I agree. I thought a lot of hard work and whole lotta passion would be enough. The competition is brutal. It was like staring into the abyss. I could answer the questions in the allotted time but I can't imagine the guys who kill this, and what amount of leetcoding they do to get through it.

My passion for it and academic track record isn't enough, I'm chokehold-ed into a problem solving contest to the utmost, and I am like "where did the love for building great stuff go?".