I've been in this industry for 15 years. I've worked at large and small companies, etc. I've also bombed multiple leetcode interviews and some of the best engineers I've known have as well. I think your comments about getting burned out during your leetcode streak is the most directly translatable aspect of these exercises to real world experience.
Engineers are workers and they have lost the power in this power game. They need to take back the power and say no. If enough people say no, companies may be forced to change the process.
Side note: while I have been hearing huge amount of complaints about how data structure and algorithm questions are unnecessary in many technical interviews, learning it in depth has helped me tremendously to write faster and readable code after spending nearly a year studying it. So I do urge future developers to use it to benefit yourself and not solely on getting pay raise.
@@sohn7767 this example is still about DS, not algos, so the question is still not answered :) yes, for sure, I know how DS help me writing better code, so that's why I am asking about algos, because I know them, but they don't help me a bit, but I am backend developer and maybe don't know much about it.
yes, it is like studying SAT vocabularies. Once you know what "adumbrate" means, you are so much smarter and you become invincible and you will save the world
Love this video. I started Leetcode in November 2023 to help with my consistency. Wanted to make sure I code every day. It has surely helped with that. Plus helped me brush up on my fundamentals and problem-solving skills. I'm excited about the future!
Nice video bro. I loved how you honestly shared your experience and said how it's OK to struggle. I am doing the leetcode grind myself to get an internship but am constantly slipping because of my grand level procrastinating problems.
Hello Kevin! I am just writing this comment to you to thank you for making this video. This gave me a great overview of how I should get started to efficiently reach my goal. Your goal, the position that you were in, and pretty much everything you said aligns with my position and the path that I want to take. This helped me a lot, and thanks again!
I’m just glad you keep it a buck. I like the way you ended the video. You seem like you’re a smart guy who has the same struggles I do with procrastination and overall angst towards the process. Yet, you got through it. That’s why I’m here and that’s why I value your content. The other material on YT is so fake and happy. I’m tired of the positivity around this process - it’s an ugly process that’s mostly unnecessary for what the job actually entails. Thanks for your videos.
Congrats on working hard man, no doubt that is never a waste. Ironically while you can indeed step up in pay and status by getting into big tech, you can also diminish in job satisfaction and autonomy as most of these environments are essentially thinly veiled cold corporate cultures with bureaucratic line management just waiting to throw you at some problem without much empathy for your happiness. The assumption is "you're lucky to be here and you get perks, so deal with it or leave" - this doesn't always cut it for your soul though. For example you're far more likely in a big tech company to end up feeling like a cog in a large machine, even feeling like an anonymous mop and bucket used to clean up whatever boring problems hit these companies at scale, and there are plenty. For all the expertise knowledge on data structures and algorithms, you could end up hitting a point where you would rather be more happy with the genuine feeling of accomplishing something interesting which is more aligned with your personal passions and interests. You may even end up doing less coding and more documents and meetings, it's happened to me and many fellow engineers I've worked with at a big tech company I worked at for over 5 years. This is why many people leave big tech eventually to try their own startups or switch lanes. Those that stay for long periods are just like the furniture at any old company (think long timer at a government job - same kind of person). Still, work hard and take what's yours my friend while the going is good. Good luck and well done!
Niceee! Solid video! 2 hours/day is so much! I'm glad you were able to achieve what you really wanted and warned your audience about burn out when you're not motivated by the right reasons.
2 hrs / day is actually not that much, it depends on problem you solve. Usually medium problem can get you up to 1hr, when hard problem can take you up to 2hrs of focused work. Like coming up with your own solution, then backtracking with the solutions provided by comunity / explainations. Lower then 2 hrs is usually will not push you forward. Just IMO
Thanks for this video Kevin! I’m currently studying daily for some FAANG interviews I’va coming up and I’m using the book you mentioned, which after watching you video makes me feel a lot more secure of what I’m doing.
I'm doing the same but got my goal is 6 months, I might need to be more realistic and change it to one year. Last year I started with algo expert and the fundamentals are briefly explained in like 10-min video and then straight to problem in no order whatsoever. This year I'm following Kunal DSA boot camp along with all the leet code problems.
