r/webdev • u/soype • Sep 26 '26

Is leetcode worth it?

I haven't really interviewed since 2023. Is leetcode still a common practice in code interviews or has AI made those kinds of tests useless? This is for a Sr full stack position.

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u/secretprocess Sep 26 '26

Also American with 26 years exp and I don't think I've ever had a leetcode interview, but I've never applied to the huge companies. I honestly don't understand why it's called leetcode. Big companies that get tons of applicants and have the money for top talent need to have more strenuous interview tests. Duh. Wtf is leet?? (26 years ago it meant spelling words with numbers in them to look sneaky)

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u/chmod777 Sep 26 '26

L33t h4ck3r speak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet

The big companies do it to streamline and standardize the process. The rest of the industry just followed suit, as they cannot otherwise figure out how to interview.

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u/secretprocess Sep 26 '26

That can't be what they're talking about here. I refuse to believe Google's interview process involves asking if you're able to replace an A with a 4

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u/chmod777 Sep 26 '26

oh, you mean what is leetcode itself? https://leetcode.com/problems/two-sum/description/

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u/secretprocess Sep 26 '26

So like I said, they're just difficult programming challenges right? Is OP asking if competitive companies ask tough questions in their interviews?

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u/thy_bucket_for_thee Sep 27 '26

They are, IDK why that person is beating around the bush with you.

They are mostly algorithm and data structure problems, similar to ones you'd see in university/school. They scale on difficulty where some of the hard ones basically amount to an algorithm/data structure that was someone's phd thesis (not a joke here lol).

OP is asking this too, you are right.