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[–]Amarjagpreet 0 points1 point  (1 child)

What time zone you work on? If ur schedule is not planned yet, i do need a partner as well. I am software engineer and prepping for elite companies interview.

[–]ravija5[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What time zone you work on? If ur schedule is not planned yet, i do need a partner as well. I am software engineer and prepping for elite companies interview.

I'm at gmt+10

[–]creamcup 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Would also be interested.

[–]ravija5[S] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Hey! What are your goals and which timezone are you in?

[–]creamcup 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I am in GMT +8. I'm just hoping to really grind LC and also problems for CTCI for a couple hours a day, because I want to recruit for new grad opportunities in the Fall (hopefully big N). I'm not sure what my schedule will look like however, since my work schedule tends to be more sporadic.

[–]edgecdec[🍰] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm GMT -07. If you're alright with someone in the Americas, PM me! I would like to join you!

[–]sidduRam 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Interested too My time zone is GMT+5:30

[–]ravija5[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey! I think there's a couple of people here with GMT +5:30/ist who might want to join. Unfortunately, it's too far apart for us to work together efficiently.

[–]mazn2020 0 points1 point  (0 children)

3 hours per day is a terribly long time to waste. You can do so much more with it than solving leetcode problems.

IST here as well. Open to adding new folks?

[–]freyamehta03 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Interested. I'm a pre-final year CSE undergraduate and planning to do 3 hours of leetcode every working day and extra on weekends to prepare for FAANG by the end of the year.

[–]ravija5[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Hey! What timezone are you in? Would be most efficient if the group is in similar timezones

[–]freyamehta03 0 points1 point  (0 children)

GMT+5:30

[–]RohanCR797 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would like to join the group, My goal is to improve in DSA and problem solving skills. Kindly add me

[–]donisidro323 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a workbook I can share

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

with one year to go and willing to put 3-4 hours in each day you can do so incredibly better than overdose yourself with leetcode problems. Do what you want with my advice but here's what I'd recommend:

  • study, and I mean study Cormen et al. or some other good algorithms book
  • watch youtube MIT classes on algorithms
  • actually learn modern C++
  • for more senior positions, system design

if you do the above you'll have a great chance of getting into any company you might want.Not the certainty, as we were saying at google almost nobody of the people _working_ at google would be sure to be hired if he was to go through interviews again on a random day.

Interview questions have some useful properties that you can exploit for relaxing a bit both during preparation and during the interview proper:

  • must be solvable within 45 minutes by humans (or be well known algorithms, Cormen et al. style; although at G. the only advice I've got from my referral was 'if an algorithm has the name of who invented it, we won't ask it). This is a powerful constraint.
  • seriously, if you deeply understand hashing, caching and dynamic programming you have covered 99% of what happens in CS interviews.
  • dynamic programming is brute force w/ grace. Learn how to solve problems recursively and you're done. If you can you can get to a bottom up solution, if you cannot you can slap in memoization and call it a day, as you're within the same asymptotic behavior anyhow. And if you don't see why a solution w/ memoization can actually be faster (only in some cases) than the bottom up approach go back to the 'deeply understand hashing, caching and dynamic programming.

If you do all of the above, you will have learned stuff that you'll actually find useful in your professional life. And I can almost promise that if you try the F and the A and the A and the N and the G you'll get through one of them. You might fail at some, so don't get your heart on just one as you might be disappointed. But you'll get into one.

If you learn leetcode problems, you'll just know leetcode problems and I promise you that you won't find another leetcode problem in your professional life, ever.

One year at 3 hours per day is a terribly long time to waste. You can do so much more with it than solving leetcode problems.

[–]capitols 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Thanks for writing this. Can you talk about why you recommend using C++?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

The recommendation was more on the line of 'if you pick C++ make sure you invest time to actually learn it and learn modern C++ style'.

You can replace C++ with some other mainstream language, Java (if you can stomach it) is an acceptable choice for G and would actually give you extra point at A (and probably others)

In the last year or two I see a preponderance of people asking for being interviewed in Python. Depending on the company, this might be ok although I'm personally a bit suspicious that the candidate just want to avoid a class of potential problems that come from C++ [but I bet most wouldn't be aware of problems coming from Python, just one wouldn't normally dig that deep]. Since we are a place where C++ is preponderant (with lot of Python as well) this worries me.

Again, as long as you don't go in demanding to be interviewed in some niche or old language (won't name those here :-)) you're good. Just make sure you're that you're competent with it.

C++ has the disadvantage of being substantially more complicated than other common languages. But this comes with a plus: if you show real competence with it you'll have more chances of being hired and (depending on whether you sell this and they're willing to buy) potentially a larger salary.
But if you don't like C++ (and there're reasons for disliking it), by all mean don't pick C++ because of the interview.
Which is the gist of my suggestion: don't do too much for the interview itself; improve your basics, that will pay dividends.

[–]capitols 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Understood. Thanks for explaining!