Consistency

Consistency > Grind turned out to be true. I was so frustrated with getting dunked on every technical interview during my new grad recruitment. I tried getting a good internship for the past 2 years but failed basically every time I got a leetcode question. Because I was so scared of it, I was genuinely turning numb as soon as I opened leetcode to practice. My only methodology was to grind the nights before the interview and try to memorize as many questions as possible. Then I saw this post here about a guy who studied just 30 mins a day. Being a masters student now, I could not pull all nighters grinding leetcode as I was already doing that for most things in my degree, so this seemed like a good choice. I slightly restructured it and came up with the following framework: - just one 45 minute session every day. not fixed to a specific time, but completely non-negotiable - i did not go to sleep until its done (like brushing my teeth) - during 1 session i only solve questions for 1 specific topic (stack, dp, graphs, etc.). usually i managed to solve 2-3 questions each session. for revision session, i would mix topics sometimes to train pattern recognition. - follow the neetcode 150 roadmap and focus on company specific questions before interviews. - start with easies when new topic, if cannot solve within \~10-15 mins, read the solution, watch neetcode, take notes and try again next day. - google sheet tracking each question, number of attempts, time it took in the last attempt. i considered easies “mastered” when i could solve them under 10 minutes and mediums mastered if i could solve them under 15 minutes (both with efficient solutions). - each question marked as not “mastered” (“failed” or just “solved”) is repeated within 1-2 weeks. - the goal is to keep the portion of “mastered” problems over 50% at all times, so if i have a lot of unmastered problems, i keep solving them until i can get to that threshold to go solve new problems. - i did not do any hards, focused mostly on mediums and used easies to understand content. - i configured my google sheet to include a bunch of motivating trackers and counters to keep me motivated and have the progress visually. - i bought leetcode premium, which was not super necessary for prep overall, but helped with company tagged questions later. - i used forest to make sure nothing distracts me during each session, so it is uninterrupted, super concentrated 45 minutes. - when coding (if not in public spaces) talk through your solutions outloud. this is essential for interviews and honestly a harder skill to master than i thought. being able to efficiently explain and talk over solutions comes with practice and i learned a lot about this just by watching neetcode as well. Results: - Did this for \~3.5 months consistently and only skipped like 5 days. - Solved about 150 questions but each one was fully understood and attempted 3-4 times. - Can probably solve most new mediums under 15 minutes at this point - Did like 10 leetcode interviews and passed 8/10 (got hit with a hard in one and got too nervous in the other one). For comparison: last year i had 8 rounds and failed them all. - After 6 months of no offers and 0 internship offers last year, got 3 offers in about 2 months - including a hedge fund and a FAANG company. The best part is that at some point leetcode became a habbit and at some point when i finally was able to at least have a faint chance of solving a question without looking at solutions it became fun. Yes, fun. Just to note, I’m not sharing it to flex, but more to motivate anyone who was in a similar position to me. That post I mentioned motivated me, so did many people who shared their success stories here. If done consistently over a period of time, leetcode is not that hard. It is challenging and it takes discipline, but it can also help build discipline. I was able to start building a similar routines with other things such as reading papers or going to the gym. I still do leetcode at reduced session length (30 mins) just so it is there in the background in case if I ever need. Happy to share any specific advise but honestly most of it is outlined above. Good luck and remember that honest work will pay off! Edit 1: the original post that motivated me: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/leetcode/s/6cMfLmW4tE.