Hey man thanks for this video I currently got a job at a company as a Junior C# dev and have a team of 2 other software engineers. I did not have any leetcode problems during the intrerview it was just questions about inheritance and abstraction and also fixing some simple code that pretty much any college kid can do. My goal is to also get into a bigger software company as well. Leetcode has been my biggest downfal but after watching this I am goin to try to get my study habits better and crack into big tech hopefully
Great review Kevin, I recently got a Junior Dev role at a startup with a similar tactic. But I. will be using your tactic to prep for future interviews. Honest perspective is great content on YT. Keep it up.
It's just like studying for entrance examinations - though the topics feel unrelated to real world scenarios. Companies find it easier to segregate people using this method and they most probably wont stop. (ps: I haven't yet completed leetcode questions so ig i could be wrong)
The problem with studying for leetcode interviews is it takes time away from learning more about things you'll actually need to know to do the job, which usually means knowing a lot of tools (databases, docker, aws services, and much more, not to mention how to write clean/idiomatic code not just code that passes a test). The more we accept these interviews and give leetcode higher user numbers, the more this silly form of testing software engineers perpetuates. Plenty of good companies don't do these tests, so I say don't encourage them.
@@zehra2334 You can still study a little for those types of tests, but I would say "Cracking the Coding Interview" book is enough since it's mostly practical advice. It's fine to do leetcode for fun but I wouldn't invest all my time in it.
@@zehra2334 also, a lot of companies will give you the choice between a live algo test or a take home practical test. I usually go with the latter but it's personal preference.
Love this answer. At my company, we don't do those tests. Because they really aren't important! Most of these algorithms are already solved so you as the engineer really just need to focus on package management and versioning, infrastructure design, clean and well documented code, test driven development, PR reviewing, CI/CD development, getting along with coworkers, maybe learning a faster language like Rust/Java/Go/C++, refactoring legacy codebases, twiddling your thumbs, and finally reading Stack Overflow! At the end of the day, my 5 year long career as junior, mid, and now senior developer, that's been my entire career. The only reason I'd need to do leetcode is for the fun of learning new algorithms or writing some fun code for my github profile.
This is a great option, but I am just wonderinh about what kind of projects to work on the side? Like complex projects, but you wont have many or a lot of projects but not as complex?
Hey KC, thanks for your sharing! I'm a fresh graduate student and currently trying to get my first job. I spent lot of time to train myself by doing LC problems in the past half year, hope I can achieve my goal ASAP like you!
I just cant stop imagining you awkwardly putting your phone around and walk by like you have no idea for the intro :D great video tho! very helpful. thank you!
I love how you wouldn’t sign up for paid services if you had to do it again 😁 i’m a huge believer in creating and consuming high quality content for free and as a college student I appreciate this advice 😂
I am a physics degree holder and decided to have career shift to data analyst/data science cause Physics got fucking hard to get job in my country, Malaysia. I learn a lot about data science and also computer science though I know it is hard to self thought. I have learn Python on myself and now I am learning Machine Learning because I think Machine Learning was the hardest part in data science. I just want to share this with you cause I really feel my journey is alone and I am walking by myself. Thank you.
you are not alone, there are many people around the world in your shoes, including myself. just keep learning but learn with purpose, not aimlessly. this will help you achieve your goal faster.
Ahh mann..I'm too studying Physics and it sucks bro. I hardly can wrap my head around these hard formulas and concepts. Moroever the probability of getting a job after doing all these hard work in Physics is close to Nil , cuz in academia either you need connections, or you need to be some Einstein sort of genuis. Damn, studying and clearing physics UG exams along with studying computer science on own is damn hard. I get you bro. But we will get through, don't worry
Anyone that’s randomly solving questions is wasting their time. Truthfully you are more than ready to interview at majority of places if you fully understand patterns from blind 75. If you’re familiar with additional patterns that are in Sean Prashads list or grokking/algomonster then you’re definitely good enough. By the time you’re done with these resources I would only cover company tagged questions when I have an interview or assessment. So in total around 180-210 questions before getting interviews and needing to do company tagged. I’d give myself around 90-120 days to prep for this amount if I intend to apply at any place with a high hiring bar (pin/snap/Uber/google/facebook/etc.) and only 40-80 days for places with an average bar (Oracle/Nordstrom/JPMorgan/etc..) and 15-40 days for low tier local non tech companies .
I think for hard problems, to fully code it up you should give at least 40 minutes. I did first 10 problems found it too easy, then did first 10 hard problems and stopped. If you can do all hard problems in first attempt in under an hour, probably averaging 30 minutes I am sure you can clear pretty much any tech company interview these days. Leetcode hard problems are actually not that hard. So if you want to save time, if your fundamentals are great then just do first 10 hard problems on leetcode and you can stop if you did all of it in under an hour.
