The unfair way I got good at Leetcode

Summary

The script provides advice on effectively preparing for coding interviews. It recommends focusing first on learning common solutions rather than attempting to solve questions from scratch. This builds intuition within topics more quickly. It advises solving questions in an interview-style setting to practice split attention required in actual interviews. It notes the importance of quality over quantity in practice, focusing on foundational and common topics. It cautions against getting caught up in exotic solutions, emphasizing reasonable solutions that demonstrate competence. Finally, it encourages diligent, consistent practice over time to develop reliable interview skills.

Takeaways

• 📝 Starting your coding interview preparation journey can feel overwhelming due to the vast amount of information available.
• 🔥 Early on, focus on learning solutions to develop intuition for problem-solving, rather than attempting to solve questions immediately.
• 🏆 Practice with a structured approach by categorizing questions into easy and medium, and learn common solutions before attempting to solve them.
• 📈 Developing a deep understanding of certain topics can be more beneficial than trying to cover every possible area.
• 🚧 Interviews are less about silently solving problems and more about actively engaging the interviewer with your thought process.
• 📚 Quality over quantity: Focus on understanding common patterns and solutions rather than trying to solve as many questions as possible.
• 🖥 Utilize resources like Pramp to practice technical questions in a more realistic, interview-like setting.
• 📊 Interviews tend to focus on foundational topics like arrays, trees, and data structures over more advanced topics like dynamic programming.
• 📖 Tailor your preparation to the company and role by researching and practicing questions posted by others from similar interviews.
• 💻 Preparing for interviews with hiring managers should include understanding the company’s engineering challenges and weaving that knowledge into the conversation.
• 👍 Consistent practice over a long period is key to becoming proficient in technical interviews; it's a marathon, not a sprint.

Q & A

Why is starting to learn coding for interviews described as difficult?

The difficulty in starting to learn coding for interviews stems from the challenge of being good enough to solve problems to land a job at high-paying companies and the overwhelming amount of information available, making it hard to know where to begin.

What strategy did the speaker use to improve at solving coding problems?

The speaker focused on learning solutions rather than immediately attempting to solve questions. This approach helped in developing intuition more quickly and solving questions faster within specific topics, like binary trees.

What method did the speaker recommend for learning about a new coding topic?

The speaker recommended starting with making two lists of easy and medium difficulty questions, learning common solutions well before practicing solving questions, and then moving on to practice with attention to new patterns or solutions for unfamiliar problems.

How does the speaker describe the experience of solving a question during an interview?

The speaker compares solving a question during an interview to acting on a stage, where the focus is on demonstrating problem-solving rather than quiet contemplation, requiring the sharing of thought processes and keeping the interviewer engaged.

What does the speaker suggest is necessary for effective interview preparation beyond solving medium-level questions?

Effective preparation involves practicing with distractions, similar to an interview environment, to get better at solving technical questions in an interview style. Utilizing platforms like Pramp for this practice is recommended.

What is the significance of the 'pyramid' mentioned by the speaker in the context of practicing coding questions?

The pyramid represents a structured approach to learning, where focusing on foundational topics (the lower building blocks) is crucial as they form the basis for understanding more complex topics and are more likely to appear in interviews.

Why does the speaker advise against focusing solely on finding the fastest or best solution to a problem during practice?

The speaker advises that the goal of practice should be to find a solution that will pass the interview, emphasizing consistency and effectiveness over finding the shortest or most complex solutions, which may not be necessary to secure a job offer.

How does researching specific questions posted by others benefit interview preparation?

Researching and practicing questions posted by others, especially those that have appeared in interviews with specific companies, can provide insights into what to expect and prepare for, as some questions may directly match those in actual interviews.

What is the value of understanding the company and engineering work before an interview with a hiring manager?

Understanding the company and its engineering challenges helps tailor the conversation during the interview, demonstrating interest and insight into the company's work, which can positively influence the hiring manager's perception and potentially secure the offer.

What mindset does the speaker recommend adopting for long-term success in coding interviews?

The speaker recommends adopting a mindset of consistent practice and patience, treating the learning process as a marathon initially and recognizing that becoming proficient may take a long time but will eventually transition into a sprint with sufficient practice.

Outlines

00:00

🌱 Starting Strong in Coding Interviews

The journey of mastering coding interviews begins with understanding where to start amidst the overwhelming amount of information available. Initially struggling with even basic questions, the narrator emphasizes the importance of learning from solutions to develop intuition quickly, especially in the early stages. By dividing practice questions into lists based on difficulty and type, and focusing on learning common solutions before attempting to solve more complex problems, the narrator found a more efficient way to improve. This method may seem controversial, but it's about building intuition and recognizing patterns, which is crucial for performing under the pressure of an interview where thinking time is limited and communication with the interviewer is key.

