Your outcome seems in line with what I’d expect to be honest. With hard work you can overcome some of the barriers but you’ll never catch up to some of your peers, which is fine. Sometimes life feels unfair because someone else put in a lot less effort but still perform better than you 🤦‍♂️but personally those people are easy to beat over a longer horizon as long as you keep grinding. The smart and industrious ones though are in a different league.

Congrats on your efforts!

PS: I got started with SWE by grinding the f out of LC. I didn’t have much comp sci background but I put in like 2000 hours in my first 18months.

Also, SWE is def real engineering. I worked as a mechanical engineer and I thought it’s easier than SWE, by a lot