I’m on a path nearly identical to yours. Been studying algorithms and data structures for 8 months now, using Python, AlgoExpert and various courses, books and videos on specific subjects like dynamic programming (which I found most challenging so far). No CS background, started from scratch. I was intrigued by your advice to time yourself and little surprised about the 25 min window. In my opinion this needs some context. There are different levels of difficulty to these problems and there’s definitely an „algo muscle” which we train as we progress. I would argue one needs to first build up their knowledge and confidence with the basics (data structures, time complexities of operations in their language of choice, solving techniques, recursion). And this needs time. I’ve not studied CS so maybe I’m missing some foundations, that’s entirely possible. Anyway, just ordered the book you recommended. I’ve read many different blogs about learning algorithms and read few books already, yet have not come across this one. Also, after getting the algo expert certificate I am willing to be moving on to leetcode to start working on my speed and solving higher volume of problems. And hey, data structures and algorithms is an awesome knowledge, I think you enjoy having it! Maybe you got little flustered with the discipline required to get it. As someone who had fallen physically ill because of burnout, I can tell you attitude is everything. Stay healthy and keep it up!
i believe he said to try to complete a question in under 25 minuites. Because generally in coding interviews you get about an hour to solve a couple of questions.
You dude are so transparent, it's inspiring LOL. But honestly, I feel overwhelmed just from the thought of where to start my prep. I only have like 2-3 weeks to prep and I am not sure how to go about it. Any insights? Giving my online coding assessment for Amazon in 2-3 weeks and I am not sure if I am prepped and where to start.
thanks for watching! And yes I feel you on that stress 100%, if you need an overview of DS&A and you're on a time crunch, the "elements of programming interviews in python" book i mentioned has a recommended questions list based off your time frame (3 days, a week, a month, etc). Otherwise just do leetcode questions for the 3 weeks. And I would recommend buying 1 month of leetcode premium so you can look at the all the questions that Amazon asks, sort by frequency for the last 6 months, and do as many as you can. In my experience the cost has been worth it
Hi KC! Great video! As an aspiring software engineer, videos like these really help so much! What resources would you recommend to learn Data Structures and Algorithms? Thank you!
I feel you on this, when you're in the middle of prep it feels hopeless and like there's no end in sight. Keep it up, you'll get there soon. Make sure to get some support from friends and family if you can :)
Any recommendation for building a strong foundation or fundamentals of coding before doing Leetcode? I know this video recommends a book but any of you have any suggestions?
Hey I loved your video and I'm at a similar position to where you were at in college. I'm very curious if you could maybe give a salary range of what you were getting payed working at startups and what you are getting payed after breaking into big tech? Thanks for the help and this was an amazing video!
I have a serious question for everyone. If you were in charge of hiring 1 software developer for your team - assuming they were at the same knowledge level a year prior, would you rather hire someone who did nothing but study Leetcode for that year? Or someone who did nothing but build projects, learn languages, new frameworks, etc. etc. for that year? I know that's not taking into consideration the other things they could be doing on the side, but if those two extremes were the option, who would you rather hire to be on your team? Ignore the real world interview process requirements for this one.
hey! thanks for watching the video, My serious answer to this is that, definitely the person who built projects and learned new frameworks for a year, etc. My previous startups hired by pretty much exclusively by asking me simple questions about javascript/web frameworks that a person working with this stuff day in and day out should know about. (javascript closures, idioms, promises vs callbacks vs async await, how the rendering process works in react, etc) My goal was to get into top tech companies, and there was no choice there except to do leetcode
@@CreatedByKC I agree, and it's definitely the smart thing to do. But I see a lot of people in the comments arguing that leetcode & studying algorithms makes you a better programmer. They just can't seem to shake the "theory is better than practice" thing. There's nothing wrong with learning algorithms at all, but I just wanted to put a scenario out there to see how they would defend the former option. Fortunately, many big tech companies are slowly starting to lighten up on the whole CS degree & algorithm process requirements as it really doesn't tell you anything about a person's qualifications for that job vs the startups you mentioned where they actually asked questions they would want someone in the position they were interviewing for to know, just like any sane hiring process. Hence, my question. It's a very dated practice in my opinion.