05:01

📈 Advanced Strategies for Coding Interview Success

Achieving success in coding interviews requires more than just solving problems; it demands a strategic approach to learning and practice. Emphasizing quality over quantity, the narrator suggests focusing on common questions and patterns, as well as practicing in conditions that simulate the divided attention of an actual interview. The narrator shares insights from personal experience, including the observation that questions on higher-level topics tend to resemble common practice questions closely, making familiar patterns invaluable. The journey from starting to excel in interviews is a marathon, requiring consistent practice and a mindset prepared for a long-term effort. Ultimately, the goal is to reach a point where interviewing becomes more like a sprint, thanks to the solid foundation built over time.

Keywords

💡intuition

Intuition refers to the ability to understand or know something instinctively without conscious reasoning. The narrator emphasizes developing intuition within a topic by learning common solutions thoroughly first, before trying to solve questions on your own. This allows you to recognize patterns faster and solve questions more efficiently during interviews.

💡interview

Interviews refer to the coding interviews candidates have to pass when applying for software engineering roles. The narrator notes that solving questions during an actual interview feels very different from solving them on your own, due to needing to share your thought process and keep the interviewer engaged.

💡patterns

Patterns refers to the common paradigms, themes, or approaches that come up repeatedly in coding interview questions. The narrator advises focusing practice on questions featuring the most frequent patterns, as these form the foundation for learning more complex topics.

💡roadmap

Roadmap refers to the structured learning plan the narrator recommends, where easier topics and common questions are mastered first before progressing to more advanced concepts. This exposes you to the patterns most likely to come up in interviews.

💡consistency

Consistency means regular, constant practice over an extended period of time. The narrator emphasizes that it takes consistent daily practice for well over a year to get truly proficient at coding interviews.

💡hiring manager

The hiring manager is the person who makes the final decision on whether to extend a job offer. Impressing them in a conversational interview, by demonstrating knowledge of their engineering challenges, can help secure an offer.

💡time

Time refers to both the preparation time needed to build skills through extensive practice, as well as the limited time available during a coding interview to analyze and solve a question under pressure.

💡solutions

Solutions refers to existing answers for coding problems. The narrator advocates learning common solutions thoroughly at first rather than trying to solve every question from scratch, in order to develop topic intuition faster.

💡pyramid

The knowledge pyramid represents how coding topics build on each other, with more fundamental concepts like arrays forming the base before progressing to more advanced areas like dynamic programming at the top.

💡adjustments

Adjustments refers to tweaks and modifications required in applying a coding pattern from a previous solution to a new, more elaborate problem. Even if the core approach is similar, new questions often require some tuning.

Highlights

Learning to code is challenging due to the vast amount of information and knowing where to start.

Initially struggling with easy questions, the speaker invested time and learned through mistakes.

Helping others pass interviews revealed that the initial struggles were part of getting started.

Emphasizes learning solutions and developing intuition for topics to solve questions faster.

Approach to learning binary trees involves making lists of questions and studying solutions before attempting to solve them.

Identifying new patterns through failed attempts helps in learning and moving forward efficiently.

Solving questions in interviews is likened to performing, with the need to engage the interviewer and share thought processes.

Reliance on intuition and familiarity with common solutions is crucial in interviews.

Practicing on platforms like Pramp to simulate real interview conditions is recommended.

The importance of both quality and quantity in practice, following a roadmap of common questions and topics.

Dynamic programming is less commonly encountered in interviews than questions on arrays, trees, backtracking, and priority queues.

Higher level questions in the pyramid of topics tend to be more similar to common questions.

The goal in interviews is to pass, not necessarily to find the best or fastest solution.

Researching and practicing questions posted by others for specific companies can be beneficial.

Preparing for interviews with hiring managers involves understanding the company’s engineering challenges.

Consistent practice is key to becoming good at interviews, with the process described as a marathon initially, then a sprint.

