How You Should Approach the NeetCode 150: A Kickstart Guide
How I find success in the NeetCode 150
If you haven’t heard of the NeetCode 150 before then quickly check out this article I wrote on it: The NeetCode 150: An Easy Way to Ace Coding Interview Questions | by TheConnoisseur | Jul, 2023 | Medium
The NeetCode 150, a curated list of 150 LeetCode questions with quality sample solutions and video tutorials: a perfect way to prepare for coding interviews.
But 150 questions can be a lot, and will take a whole lot more time to complete. Therefore you’re going to need a plan.
And that’s where this article comes in. Below I’ll detail out some of the best study plans for the NeetCode 150 and how you could tackle it.
Note, what you do is up to you, but all the ideas I’ll go over are things I would, and do, implement myself.
How Should You Tackle Each Question?
I’ve actually written a topic on how to tackle LeetCode questions which you can find here: 6 Easy Steps to Master Any LeetCode Problem | by TheConnoisseur | Aug, 2023 | Medium
So, if you haven’t found you process to tackle each question yet then check that out.
Tackling Questions in Order of Difficulty or Topic
The first thing to decide when going through the NeetCode 150 is the order in which you tackle the questions: by topic or by difficulty.
I want to reiterate again that what you choose is up to you, but I would highly recommend doing them in order of difficulty.
The reason for this is that it will ease you into the list better than doing it topic by topic. If you start by completing one topic at a time, then you will be doing hard questions from the start which can put off your tempo.
Additionally the hard question require more time and knowledge so you might feel discouraged slowing down for them earlier on, but once you have the foundation of doing all the medium and easy questions in the list, they are much more manageable.
Doing the list by topic also means that you won’t see topics again for the rest of the 150, depriving you of the chance to revise them. Reiterating on previously done topics to solidify your knowledge of them is critical in the learning process, which you won’t be doing as much if you do the list in order of topic.
So, to sum up this section, I highly recommend doing the NeetCode 150 in order of difficulty and not in order of topic.
Organising Your Time
Now that you know how to do each question and the order to do them in, let’s talk about when you do them.
I highly recommend finding a consistent time slot in your day, or week if daily is too much, to sit down and have crack a some questions. For example, let’s say you have 30 minutes free at the start of your day, this would be the ideal time to make some progress on the 150.
As for how much time you should spend on each question, see my post linked above on how to tackle LeetCode questions for more info, I would say anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes is great. This depends how much time you have and, while the more the better, I would go as low as saying 20 minutes is fine as well, as long as you get value out of the question.
You should avoid splitting questions across two different studies sessions if you can as well. Of course, sometimes you can’t avoid this, but keep it in mind.
After Completing The 150
Once you have done all 150 questions, congrats by the way :), I would recommend going back and reviewing some of the tricker ones from time to time as well.
This will keep it fresh in your mind and you will thank yourself later on when you start to prepare for coding interviews. You want solving these questions to become second nature and the only way to do that is through repetition over a long period of time.
Example Study Plan
To finish up, I’ll give a couple examples of some study plans you can follow.
Let’s say you’re working full time and looking for new job, then you don’t have much time to practise NeetCode. There are two things you can do:
- Find a small gap in your day to crack out a few questions. This could mean getting up 30 minutes earlier, and fitting a session in every day before you go to work, or maybe you have a long journey on the train which you could solve some questions in.
- You could find a gap on the weekend to make progress on the 150; cut the Saturday morning lie-in and solve some NeetCode questions instead. If you choose to do sessions weekly, then I recommend doing longer sessions with regular breaks. 2 hours with a 15 minute brake halfway is a good start
Another example could be that you’re a student on summer break and have more expendable time. This would be much easier to plan for. You need to make a decision on whether you want to take your time and do a small session each day or get all 150 questions done in a month, in which case you would need larger sessions with regular breaks.
Finally, be consistent. This goes for everyone. There are no short-cuts to it, showing up at your chosen time slot everytime and putting some time in is the best way to success.
That’s all!
Remember that the hardest part is getting into a rhythm. Try to stay consistent and keep that grind up.
If you read this far then thanks for reading and have a nice day!
Thanks for reading and happy coding!
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