Damn wish I always had the 5pm-7pm timeslot for studying. But in my current software job I usually work 8AM-6PM everyday, so I am usually tired from work already.
I think the bit about interviews going remote and becoming harder to compensate. Also since everyone is studying in doors the interviews are getting harder to compensate.
My Question is when u started was it that u got the answer to question asap? Like were u able to solve all questions by yourself or had to refer google or CZcams explanations sometimes??
in my opinion, your "data structure memory" retains much longer. But to solve a specific medium-hard DP Problem after 6 months coming back is difficult. Some engineers do one everyday lol
Hello Kevin, how many years did you spend in smaller companies before embarking on this journey and eventually moved to a big tech company? Would love to know
Why?? You don’t learn anything about design and engineering. It’s a nice academic challenge but the real world doesn’t care about academici challenges. If they truly did then they didn’t stop teaching assembly. That is what you learn the most.
Honestly I'm trying to venture out of corporate . You spend so many months practicing these questions, putting in so many hours and it does not even guarantee you a job. At least to me that is time stolen. I could have spent that that time working on any project , learning any new skill that could have the potential of becoming something bigger. I understand how great it is to have a well paying job at a big company, and to have benefits and security of consistent payment, but at the same time at least to me I feel like my skill, energy, and time would be better off put into something I actually enjoy working on.
Brother could you please upload the excel sheet where you have listed all the questions you solved. It would be of immense help to all of us here :). Thank you for an excellent video
I never want to work as a developer, but I am interested enough to do my own stuff. Is data structures and algorithms good if I want to make a website with user login? I could use word press, but I actually want to custom build my own site.
Lets think we get a job in the services company and there we first improve on our given domain and if we dont want it we can change the domain there itself and try there for big tech company
Hey, thanks for making this video! You said all you need is that python interviewing book - are you saying that in terms of studying, if you grind that book, then do leet code, you should be able to achieve the win condition of SWE at a large tech company?
hey man, and yeah exactly. From my trials and error, just using that book, coding with only python, and then making sure you're doing new leetcode questions every day (and making sure you're timing yourself and trying to simulate the uncomfortable pressure of an interview) is all you need. It would have probably saved me months of time if I just did those.
@@CreatedByKC interesting are you a software engineer at a large company or a front end engineer? My current plan was to do CS50 and listen to data structure theory from MIT, but the idea of only focusing on the python book is truly compelling
Thank you for all of your helpful videos! I’m a senior high school student planning to major in CS and become a SE. I’ve been looking for internships to do this summer, and I would very much appreciate it if you can recommend any software engineering internships that high school student can apply for besides Google’s CSSI. Here are some of my experiences in CS: I’ve created an AI model to diagnose cataracts using Python and a bell schedule web app using JS, TS, and React. Thank you!
Hey! Dang you're killing it starting so early, honestly I'm not sure about internships for high school students, but given how much you know I would say just apply anywhere that has an internship. You'll definitely get something with what you've done so far. Good luck!
Thank you so much for sharing your experience! Kind of a dumb question maybe, but I am really focused on C# with Unity and dotnet right now. Would you say that learning these data structures and algorithms are required for C# development? I’d probably need to learn Python in order to tackle these kind of interviews…
data structures and algorithms are not related that much to a programming language.. once you know them, you can apply the principles to many programming languages.
data structures and algorithms are programming language secular stuff but python has many pre-built types that make it easier to use data structures without having to build them from scratch using more primitive data types in other languages ... whether you need to learn python or not no one can answer except you ... there must be reasons why you are focused on c-sharp and unity ... if those reasons are not valid then only you should start exploring other languages ... since c is a much older language (and i am assuming c-sharp is closer in syntax and spirit to it) you may quickly benefit from a ds-algo book which used c as teaching language ... or else an equivalent translation for c# may be already there ... do not abandon c# simply because python is getting popular ... reexamine if c# meets your career goal
Thank you for a nice video Kevin, could you please tell me if I need to know python as programming language for studying the book which you recommended, or my JS skills would be enough? Thank you!
I did leetcode for 3 months before I got my new role and i would say it definitely improved my programming skills.
What did you study to build the fundamentals before the Leetcode?
I've been in this industry for 15 years. I've worked at large and small companies, etc. I've also bombed multiple leetcode interviews and some of the best engineers I've known have as well. I think your comments about getting burned out during your leetcode streak is the most directly translatable aspect of these exercises to real world experience.
