Dear me from 4 months ago, it does get better!

4 months I decided I wanted that *sweet FAANG comp* I kept reading about online and made up my mind to finally ace DSA problems once and for all. I always sucked at those even though I'm nearing on 8 YOE as a Senior SWE. Since the start, I've had moments of ups and downs but in general I've been able to spend 10\~15hrs/week on studying and practicing problems consistently. Yesterday, I solved my first hard LC problem on my own without any hint under 60min. A great milestone. You see, all this time, I kept getting my ass kicked by LC medium questions so I always had the fear " **how much more** difficult Hard questions must be". Well it turns out the gap between Medium->Hard is nowhere *near* as step as Easy->Medium. The truth is that a large majority of the Hard (about half) is really just taking 2+ core concepts of the Medium questions and mashing them up into one question or slightly twisting how it's used. With this win under my belt, my world has opened up. I still get my ass kicked by some Mediums every so often but that is way less frequent. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can smell the version of "me" that will accept a FAANG over very soon. If you are me from 4 months ago, I just want to shed some hope: it does get better!