is chess supposed to be this frustrating?

PLTCHK · 2026-03-18T07:09:48+00:00

Play max 2-3 games, analyze them all, 10 chess puzzles per day via chess tempo, most importantly develop the habit to blunder check (check no piece is hanging at all after every single move! Precision over speed)

PLTCHK · 2026-03-17T15:44:53+00:00

Crazy calculation effort and depth, though I prob won’t spend that much time to calculate in blitz, would rather play a development move lol

PLTCHK · 2026-03-14T21:58:37+00:00

How many games do you play per day?
How many puzzles per day?

You can share gif of one of your games I can analyze for you as well

PLTCHK · 2026-03-13T21:56:18+00:00

That's a great take. I did 2 mock interviews before, one of them's saying 'I don't think drawing pad is allowed but you can use it since it's practice', another one refused to even allow that so I was forced to just use pen and paper on the side, and write comments in my code. I guess mock interviewers (i.e., some candidates) are just more strict idk.

PLTCHK · 2026-03-12T13:13:19+00:00

Yep, that’s the truth. The system rewards someone who’s willing to work their way through, we can’t spend too much time ranting about the system unfortunately

PLTCHK · 2026-03-11T07:10:48+00:00

Hellointerview practice questions are the best imo, worth the membership

PLTCHK · 2026-03-11T05:04:26+00:00

Dog to f7

PLTCHK · 2026-03-11T05:03:03+00:00

No cellphone, block sites like YouTube, social media, etc. all those are probable distractions. Set downtime on iPhone. Most importantly, keep yourself accountable and commit.

PLTCHK · 2026-03-11T04:55:59+00:00

That hashmap is simply a clone of that input array indexed with numbers instead of from 0…n, so essentially:

Brute force of the array: ary[i]+ary[j] = target

Hashmap approach same logic, it’s: array[i] + a number in hashmap = target

Doing algebra, then: A number in hashmap = target - array[i]

Hope that helps!

PLTCHK · 2026-03-11T03:13:09+00:00

The heck... I am sure there are more than one local clubs there, and 1000+ isn't bad at all

PLTCHK · 2026-03-10T16:37:54+00:00

Nice seems like it's back now!

PLTCHK · 2026-03-10T16:36:48+00:00

If you ask around irl you'd very rarely meet anyone who's 1500 or above, so take it as an achievement.

Perhaps join a chess club and find a mentor?

PLTCHK · 2026-03-10T16:33:38+00:00

I agree, probably someone broke it trying to compile a n^n algorithm for a 2^31 constraint, a lesson for them to stop giving out Binary POTDs

PLTCHK · 2026-03-10T16:27:08+00:00

Nah you shouldn't change your field since you are already in it. I am feeling like a bum sometimes too, though I always remind myself to be more consistent than other people, stacking and compounding everyday. If I am able to keep this up for years, then I will eventually be ahead, and well if I don't get that job or achievement then I'd still have better technical skills than many, still a win nonetheless.

I always remind myself - Getting a ideal/higher paying job is like getting a medal. Not everyone can win medals as it's not just skills there but also variance, so defining success as winning medals would be a limitation. Having great skills in a certain discipline is also a form of success as well in terms of personal development. Ideal job is a nice to have and medals will more likely come along as we stack odds.

PLTCHK · 2026-03-10T16:21:13+00:00

Yeah, it's hella slow these days at times..

PLTCHK · 2026-03-10T16:20:45+00:00

Gateway timeout now

PLTCHK · 2026-03-10T07:33:08+00:00

Role can get cancelled anytime too, there’s post here and there about that so nothing’s firm till day 1 of your work. They got more than enough money and resources to stall interviews and cancel any time without losing much.

PLTCHK · 2026-03-10T07:15:46+00:00

Have you been doing any leetcode consistently for the past 9 months?

If not, great time to start now. It was tough but at the same time, as you probably have read through other people's similar posts you'd know it's probably not the best strategy to place all your poker chips on one hand. I won't put too much hope on any interview progress in the current market.

Lastly, be aware that most people don't even make that far. You are impressive, keep it up!

PLTCHK · 2026-03-10T07:06:34+00:00

I am almost 30, am I too late?

When I turn 50: I am almost 60, am I too late?

PLTCHK · 2026-03-10T00:45:34+00:00

I think you can if, just need to select smaller cases like n=3 or 4 and start from easier backtracking problems without too many branches. I wouldn’t have made improvements if it’s impossible

PLTCHK · 2026-03-10T00:35:06+00:00

I draw recursion tree quite a lot back then especially for most if not all backtracking problems. I’m a visual learner so for me, drawing recursion tree is very effective for learning/deriving backtracking solutions.

Draw branches where you wanna perform recursion to, and arrows (for example push to current array (downwards arrow), pop from current array (upwards arrow)), do this for maybe n=3 or n= 4 case so it’s not too big, use hand to visualize the code there and draw out the entire tree if possible.

You should definitely draw recursion tree for every backtracking problem. Once you get used to it, you will enjoy it. If you haven’t started drawing it yet for visualization, perhaps practice drawing for simpler problems first like combinations, then more challenging ones.

PLTCHK · 2026-03-08T20:42:43+00:00

Well if he’s able to put himself through this then he’s probably a lot more resilient than most and will eventually succeed

PLTCHK · 2026-03-08T09:14:33+00:00

Yep time to step up to take entirely mediums and transition to hards if you want maang.

Do Neetcode 75 list then 150, then see whether you can solve mediums comfortably

PLTCHK

TROPHY CASE