It's like college education in general - minimal relationship to the real world.
what else can we do when the interview process is basically designed and controlled by the big tech firms?
Engineers are workers and they have lost the power in this power game. They need to take back the power and say no. If enough people say no, companies may be forced to change the process.
Side note: while I have been hearing huge amount of complaints about how data structure and algorithm questions are unnecessary in many technical interviews, learning it in depth has helped me tremendously to write faster and readable code after spending nearly a year studying it.
So I do urge future developers to use it to benefit yourself and not solely on getting pay raise.
I can think of how data structures help you write better code, but not algos, could you elaborate?
@@РустамЧонбашев I think like using the right structures for the right job to make things easier/more efficient.
Who knew, theory is important. Imagine those poor professors having to listen to clueless 18-year-olds telling them it doesn't.
@@sohn7767 this example is still about DS, not algos, so the question is still not answered :)
yes, for sure, I know how DS help me writing better code, so that's why I am asking about algos, because I know them, but they don't help me a bit, but I am backend developer and maybe don't know much about it.
@@РустамЧонбашев oh I read your first reply in reverse xd
yes, it is like studying SAT vocabularies. Once you know what "adumbrate" means, you are so much smarter and you become invincible and you will save the world
you have succintly adumbrated the video in one sentence :D
Love this video. I started Leetcode in November 2023 to help with my consistency. Wanted to make sure I code every day. It has surely helped with that. Plus helped me brush up on my fundamentals and problem-solving skills. I'm excited about the future!
Nice video bro. I loved how you honestly shared your experience and said how it's OK to struggle. I am doing the leetcode grind myself to get an internship but am constantly slipping because of my grand level procrastinating problems.
I kinda expected that you're gonna make it sound pinky and fun.. but turned out very realistic 😅😂. Thanks for sharing man.. loved it.
Haven't seen this honest leetcode guide on youtube till now. keep making content
Hello Kevin! I am just writing this comment to you to thank you for making this video. This gave me a great overview of how I should get started to efficiently reach my goal. Your goal, the position that you were in, and pretty much everything you said aligns with my position and the path that I want to take. This helped me a lot, and thanks again!
I’m just glad you keep it a buck. I like the way you ended the video. You seem like you’re a smart guy who has the same struggles I do with procrastination and overall angst towards the process. Yet, you got through it. That’s why I’m here and that’s why I value your content. The other material on YT is so fake and happy. I’m tired of the positivity around this process - it’s an ugly process that’s mostly unnecessary for what the job actually entails. Thanks for your videos.
Great vid! I like how you kept this vid
Congrats on working hard man, no doubt that is never a waste. Ironically while you can indeed step up in pay and status by getting into big tech, you can also diminish in job satisfaction and autonomy as most of these environments are essentially thinly veiled cold corporate cultures with bureaucratic line management just waiting to throw you at some problem without much empathy for your happiness. The assumption is "you're lucky to be here and you get perks, so deal with it or leave" - this doesn't always cut it for your soul though.
For example you're far more likely in a big tech company to end up feeling like a cog in a large machine, even feeling like an anonymous mop and bucket used to clean up whatever boring problems hit these companies at scale, and there are plenty. For all the expertise knowledge on data structures and algorithms, you could end up hitting a point where you would rather be more happy with the genuine feeling of accomplishing something interesting which is more aligned with your personal passions and interests. You may even end up doing less coding and more documents and meetings, it's happened to me and many fellow engineers I've worked with at a big tech company I worked at for over 5 years.
This is why many people leave big tech eventually to try their own startups or switch lanes. Those that stay for long periods are just like the furniture at any old company (think long timer at a government job - same kind of person).
Still, work hard and take what's yours my friend while the going is good. Good luck and well done!
I'm doing the same thing dude!! And I agree LC only is the way to go also the time boxing. I also highly recommend doing mock interviews
Niceee! Solid video! 2 hours/day is so much! I'm glad you were able to achieve what you really wanted and warned your audience about burn out when you're not motivated by the right reasons.
2 hrs / day is actually not that much, it depends on problem you solve. Usually medium problem can get you up to 1hr, when hard problem can take you up to 2hrs of focused work. Like coming up with your own solution, then backtracking with the solutions provided by comunity / explainations. Lower then 2 hrs is usually will not push you forward. Just IMO
@@nikolaykolesnik7228 maybe for you it's not that much maybe for others it's everything. please stop perpetuating personal opinions as facts.
