Title says it all. So far i've graduated from a mid-tier university in the US. Currently studying alex xu 1 &2 , DDIA, cracking the code interview, and doing some leetcode and neetcode. I think I might be dumb on the leetcode side because i'm very bad at even the easy questions. If I never get better idk if I should just stay at my current job forever? Source: I don't work at m&t bank anymore and hindsight it was a terrible first job. YOE: 3 TC: 102k + pension&401k(idk how to factor that in). #software #engineering #swe #faang #google #amazon #microsoft
Only 1% engineers are genius. Rest all are good at googling stuff. Remember this. Imposter syndrome is real but I have seen people who are good at LC but medicore at their day 2 day work. Practice and build open source stuff to gain some confidence in yourself.
Just study LC. It helps to understand DSA which isn’t mutually exclusive, so that narrows your learning path. Blind 75, then company specific LC questions, then LC med/hard by most frequency. Do 2-3 of these a day, then increase it to 4-6. After you’ve done about 50, apply for a low lvl faang position, should double your salary. That will open doors to 2nd tier companies that pay well. So you can go to maybe a google afterwards or you can go to like a roku. It’s up to you
Also do mock interviews, its wayyy different with someone watching you and making certain parts of the problem ambiguous
Being good at leetcode != good software engineer. You can be a leetcode monkey but not know how to create a RESTful API if you work in the backend (me lol). If you want to just get better at leetcode for a better job, then yeah practice makes perfect. I was in a position like you where I wasn't able to solve even leetcode easy without looking at the discussion. If you're more of a visual learner (like me) and can't understand leetcode discussion, then try youtubing the leetcode question you're stuck at. I'm still not that great at leetcode, but I sure am better than I was 6 months ago. Keep grinding, champ.
IMO learn a low level language (C++, C, or ASM) and use it on personal projects until you are comfortable with it. This will force you to understand what's ACTUALLY going on in higher level languages and will dramatically re-shape how you look at code. Also forces you to do personal projects, which are one of the best ways to continue expanding skills and stay sharp. Would also recommend getting familiar with basic hacking techniques and become conversant in how systems are penetrated, because as a professional if you don't understand how bad actors will attack your system or which penetration strategies would be attractive, you're going to write vulnerable code. Make sure to stay somewhat up to date in the space because approaches and mitigations shift a bit over time, and favored attack vectors shift a lot.
i code in java and c# is that not low level? honestly not sure I know python is a high level language. where can I find up to date material on penetration strategies rather than just blindly google stuff and take stuff like medium at face value. also stack overflow has mixed quality answers.
I would not call those low level. In these languages you are highly insulated from memory and disk representations or the mechanics of how basic tasks are accomplished. They aren't bad, and performance wise they can be pretty solid, but they do a lot of the hard stuff for you, which leaves you not understanding the hard stuff at a fundamental level.
OP don’t listen to him. If you want to learn a low level language learn rust, I’d recommend against it as long as you understand how references work. This is just old school elitism about “low level being better”. C++ is pretty close to self flagellation unless you are doin modern C++ / RAII, and even then it is a giant pain in the ass to compile and debug
Sorry was supposed to be reply to previous comment
Rust is not a low level language, and low level is not usually better, but understanding it matters. The best thing I ever did was tinker with ASM on a Z80. I was terrible, I should never be put anywhere close to any production ASM code, and I would recommend ASM for almost nothing, but having some experience with it made me a much better engineer with a much clearer picture of how things really work. I've heard the same sentiment echoed by MANY other engineers. There is nothing elitist about pointing out that understanding how computers actually work makes a SWE better at their job.
In addition to leetcode I would suggest codewars katas. Easy ones are too easy but if you go for the toughest ones you might find yourself trying to write a compiler etc and would def learn a lot of things along the way. Or try to implement things you see in books like Data intensive applications. Write a database that uses LSM under the hood etc.
thx i'll get try codewars and try making some applications. should I look into cloud applications? I only know Azure atm.
It is really hard to answer this question because it depends in which industry you are working it, which type of company you are working with etc. Embedded software requires different skills than working at startups or enterprise fintech company. Memorizing algorithms and system design interviews will get you a job at Google but you won’t be any better in solving real business problems. Which can be of various kinds and so the solution will depend upon the context. But there is one problem that js constant and most present and that is complexity. How about to learn concepts that translate between languages which can help you tackle complexity? Concepts like DDD, CQRS, Event Sourcing, TDD, Clean Architecture… Those concepts especially DDD strategic patterns are for sophisticated, next level developers and they don’t have anything to do with coding but require thinking and dare to say philosophy.
Any book you can suggest?
Pension really? Who is doing that nowadays
Some places have pensions and 401k. Is it worth it? I think so I guess.
Do your own projects. Don't set a goal for money, but for knowledge. Do complex, complicated projects.
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Practice makes perfect, grind leetcode and go from there