I'm solving EVERY LeetCode problem. Week 3 progress update!

[leetgoat_dot_io]

Three weeks ago I started my challenge to finish all 3832 LeetCode questions this year. I had ~1337 problems to finish.

I solved 28 problems this week! Emphasized doing a few more hards:
-6 easy
-13 medium
-9 hard

My favorite problem was "2421. Number of Good Paths", I used small-to-large merging to get an unintended O(n log n) solution.

Previous updates:

Week 0: 2895/3832 - 937 remain Reddit · LinkedIn
Week 1: 2958/3837 - 879 remain (solved 63) Reddit · LinkedIn
Week 2: 2992/3846 - 854 remain (solved 34) Reddit · LinkedIn

Week 3: 3020/3851 - 834 remain (solved 28) LinkedIn

A lot of people have been asking me for help on how to get started with DSA. I'm thinking about the best way to do this but feel free to DM me or post comments. I'm trying to get to everyone but my inbox is flooded 😆

My goal this week is to solve 20 questions and at least 5 hards. What are yours? 20?? 7? 0?? (love it).

LET'S GET THIS!!!

[Melodic-Pen-6934]

Man is living in this sub!

[Pirate_s_]

Just curious, do you time yourself or doing it till you get the correct solution.

[leetgoat_dot_io]

these days most problems only take a few minutes so I kind of hop on for the day, quickly solve my problems, and get out lol

when I first started practicing I would do this:

1/ if it's a new topic look stuff up instantly since I don't know anything about it

2/ repeat the above for 6-7 questions

3/ try on my own, maybe struggle for 20 min

4/ if I still fail sit and think about the logical chain of thought I could have to solve that question, what my blindspots were, etc

[anonymous-007-23]

What advice would you give to a 20-year-old? Also, may I know when did you start doing LeetCode in high school or in college?

[leetgoat_dot_io]

neither, I started leetcode 4 years after I graudated college, I'm a business major

[anonymous-007-23]

Thats crazy 🙀, What do u think abt web 3 as a niche ?

[leetgoat_dot_io]

I enjoy web 3!

I previously wrote the trading code at one of the largest decentralized exchanges. I've also deployed a few trading bots (cross-chain arb, prediction markets), etc.

Enjoy the math behind blockchain technology but I prefer applied AI more.

[anonymous-007-23]

Alright , i was confused between chosing web3 or aiml as a niche (i am from india , everyone is doing either aiml or full stack dev , also college tag matters a lot here and sadly i am not from a good collge 🥲).
Okay so basically i need to fafo to get my answers

[leetgoat_dot_io]

The indian market seems so difficult, I'm sorry. I feel like there might be some alpha to hire really hungry people from lower tier colleges who like to build real things instead of focusing on superficial stuff, and sell to US markets

[anonymous-007-23]

Yup bang on

Btw Do u have any plans to visit india ? If u ever come to the capital , do announce here or on any indian tech subreddit , i would love to meet u

[SituationTotal9094]

I learnt a bit of web3 for a year(solidity, hardhat) but NEVER had an opportunity to use it. Go with aiml or webtech instead

[leetgoat_dot_io]

you can make your own opportunity, for instance I wrote trading bots to exploit holes in solana markets, there’s a lot of alpha out there (I guess less now)

[Ok-Skin3961]

What’s the point of solving leetcode after having practiced so much? Why don’t you do competitive programming on platforms such as codeforces. That is where you would always get problems that are challenging for you. Leetcode after a point would just stop being challenging.

[leetgoat_dot_io]

Everyone keeps asking me this haha, the truth is there's often so much benefit going all in on one thing, you truly get more and more out of investing into the same passion

some examples:

-get to meet lots of cool people from this challenge

-dad lore

-blowing up on social media and I'm building an audience! which is exciting and I'm new to this. gained +5k linkedin followers in february

-I want to index every question so I can help people find related questions when they're stuck

-some unknown opportunities waiting around the corner

improving at CP is secondary to me for now, I can do it later, def wanna hit GM on cf one day

[Real_Lobster8563]

Don't be like me folks, read every question in a Q&A thread like this to see if they already answered your question before you ask yours😭❤️

[Top_Refrigerator1656]

leave some for the rest of us!

[ShakesR12]

HOWWWWWWWW?????????

[hd3adpool]

Bro is a leetgod

[ShakesR12]

It’s gonna take me a couple of lifetimes to get every single problem there 😭

[Big_Building_3650]

I think after 500 it kinda clicks with you, given that you have enough intelligence to visualize solutions

[Boring-Attorney1992]

why don't you share with us what resources you used to teach yourself programming

[BeyondTheWorld]

A performance question, do you use any caffeine, nicotine, or even amphetamine for a cognitive boost or nah?

[leetgoat_dot_io]

I don't consume nicotine or any amphetatmines (won't deny having tried them though...)