@@SosetaFurioasaJr try to google IMO meaning before writing post on internet next time
Thanks for this video Kevin! I’m currently studying daily for some FAANG interviews I’va coming up and I’m using the book you mentioned, which after watching you video makes me feel a lot more secure of what I’m doing.
Hey hows your progress going?
Did it work?
This is loaded with endless facts. Thank you for getting to the point quickly.
I'm doing the same but got my goal is 6 months, I might need to be more realistic and change it to one year. Last year I started with algo expert and the fundamentals are briefly explained in like 10-min video and then straight to problem in no order whatsoever.
This year I'm following Kunal DSA boot camp along with all the leet code problems.
kunal dsa bootcamp is really great.
Absolutely loved the video
Hey man thanks for this video I currently got a job at a company as a Junior C# dev and have a team of 2 other software engineers. I did not have any leetcode problems during the intrerview it was just questions about inheritance and abstraction and also fixing some simple code that pretty much any college kid can do. My goal is to also get into a bigger software company as well. Leetcode has been my biggest downfal but after watching this I am goin to try to get my study habits better and crack into big tech hopefully
Loved the last line at the end. Made me chuckle. I think everyone shares the same feeling.
Leetcode is the worst time that I put myself in. It has wasted my life in the past. It’s not worthy at all.
Great review Kevin, I recently got a Junior Dev role at a startup with a similar tactic. But I. will be using your tactic to prep for future interviews. Honest perspective is great content on YT. Keep it up.
It's just like studying for entrance examinations - though the topics feel unrelated to real world scenarios. Companies find it easier to segregate people using this method and they most probably wont stop. (ps: I haven't yet completed leetcode questions so ig i could be wrong)
Thanks for taking the time to make these videos. They really do help.
Actually this really help !!! more power to you for making this video.
If you're early on, you could also do a couple a week for a couple of years and be super duper ready
The problem with studying for leetcode interviews is it takes time away from learning more about things you'll actually need to know to do the job, which usually means knowing a lot of tools (databases, docker, aws services, and much more, not to mention how to write clean/idiomatic code not just code that passes a test).
The more we accept these interviews and give leetcode higher user numbers, the more this silly form of testing software engineers perpetuates. Plenty of good companies don't do these tests, so I say don't encourage them.
then what is your advice? Looking job description and searching necessary tools? But lots of companies still send Python algo tests :(
@@zehra2334 You can still study a little for those types of tests, but I would say "Cracking the Coding Interview" book is enough since it's mostly practical advice. It's fine to do leetcode for fun but I wouldn't invest all my time in it.
@@zehra2334 also, a lot of companies will give you the choice between a live algo test or a take home practical test. I usually go with the latter but it's personal preference.
@@rkulla thank you so much.
Love this answer. At my company, we don't do those tests. Because they really aren't important! Most of these algorithms are already solved so you as the engineer really just need to focus on package management and versioning, infrastructure design, clean and well documented code, test driven development, PR reviewing, CI/CD development, getting along with coworkers, maybe learning a faster language like Rust/Java/Go/C++, refactoring legacy codebases, twiddling your thumbs, and finally reading Stack Overflow! At the end of the day, my 5 year long career as junior, mid, and now senior developer, that's been my entire career. The only reason I'd need to do leetcode is for the fun of learning new algorithms or writing some fun code for my github profile.
Thank you for making this :)
This is a great option, but I am just wonderinh about what kind of projects to work on the side? Like complex projects, but you wont have many or a lot of projects but not as complex?
I love the ending!
I kind of relate to you and agree with your last sentence. “These programming questions suck and I hate them” LOL best moment in the video🤣🤣
You kept it so real in this video bro. Thank you
I subscribed! I love it. Thanks for sharing.
Hey KC, thanks for your sharing! I'm a fresh graduate student and currently trying to get my first job. I spent lot of time to train myself by doing LC problems in the past half year, hope I can achieve my goal ASAP like you!
awesome video! I was thinking about regreting to watch it. Now I am happy that i gave it a chance and i am luck that i did it. Great approach.
Thank you for the inspirational video. I am now more determined than ever to push myself and get better.
intuit is a good company
This was a great video. A lot of good infor in a short video. Thank you!
Nice thanks for being straight to the point and given a honest review
I just cant stop imagining you awkwardly putting your phone around and walk by like you have no idea for the intro :D
great video tho! very helpful. thank you!
