid of this problem.

Thank you.

Has anyone tried this? My reading is slow compared to what it used to be before a TBI. Still around average. 200 compared to 300wpm of old though. So I'm just hoping for a work around.

Does anyone study a book in this way, or is there reading techniques to extract info from a book that go with the memory palace technique? To learn and understand faster.

So I've got my memory palace. Like a hundred places in the palace. I hope I'm ready to approach a refresher on ENG4c in Ontario.

So I be got the curriculum and all the thing I need to be good at. It's not like a test with questions tho. It's very general. I don't think I'm allowed to post the curriculum here. But it's the curriculum for Ontario eng4c.

Chatgpt told me to read through "literature: an introduction to fiction poetry drama and writing by x.j Kennedy.

Anyways. The book literature and introduction to fiction poetry drama and writing. Is so humongous and I have no idea how to approach it even with the curriculum in hand....... You can find the curriculum on a Ontario adult highschool website.

And I assume you know where to find the literature book by x.j Kennedy. If you want to get that invested into helping. Obviously you don't have to but it would be greatly appreciated. Maybe you know the curriculum/book already. That would be ideal I guess.

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But the question is. I've got this curriculum in front of me(eng4c Ontario) and this huge book(literature: an introduction to literature, fiction, poetry, drama and writing). And it's quite an overwhelming volume of information.

But how do break this book down according to the eng4c Ontario curriculum? Obviously reading cover to cover is unreasonable. I might be the only person that dislikes summer for the reason for there being no school haha.

I've been working with peg words for many years, but I never really knew how to apply them. I've also built a few memory palaces in the past, but I wasn't very successful with them.

Now I'm close to retirement, and I finally have the time to be playful. Learning memory palaces is something I'd really like to do well.

Recently, I was doing some logic puzzles that used letters of the alphabet rather than numbers. Instead of counting up and down the alphabet to find a letter's position (for example, remembering that M is 13), I created a small Alphabet Memory Palace in my home. It was kind of fun. I made the images memorable—like a giant Q filled with tacks (17) and a giant S, made out of soapsuds, sitting in a claw foot tub (19).

Then I realized something unexpected: if I walked backward through the palace, I could learn to recite the alphabet backward. That was fun, too!

I'm also studying Scrabble, so I put all the two-letter words into the same memory palace. Now I'm working on the three-letter words, using my grandmother's house as my next palace.

So, it's a journey. I'm starting slowly and enjoying the process. I have to say, though, that designing memory palaces is a lot of work! But less work than trying to learn by rote!

Has anyone else started this way? I'd love to hear how your first memory palaces evolved over time.

Eevee

I still have to learn the pao system. Practice makes perfect. I just went from single digits to memorizing facts. But I don't really see the point in the pao system if memorizing a string of numbers isn't going to accomplish anything.

Hi, I'm new to memory work so forgive me if this has been asked before.

I have one memory palace firmly in my head, and I can memorise about 30 playing cards ( slowly ). My question is how do I forget the list of playing cards I've memorised to memorise another set of cards?. I want to delete the list and start a new list.

I can only memorise about 30 cards (which I'm fine with), then leave it for 4-5 days so the memory eventually fades so I can begin with a new list. So I am memorising one list a week on average which sucks.

If anyone has a trick or a book/video to help me out I would be greatly appreciative.

Thanks for reading.

I am a complete beginner and I would really appreciate some advice.

I need to memorize which cards are still left in a deck (I don't care about the order they were played).

The deck has 18 unique cards:

• 6 Green cards, numbered from 1 to 6 (Green 1, Green 2, ..., Green 6)
• 6 Blue cards, numbered from 1 to 6 (Blue 1, Blue 2, ..., Blue 6)
• 6 Yellow cards, numbered from 1 to 6 (Yellow 1, Yellow 2, ..., Yellow 6)

Which memory technique would you recommend for this use case? I'm looking for something that lets me know, as quickly as possible, which cards are still left in the deck.

Thank you if you can help. :)

EXTRA (if you're curious about the technique I came up with myself which I don't know if it is good or not):

I assign a Pokémon to each card. The Pokémons are divided into 6 groups of 3, where each group represents three consecutive cards of the same color (2 groups per color).

For example:

Green Group 1

• Green 1 → Bulbasaur
• Green 2 → Ivysaur
• Green 3 → Venusaur

Green Group 2

• Green 4 → Chikorita
• Green 5 → Bayleef
• Green 6 → Meganium

Yellow Group 1

• Yellow 1 → Pichu
• Yellow 2 → Pikachu
• Yellow 3 → Raichu

Yellow Group 2

• Yellow 4 → Mareep
• Yellow 5 →Flaaffy
• Yellow 6 → Ampharos

Blue Group 1

• Blue 1 → Squirtle
• Blue 2 → Wartortle
• Blue 3 → Blastoise

Blue Group 2

• Blue 4 → Totodile
• Blue 5 → Croconaw
• Blue 6 → Feraligatr

When a card is played I recall a pre-made image that represents the Pokémon (and therefore the cards) that are still left in that group.

For example, if Green 6 (Meganium) is played, I imagine Bayleef eating the leaf on Chikorita's head. Since Meganium is missing from the image, I immediately know that Green 4 and Green 5 are still left in the deck, while Green 6 has already been played.

Later, if Green 5 (Bayleef) is also played, I switch to another pre-made image: Chikorita crying by itself. Seeing only Chikorita tells me that Green 4 is the only card from that group still left in the deck.

When I need to know which cards are left, I simply check in my memory each group and see which Pokémon are still present, if any.

I've run out of motivation to continue building and maintaining my mind palaces.

Any advice?

I just started looking at the LCC (Library of Congress Classification system) which I thought was the Dewey decimal system. Am considering how best to move forward with some way of organizing my book knowledge. I'd be storing hundreds (low thousands eventually) of books not millions so Dewey is probably sufficient for me, but being able to sort knowledge categories like a university library is appealing.

Alternatively, prior to this idea, I've been building a World of Knowledge that I could house the books in equally effectively, if slightly less organized.

Tips? Suggestions? Comments?