Count: 350 questions (mostly mediums) Over the past 3 years, I must have solved ~500 questions. And in the last month, I solved 350. However, I am still not able to solve new questions. I can get to brute force solution but optimal solutions are hard (success rate ~40%) I have onsite with Google in the first week of January and I feel super low. For every question, I spend ~30 minutes to think and then I write down all my approaches and the blockers. Then I code up the brute force just to practice coding. Then I look up the solutions and try to understand it. I have enough experience with leetcode but it seems like Im not making progress in terms of thinking process (though my knowledge is increasing by reading solutions) Can someone help? I really want to crack fang interviews.
May be you haven’t given enough thought when solving all those questions? For the next 100 try do it all by yourself without looking up solutions — as you may have a grasp of all the fundamentals already. If you start feeling like you are improving, then keep at it, you will crack all of FANG as you seem very dedicated.
I think instead of racking up numbers you need to nail down some basic conceptual stuff. Slow down and really understand each topic, one at a time , using pen and paper. There is enough material out there for this stuff.
For ex. Find all strobogrammatic number of length n. This question is not data structure based or some programming concept based. It’s general logic question- I was asked that q earlier this year at Google. I wasn’t able to do it then and neither today. :(
I really do well on questions which is data structure based like a combination of treeset and some list, graphs, trees etc. But really suck in these general logic questions
350 in a month is definitely not solving all of them yourself. Do you think about the problem for 5 min and then look at the solution?
I give 6 hours to leetcode everyday (in 2 hour batches). Some of the questions do include something i have seen before but mostly I avoid solving those. I usually think like 15-20 (30 max if i think im going anywhere)
You're burning out. Take a few days off, then do 5-10 per day.
I am in the same boat, although 200 LCs ☹️
Man it sucks. I really hate dp now. There are some chinese dudes who write fucking crazy godlevel solutions
MY SENTIMENTS EXACTLY!!! I just completed 1st year of MS, I see these Chinese guys 24x7 in library studying like robots! This makes me think who's my competition! I don't understand man, what do they do that they crack G/F!
350 in a month is not a healthy rate, it's going through them too fast without spaced repetition and much afterthought. You need to understand the solutions to the problems you solve upto an extent where you can apply those concepts to similar problems you see later. Most problems boil down to same strategies. Maybe just go through what you have solved already and see if you are able to do them again. P.S- I am reaching 400 and I have been leetcoding since July. Since 3rd September I have missed only one day where I didn't solve a problem and I can solve most mediums, 3 and sometimes 4 in contests now. But DP is still a pain point since I don't try to understand them much and keep procrastinating it as it takes a lot of effort to grasp them.
People solve around 150 leetcode and find a pattern about the questions. So you must try to build that thought while solving.
Try and find common patterns instead of just solving as many questions as possible. This article is a good start: https://hackernoon.com/14-patterns-to-ace-any-coding-interview-question-c5bb3357f6ed
This website called geeksforgeeksDOTcom was useful in understanding types of problems.
Following
Just to crack interviews if you have to work so hard, how would you survive the job. FAANG is not everything, find your strengths and try to leverage those in life. Otherwise it would be never ending struggle of keeping up with things you are not meant for.. This is useless advice for your immediate problem but think about it after you crack FAANG interview.
I’m software engineer, I don’t really know many other things. I’m nerdy and always like math and coding. But my success rate with leetcode questions isnt great so trying to seek help. I also think if worker hard enough we can achieve goals in life. And my immediate goal is cracking onsite interviews.
@microsoft I think given enough time anyone can achieve success. So it's not fair for us to decide that op is not meant for faang. It's better to not have regrets. So op don't worry and keep trying. It's more painful to have regrets later on when you are old and you think you did not try since you thought faang wasn't for you