I love how you wouldn’t sign up for paid services if you had to do it again 😁 i’m a huge believer in creating and consuming high quality content for free and as a college student I appreciate this advice 😂
Nice video. I really liked the last line that you said: These programming questions suck and I hate them.
I am a physics degree holder and decided to have career shift to data analyst/data science cause Physics got fucking hard to get job in my country, Malaysia. I learn a lot about data science and also computer science though I know it is hard to self thought. I have learn Python on myself and now I am learning Machine Learning because I think Machine Learning was the hardest part in data science. I just want to share this with you cause I really feel my journey is alone and I am walking by myself. Thank you.
you are not alone, there are many people around the world in your shoes, including myself. just keep learning but learn with purpose, not aimlessly. this will help you achieve your goal faster.
Ahh mann..I'm too studying Physics and it sucks bro. I hardly can wrap my head around these hard formulas and concepts. Moroever the probability of getting a job after doing all these hard work in Physics is close to Nil , cuz in academia either you need connections, or you need to be some Einstein sort of genuis. Damn, studying and clearing physics UG exams along with studying computer science on own is damn hard. I get you bro. But we will get through, don't worry
During your prep, were you aware of blind 75 list? Or did you directly jump into leetcode questions after finishing EOPI book
Hi, what is the blind 75 list?
Anyone that’s randomly solving questions is wasting their time. Truthfully you are more than ready to interview at majority of places if you fully understand patterns from blind 75. If you’re familiar with additional patterns that are in Sean Prashads list or grokking/algomonster then you’re definitely good enough. By the time you’re done with these resources I would only cover company tagged questions when I have an interview or assessment. So in total around 180-210 questions before getting interviews and needing to do company tagged. I’d give myself around 90-120 days to prep for this amount if I intend to apply at any place with a high hiring bar (pin/snap/Uber/google/facebook/etc.) and only 40-80 days for places with an average bar (Oracle/Nordstrom/JPMorgan/etc..) and 15-40 days for low tier local non tech companies .
@@yaminirathaur8209 the most important questions
your book collection is fire
"I was terrible" - love the honesty 😄
Awesome. Starting the leetcode grind so this vid helped. Also subbed.!!
I think for hard problems, to fully code it up you should give at least 40 minutes. I did first 10 problems found it too easy, then did first 10 hard problems and stopped. If you can do all hard problems in first attempt in under an hour, probably averaging 30 minutes I am sure you can clear pretty much any tech company interview these days. Leetcode hard problems are actually not that hard. So if you want to save time, if your fundamentals are great then just do first 10 hard problems on leetcode and you can stop if you did all of it in under an hour.
I don't think a lot of companies ask leetcode hard problems
@@potatopotato4676 yes often only easy. The author seem to claim 25 minutes for each problem, frankly I can’t do that target for every problem.
@@AnitaSV 25 mins is realistic for medium problems not so much for hard ones imo
@@mack0ka Yeah, but if you can solve hard problems in under an hour, I would imagine 25min for medium problems should be a breeze.
@@kevintruong9135 Yes probably that's right, but AFAIK it's better to do lots of mediums than a few hards.
I’m on a path nearly identical to yours. Been studying algorithms and data structures for 8 months now, using Python, AlgoExpert and various courses, books and videos on specific subjects like dynamic programming (which I found most challenging so far). No CS background, started from scratch. I was intrigued by your advice to time yourself and little surprised about the 25 min window. In my opinion this needs some context. There are different levels of difficulty to these problems and there’s definitely an „algo muscle” which we train as we progress. I would argue one needs to first build up their knowledge and confidence with the basics (data structures, time complexities of operations in their language of choice, solving techniques, recursion). And this needs time. I’ve not studied CS so maybe I’m missing some foundations, that’s entirely possible. Anyway, just ordered the book you recommended. I’ve read many different blogs about learning algorithms and read few books already, yet have not come across this one. Also, after getting the algo expert certificate I am willing to be moving on to leetcode to start working on my speed and solving higher volume of problems. And hey, data structures and algorithms is an awesome knowledge, I think you enjoy having it! Maybe you got little flustered with the discipline required to get it. As someone who had fallen physically ill because of burnout, I can tell you attitude is everything. Stay healthy and keep it up!
i believe he said to try to complete a question in under 25 minuites. Because generally in coding interviews you get about an hour to solve a couple of questions.
