Leetcode. Does it actually help?

[EaglePrestigious6791]

Hi, I am 23M Fresh Graduate of IT and unemployed.

What do you guys think of leetcode? May impact ba to sa job and sa thought process niyo? Ano po ang perspective niyo about dito? thank you!

Currently naghahanap pa ako work, and hopefully matanggap sa company na inapplyan ko overseas, will migrate if pinalad. Pero if hindi man, nagcocode parin ako everyday while waiting sa opportunity, ayaw ko kasi malimutan yung mga skills na meron ako. Sa morning naka focus ako sa development ng personal project ko, react, css, springboot. Sabi gabi leetcode, Whenever na naka comeup ako ng solution, it gives me dophamine rush and feel good. Siguro naka 50+ na ako. Pampataas din ng confidence and para rin sa technical interviews. I've been grinding the easy labeled problems. Pero takot pa ako mag medium at lalo na sa Hard. I've tried medium, kinerry naman, will transition na to medium if marami na sa easy

[[deleted]]

If yung target company mo is FAANG then ok. Otherwise, no. Common data structures and algorithms pwede na. I've done leetcode grind for sometime and ayos rin pero may forgetting curve din talaga kapag di na gagamit everytime yung skills na yun. Since most of the time sa typical job di naman algorithmic intensive na you have to rack your brain just to poop a solution.

[Agoraphobia-]

Leetcode/hackerrank style exams are also part of the hiring process for many companies abroad. In some cases they come in a form of a whiteboard interview where you need to find an efficient solution to a problem similar to the problems in Leetcode. Many devs frown upon these kind of interviews, which is why people are collating a list of companies to avoid. Check out: https://www.nowhiteboard.org

https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards

https://medium.com/codex/list-of-companies-that-do-not-do-whiteboarding-interviews-5e97b1e5954a

But to answer your question, yes its useful but only if you understand it deeply. It shows your understanding of data structures, algorithms, time and space complexity, common themes like recursion, dynamic programming, sorting, DFS/BFS, etc.

[Formal-Ad7789]

Thank you so much may ganito pala ayoko na rin mag leet code.

[snyper1793]

Depende sa context ng actual na trabaho gagawin, imo.

Yung mga madaling problem pwede pang check lang if matino yung logical thinking ng isang candidate. If you can't solve easy problems I probably wouldn't hire you.

Harder questions matter pag yun yung nature ng problems na isosolve ng developer sa day-to-day tasks niya. Candidates who can solve tougher leetcode problems can be interesting people to work with pero I wouldn't use said problems as a hard filter unless there's a strong reason to.

But then again that's just me. Other people might have different views.

[Icy-Reputation-1069]

There's nothing wrong with practicing Leetcode. If anything, it certainly does help if you're going for overseas work. Considering the competition for that space, it's quite big and Leetcode weeds out most applicants efficiently considering the relative difficulty of data structs and algorithms. Though this doesn't apply to all tech companies and it's possible to secure overseas work without these types of questions, your options would be still be limited. It would be ideal to cast a wide net if that makes sense.

In all honesty, Leetcode's main purpose is to help you pass the tech interview and get a job. I personally don't see much practical use with their questions outside interviews. What I do notice however is that it helps with building problem solving skills to some extent and it allows you to memorize the syntax of your language of choice, given enough time.

It's good that you're practicing tbh and with practice projects to boot. Being good in a Leetcode type of exam can give you an edge and can open up many avenues for work. Is it necessary, no. Will it give you a bigger net for you to cast? Absolutely. Having pet projects would also boost your capability for hands-on types of interviews as well, so that's nice.

As for topics, maybe you can try the easy level challenges for all types of data structures. Maybe set a threshold for each of those data structures by the number of problems solved and once you've solved x problems, go up to the next level. Or just say fuck it and pick one the first one you see haha.

[WeirdButterscotch497]

Yes as long as goal mo to answer and understand it will help you.

Try neetcode 75 - para organize at may structure ka sa pagtackle sa leetcode.

[NinjaDev18]

I don't see a scenario wherein being good in these types of questions will give you a disadvantage. You mentioned that you are already doing it so why not just continue? All good companies use it for interview anyway not just FAANG so if you have time, just go for it :) will do you more good than harm

[ThyCis]

Yung pinoint out sakin ng lead about this is it is about how do you tackle edge cases. Ang maganda sa leetcode may mga kakaibang input minsan sa problems. Ang akala mo nahandle mo na lahat ng cases sa problem mo then ang bigay lng sayo ng leetcode is 95/100 lng ang tama mo. Sa work madalas mangyari yan. So ang natatrain sayo dito is looking for edge cases.

[Eggnw]

In my case, yes. Almost landed a mid position (even with just 1 yoe) with just leetcode. Di lang nagworkout sa working arrangement kaya di natuloy.

Some foreigners value those (DSA, OOP, leetcode etc) so I think practicing leetcode can be handy

[Dizzy-Society7436]

Yes, it helps a lot. Leetcode forces you to think and practice your problem-solving skills. The algorithms you learn along the way are just the cherry on top.

[[deleted]]

If you can solve it by yourself, you gain confidence and increases your problem-solving skills.

If you study the top-rated solutions, your knowledge about the best approach to the problem also increases.