How do you retain info from just grinding Leetcode??

Jun 22, 2021 20 Comments

As the title says, how do you guys retain knowledge by just grinding LC?

This is what I have done so far, completed Grokking Coding Interview (took notes on each algorithm/pattern). Try to complete 2 medium/hard LC problems per day.

My issue is, most of the time I have to peek at hints to get to the final answer. But how can I retain this information?? What am I doing wrong?


EDIT: this community is amazing, thank you all so much for your suggestions, please know I do not take them lightly, I will implement each and every suggestion and work to improve. Hopefully in 6mos - year I can’t land that FAANG+ job.

#SWE #SDE #Interview

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  • New
    EgHV53

    New

    EgHV53
    That means you need to work back to basics in algorithms and data structures. Get a good book outside of LC and focus on actually understanding the concepts... So many people just tries to cut short the journey.

    Don't get me won't LC is the best source of prep work for the interview and I used it, but if you find you always need to look at hints for me that means you lack certain knowledge. Afterwards you still might have to refer to hints but with good foundations you will understand and be able to reapply the knowledge. Most of those problems are solved using very similar patterns.
    Jun 22, 2021 3
    • New
      EgHV53

      New

      EgHV53
      Try to focus on particular area, revisit for example trees/graphs and DFS, BFS and then move to LC to knock loads of examples on that particular topic.
      Jun 22, 2021
    • OP
      That’s a great suggestion, I think my method is flawed, I spent weeks going through the Grokking course then just randomly attempted LC questions. That doesn’t seem like an efficient way to go about this. Going to try one topic at a time.

      Thank you so much!
      Jun 22, 2021
  • Volvo / R&D
    ascnrdrkly

    Go to company page Volvo R&D

     ascnrdrkly
    Solve problems by topic.
    Jun 22, 2021 2
  • If you're peeking at hints every time, then you're doing something wrong. Maybe try revisiting problems after a few days and do them blind
    Jun 22, 2021 2
  • Amazon
    yeah 😎

    Go to company page Amazon

    yeah 😎
    Step 1: have a high IQ
    Jun 22, 2021 1
  • Read "thinking fast and slow".

    I'd say when you're on leetcode you should focus on identifying common algorithm and ds problem patterns and how to implement them quickly. That just comes by doing a lot of problems. Like grinding through calculus problems. Eventually solving new problems becomes fairly automatic because there are less patterns than there are problems.
    Jun 22, 2021 1