Transcripts

lead code is hard not only because it's

hard to be good enough to solve

questions to land a job at a high-paying

companies but also because it's hard to

know how and exactly where to start when

there is so much information available

when I just got started I couldn't even

solve an easy question well enough to

pass an interview but I had no choice so

I invested lots of time I made lots of

mistakes but also learned a lot fast

forwarding to today after passing many

interviews and helping friends and

random people who reached out to me on

LinkedIn to pass their interviews and

receive offers I realized that back then

I wasn't bad I was just getting

started especially in the beginning you

should put more time into learning

Solutions rather than solving questions

so that you start developing intuition

within that topic more quickly and then

solve questions faster so for example if

I'm now starting to learn binary trees

instead of just choosing a list and then

trying to Sol question by question

question I would make two lists of easy

and medium tree questions starting with

the common ones and then I would

separate each list again into two I will

start with the first list and instead of

trying to solve the question I will go

to the solution and learn the common

solution well after doing that for all

of the questions in that list I will go

to the second list and I'll start

practicing when I land on a question

that I could not come up with an answer

for it can be a one-off or an outlier

but when just starting it usually means

that it's a new pattern I was not

exposed to and I will learn that

solution and move forward rather than

wasting time on trying to solve the

question I know this sounds quite

controversial but give it a try and see

if it also helps you get better at lead

code much more efficiently which is what

matters solving a question during an

interview at least for me feels more

like acting on a stage and the scene is

that you solve a question rather than

actually solving a question there is

reason is is that you don't get to have

even 5 minutes to think quietly and

sketch some ideas you need to entertain

the interviewer well not entertain per

se but you need to keep them engaged

share your thought process and walk them

through what you're doing your attention

is split which makes it really difficult

to think that means I can only rely on

intuition when I'm asked in the first

few minutes I either know what the

answer is thanks to something I've

solved that is at least similar or don't

and in that case I just try to get away

with is asking the interviewer to have

time to think and throw some ideas as

they come until I land on something that

might lead to a solution and usually

interviews will also nudge you towards

the right direction when you voice it so

once you have practiced for long enough

so that you're able to solve medium

level questions if you stop there it

will probably not be enough then you

would need to practice on websites like

pramp and start solving these questions

when your attention is more split

compared to when you solve questions on

your own and get good at solving Technic

questions in an interview style although

over time the more you interview you

will naturally get better at

this it's not about quantity alone nor

quality alone you need both quality

means that you follow a road map that

exposes you to the most common questions

and topics to practice so that you have

a sound starting point this way you can

slowly work your way to expand the

spectrum of questions that you can

intuitively recognize you should spend

your time to practice according to this

pyramid focus on the lower building

blocks since they are the foundation for

learning the upper topics but also are

more likely to be patterns for the types

of questions that you will see during

the interviews for example I've never

been given a question on dynamic

programming whether I interviewed at

Fang a popular startup or a mid-tier

paying company but I have been given a

lot of questions on arrays similar to

the common ones but somewhere on trees

backtracking and priority cues something

additional I've noticed during the 15

plus interviews I've done is that the

more the question you asked is higher

into this pyramid the more similar it is

to common questions in that topic so

when I was asked a question on trees it

was virtually identical to a common tree

question of Thoroughly solved before

which helped me to easily solve the

question during the interview on the

other hand when the question was on a

raise it was more elaborate and not one

to one something I've seen before even

though it was sold using the same

pattern from com questions from before

it required more adjustments which is

why sometimes being asked about less

common topics can make things easier for

you when you had practiced several such

questions make sure that you're not

solving questions for the sake of

solving questions I know it sounds

strange but when I practiced initially I

got caught up with all the community

trying to learn the best or fastest

solution and so on but I was wasting

lots of time when you interview the

solution you need is the solution that

gets you to pass the interview you do it

consistently and that's how you land

offers this rarely means having the

shorter solution or an exotic one that

is better time complexity wise than a

reasonable common solution that is

usually suggested to that question when

you're interviewing there will be

specific posts and lists sometimes even

for smaller companies so research and

practice these questions that others

have posted I've seen more than once a

question I was asked which was identical

to a question someone else posted on a

website like lead code or glass door

with some companies you will have around

with the hiring manager that will

sometimes be technical but often will

also include some of the high level

related to what the company does when

you know you have a around with the

hiring manager do your D diligence about

the company and their engineering work

think about their challenges and things

that they had to overcome and weave that

in the conversation each time I had

around with the hiring manager I could

see how doing this at some point made me

Vibe with the hiring manager and I could

see how so long I don't do awfully on

the technical questions I will have the

offer finally just remember to give

yourself time and consistently practice

before you can really get good it took

me well over a year of practicing each

day with no exceptions to get to a point

where I interview pretty well and can

pass interviews when you start it's a

marathon you will most likely also need

to practice for a very long time at

least if you're like me but afterwards

it will be more like a Sprint where

thanks to all of that practice you can

recall and can quickly get in an

interviewing shape when you need to with

that said thank you so much for watching

and I hope to see you in the next one

[Music]

bye