Or getting a good software engineering job? If my goal is to get a job at big companies then am I just stuck.with Leetcode and avoid learning new tech?
Job Yes. Good software engineer No.
It helps get a job but doesn’t make you a good engineer. Most jobs you’ll almost never solve LC like problems, at least very infrequently
How to become a better software engineer: https://www.rooftopslushie.com/request/How-to-become-a-better-software-engineer-67
The only key? I can speak for Google, not sure if that qualifies your good swe job criteria. I am sure out of the 1000 Google engineers that join every month, there would be at least 1 who has not used leetcode. This data is purely anecdotal, though. So the implication of that data is that it is not the _only_ key. Fwiw, i also did not use it for my interview prep in 2015.
How did you prep then? EPI or previous competitive programming experience?
Judging by these responses, have to ask the question then why are Leetcode style problems used as a good way to judge who to hire?
The answer to that is, do you have a better way to do it that scales to thousands of applicants?
“If my goal is to get a job at big companies then am I just stuck.with Leetcode and avoid learning new tech?” False dichotomy. Why not both?
If you’re really a good programmer, good enough to get a decent rank in top coder or Google code jam, you can crack FANG interviews without leetcode.
Don't these online judges also fall in the LC category? Just with n times more complex problems?
You can’t memorise solutions and get a good rank on Google code jam as you can on leetcode/job interview. Again, if you don’t do well in google code jam. It means you probably are not a great programmer. So it would help you to work on programming.
Yes
Being a good software engineer: No Getting a good software engineering job: Yes
Disagree. I currently make over $140,000/year remote only one year into my career and I wasn't asked a whiteboarding/leetcode question during the interview process. For reference, I'm a front end developer that specializes in React.
high pay!=good sde job. for junior, a good sde job is where you learn from peers and senior.