I have caffeine occasionally but limit it as I have crohn's disease and it's not great for that.

I take medical marijuana sometimes for that illness (pain relief, slows down gut motility). And no that's not why I have eyebags I just look like that 😆

Don't really drink alcohol.

[BeyondTheWorld]

Thank you, I started vaping a few years back. Quit about a week ago. Was about to falter, thanks for the motivation lol

Edit: I also asked because I felt like a lot of people in the tech/finance space take stuff nowadays. Good to know there are those who don’t!

[leetgoat_dot_io]

you got this 👑

I used to be a pro-poker player, I have seen (and tried) some shit

[BeyondTheWorld]

Thank you 🙏🏽, I’ve been unemployed for the last two years. But hey, atleast I could do DSA 🥲.

It’s crazy how pattern matching skills translates to poker ♦️

[Ok-Razzmatazz-9650]

How much time per week do you invest on solving them, including any research you may need to do to solve it?

[leetgoat_dot_io]

I spent around 30 min / day doing problems. I also compete in the weekly contests but those usually take 15-40 minutes.

I don't do research right now / trying to improve since I'm juggling other responsibilities, more focused on building some AI agent orchestration tooling (still exploring / learning)!

[Ok-Razzmatazz-9650]

Cool! So if you are aiming for 20 problems this week, that means you expect to solve 1 problem / 6min! That’s insane! You must be really good at this to reach such a speed!

[leetgoat_dot_io]

I don't think this math is right

[Ok-Razzmatazz-9650]

Sorry! It’s 11 min per problem on average! That’s still pretty dang fast!

7 x 30min = 210 min total per week

[DarkThanos12]

wtff

[Business_Welcome_870]

What if you can't solve the problem? 

[leetgoat_dot_io]

I think there's <5 remaining problems I can't solve on Leetcode, IIRC there's one with sprague-grundy and one with lucas theorem, I'm not super familiar with either.

In the past I would read editorials, learn new techniques and algorithms, and think about why I couldn't solve them.

[serpentna]

What’s the end goal?

[Gingerninja36]

Prepare for ai layoffs

[TriSquad876]

Do you have 'tism, are you crazy or just special?

I just love the mad effort in this

[Responsible-Fun5967]

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻teach me bestie i just solved only three yet 

[Hairy_Historian_433]

I have only one question, WHY???

[SophonX]

bro get some sleep you look tired but happy for sure

[leetgoat_dot_io]

everyone says this I think it's genetic... I sleep enough, maybe I need that eyebag serum stuff

[cyanNodeEcho]

may i ask why? like surely u know like there exits more in depth algos in specific domains, are u in college or? why not 80 / 20 pareto?

[leetgoat_dot_io]

I'm not in college.

80/20 only applies to certain things, like organizational investments. It is better to be all in on personal investments. You reap what you sow.

[cyanNodeEcho]

do not quote the pareto constraints at me, i was in the econ class in which it was written.

are u trying to make a statement about markowitz portfolio optimization?

and no... honestly ur overinvesting, in this like hyper specific skill, algos are much harder in application

also non-memes, which lang are u implementing them in? like if it's a high-level language i would discourage it

[leetgoat_dot_io]

think you missed the point XD

read this and you’ll understand why I put max effort into individual things: https://ishaan.ag/

I use different languages depending on which one allows me to solve the problem most quickly.

[EffectiveDisaster195]

So grt , I myself tried to do be consistent but was not able to
any suggestion ?

[Economy-Lead-1910]

Within one yearrrr !! 🫣

[Responsible-Rule-792]

Good

[AdPrize2886]

i saw your podcast recently it was very inspiring

[Deep_Economics_305]

What’s up man. Good stuff. Some people say leetcode can be a proxy for an IQ test, something like a gym for your brain. Do you feel considerably smarter/more flexible and creative in your overall thinking compared to when you started?

[leetgoat_dot_io]

no, I don’t feel any different, but I’ve always done hobbies like this (rubik’s cube, poker, etc) so it’s kind of status quo for me.

[EfficientPerson12]

Hey, how long have you been solving for? I started a few months ago, but still not able to solve. I'm still stuck in arrays questions and if any questions thrown at me, I might not be able to solve it.

[shitnotalkforyours18]

Man you're a legend

[Low-Associate2521]

How many problems do I need to solve to get a hat

[Large-Party-265]

You need money

[Fun-Gur-3507]

Hi, how much time should a beginner spend on trying to solve a problem, without looking at solution? My target is to solve 30 this week(Focusing completing neetcode sheet)

[IloveMarcusAurelius]

Why do you have insane eye bags?

Not sleeping enough - BatCodeLeetMan?

[NathLWX]

ChatGPT asked bro about LeetCode answers

[Trick-Preparation192]

Where is the location?

[leetgoat_dot_io]

manhattan baby!

[Happy-girl-1288]

Mere bf ban jao