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Stop Mindlessly “Grinding” LeetCode. Study Smart Instead

A better way to study and prepare for software engineering interviews

GreekDataGuy
Better Programming
5 min readNov 15, 2021

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Person on laptop in bed
Photo by Ivan Samkov from Pexels

There’s no way around studying algorithm questions if you want a high-paying job writing code.

Don’t expect to cram it into the weekend before your interviews, either.

Several colleagues spent 3 -6 months grinding LeetCode questions before interviewing and getting hired by FAANG companies.

That said, you can spend months studying hard, or months studying hard AND smart. The latter will get you further.

You can’t possibly practice and remember all 2,000+ questions on LeetCode. And even if you can, it’s not the most efficient strategy.

Here are some tips for “grinding LeetCode” more effectively.

Don’t Memorize Questions

Remembering questions and their answers might help you if you’re lucky enough to get the same question in an interview.

This isn’t impossible, as many companies are known to ask a small subset of questions.

But it comes with a few problems.

  • Memory can fail in stressful situations, like when three senior developers are watching you write code on a…

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GreekDataGuy
GreekDataGuy

Written by GreekDataGuy

Just a developer. Contact: greek.data.guy “at” gmail.com

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