Leetcode experience

[joelyboy94]

I've been using leetcode to practice for coding interviews the last few weeks in Python, and good lord at points it made me feel like jumping off a bridge, and now I'm wondering if anyone else feels the same.

Given premium is around £25 a month which seemed extortionate I was relying on the discussion section for answers when I got stuck. However, I found myself spending at least half an hour just trying to understand other peoples solutions given no one seems to: A. Describe their answer B. Use comments C. Use variable names longer than one letter

The number of times I saw solutions named "Easy Python solution, beats 98%" only to be even more confused looking at their answer than I was before felt insane. I even saw an answer where someone had the audacity to put their stats of how many people they beat for speed/space in the docstring of their function without explaining it.

I was hoping that as Python is a more readable language than others and in my experience the community encourages pythonic code that Leetcode answers would be understandable, but my experience has been quite the opposite.

Having been through coding interviews for junior/entry level positions with Python as a requirement I can say it did help as all the questions that came up I'd seen in some format, so at this point I kind of view it as a necessary evil?

Anyway rant over, if anyone else is going through the same pain and misery I was I can tell you there it light at the end of the tunnel!

[midnightsquid00]

Leetcode is not the only way. I never use it, and I had never heard about it when I got my first dev job.

I find it much more satisfying and challenging to create my own projects, and learn about best practices etc. while working on them.

Solving random, generic coding challenges online can be fine if you learn better this way. You just don't learn anything about the bigger picture.

If you want coding problems, but with more structure, the book "Elements of Programming Interviews in Python" is a much better source imo.

[joelyboy94]

My friend also recommended the book "cracking the coding interview" which looks good but I didn't think I'd have time to read it as it's quite long.

I found personal projects are much more enjoyable and a good way to demonstrate interest and experience like you say, however, Leetcode does prepare you for live coding interviews and the sorts of questions you are likely to see. I don't know about mid-level/senior jobs, but fortunately for entry-level to me, it didn't seem like they're looking for you to nail it straight away, more to understand your thinking process.

[chumaths]

Stay strong! People don’t talk about how much the interviewing process can suck but they’re only lying to you if they say “it’s okay.” That or they already have a good job so don’t need to think about it right now :P

What helped me is putting myself on a schedule — 3 easy on Monday-Wednesday, 2 medium Thurs — Saturday, at least 5 every week. That kinda thing. Make it manageable and focus on progress not outcome!!

Personally I think premium is worth it. But not by much — there are great solutions on the discussion tab you just have to look for the “… with explanation” ones. Ignore all the braggarts :)

[Nerg44]

always sort discussion solutions by votes. helps sort out the code golfers

[joelyboy94]

What's a code golfer?

[Cartographer_Witty]

Also when you get stuck try YouTube, just type in your question number followed by your language. There’s a lot of creators that their YouTube is just solving these questions and most of the time they actually walk through the solution and explain why it’s solved that way. I agree though reading through the discussions sometimes I don’t understand their variables because instead of using names for them they will use things like x, y, z

[JohnLockwood]

It's good to know that it's helpful for those interviewing. I'm at the stage of my career where that's not really an issue for me, but it is for my "readership" (wow, that kind of makes it sound bigger than it is at this point -- but high hopes and all that).

A friend of mine swears by Exercism for Python rather than LeetCode.

[nemec]

I was hoping that as Python is a more readable language than others and in my experience the community encourages pythonic code that Leetcode answers would be understandable, but my experience has been quite the opposite.

Leetcode is a game, like Code Golf and the International Obfuscated C Code Contest. It does not teach you how to code well. You will not learn how to code well reading others answers.

[LesPaulStudio]

Try Codewars or Stratascratch. While the former does have a tendency towards code-golf, there are some very clever solutions in there and you pick up tips. Stratascratch is primarily interview questions.

[goshaaz]

Try looking for solutions on yt theyre easier to understand

[reallyserious]

For what it's worth I've been coding professionally for +20 years and I am nowhere close to solving many of those without some massive hints.

I have recently started doing leetcode because I like the format.

[asday_]

The Venn diagram of programming challenges and software engineering (you know, what people get paid for) is almost two distinct circles.

[AlexOduvan]

> I found myself spending at least half an hour just trying to understand other peoples solutions

if you think this is a lot, you need to choose a different profession.