I have an on-site in a few days at a known mid-sized company in the LA area. While studying for the onsite (leetcode, YouTube, etc), I’m finding myself just completely overwhelmed by the amount of material. Combine this with the fact that I could be asked any puzzle/question from this set of 1000+ questions, and will most likely be a “no go” if I don’t get the answer correctly in time and it’s getting just so overwhelming. I understand that you study the “general concepts” and not the questions themselves, but still...it’s exhausting. How do you deal with this?
Meditate. practice each question as deeply as possible and then move to another one. This way you have your quality focus on one problem at a time and with enough practice you will build confidence and knowledge base. Make peace with failure there are enough good companies for you to fail and make progress. Good luck :) feel free to dm.
you're not expected to see the question in advance. Practicing on leetcode helps you see some common patterns, but most reasonable interviewers will happily hint you and look for communication skills rather than expecting you to solve the whole thing on your own. I'd say leetcode less and interview more - it's a numbers game
Where are these reasonable interviewers you’re talking about? I have excellent communication skills and have failed countless interviews because I couldn’t write 100% correct code despite verbally reasoning through my logic. The only times I’ve passed was when I’ve seen the question before and memorized the optimal solution, regurgitating it onto the whiteboard. No one gives a fuck about thought process and communication.
that has not been my experience interviewing in 20+ non-faang companies throughout my career
I feel ya, i think going in an interview spree might help so you don’t feel as pressured to succeed in a single one
Unfortunately the answer is that you start leetcoding 3+ months ago. You'll gain confidence in time. Look at this one as practice.