Nice answer Kamil. Inspiring journey. Wish I could connect to you! I too am from non cs background and want to move to sw
My dude is so dedicated, he even has a book called "clean code"... respect !
These programming questions sucks and I hate them is the honest good conclusion at the end of the video.
Thank you very much, pal, I'm preparing an interview myself your advice is really helpful, I will now refocus on what matters...
You dude are so transparent, it's inspiring LOL. But honestly, I feel overwhelmed just from the thought of where to start my prep. I only have like 2-3 weeks to prep and I am not sure how to go about it. Any insights? Giving my online coding assessment for Amazon in 2-3 weeks and I am not sure if I am prepped and where to start.
thanks for watching! And yes I feel you on that stress 100%, if you need an overview of DS&A and you're on a time crunch, the "elements of programming interviews in python" book i mentioned has a recommended questions list based off your time frame (3 days, a week, a month, etc).
Otherwise just do leetcode questions for the 3 weeks. And I would recommend buying 1 month of leetcode premium so you can look at the all the questions that Amazon asks, sort by frequency for the last 6 months, and do as many as you can. In my experience the cost has been worth it
lol, wasn't AlgoExpert the TechLead website?
Hi KC! Great video! As an aspiring software engineer, videos like these really help so much! What resources would you recommend to learn Data Structures and Algorithms? Thank you!
i just graduated and been doing interview prep for almost 3 months now and i feel like there's no end. i really wish i started prepping during school.
I feel you on this, when you're in the middle of prep it feels hopeless and like there's no end in sight. Keep it up, you'll get there soon. Make sure to get some support from friends and family if you can :)
@@CreatedByKC thank you ❤
thank you for this video. it was helpful.
Any recommendation for building a strong foundation or fundamentals of coding before doing Leetcode? I know this video recommends a book but any of you have any suggestions?
Hey I loved your video and I'm at a similar position to where you were at in college. I'm very curious if you could maybe give a salary range of what you were getting payed working at startups and what you are getting payed after breaking into big tech? Thanks for the help and this was an amazing video!
Subbed! this vid was really helpful!
Make it simple, but significant!
Congrats and Thanks for sharing the tips
Awesome video with great tips!
I've been using algo expert and I like it a lot. the hints and solution video are really helpful when starting from 0.
Is Leetcode suitable for beginners in coding?
I have a serious question for everyone.
If you were in charge of hiring 1 software developer for your team - assuming they were at the same knowledge level a year prior, would you rather hire someone who did nothing but study Leetcode for that year? Or someone who did nothing but build projects, learn languages, new frameworks, etc. etc. for that year? I know that's not taking into consideration the other things they could be doing on the side, but if those two extremes were the option, who would you rather hire to be on your team? Ignore the real world interview process requirements for this one.
hey! thanks for watching the video,
My serious answer to this is that, definitely the person who built projects and learned new frameworks for a year, etc. My previous startups hired by pretty much exclusively by asking me simple questions about javascript/web frameworks that a person working with this stuff day in and day out should know about. (javascript closures, idioms, promises vs callbacks vs async await, how the rendering process works in react, etc)
My goal was to get into top tech companies, and there was no choice there except to do leetcode
@@CreatedByKC I agree, and it's definitely the smart thing to do. But I see a lot of people in the comments arguing that leetcode & studying algorithms makes you a better programmer. They just can't seem to shake the "theory is better than practice" thing.
There's nothing wrong with learning algorithms at all, but I just wanted to put a scenario out there to see how they would defend the former option.
Fortunately, many big tech companies are slowly starting to lighten up on the whole CS degree & algorithm process requirements as it really doesn't tell you anything about a person's qualifications for that job vs the startups you mentioned where they actually asked questions they would want someone in the position they were interviewing for to know, just like any sane hiring process. Hence, my question.
It's a very dated practice in my opinion.
Влад Тен?
Damn wish I always had the 5pm-7pm timeslot for studying. But in my current software job I usually work 8AM-6PM everyday, so I am usually tired from work already.
Wow! You rock man! Thanks!
How many leetcode qyestions you did in 1 year buddy? Please make a video on your recommended algorithms to learn before leetcoding
I think the bit about interviews going remote and becoming harder to compensate. Also since everyone is studying in doors the interviews are getting harder to compensate.
Hmm. I gotta get that book. But idk if I should bother since I'm deep into my interview process.
Thank you for sharing your experience! I too think these coding challenges suck. However, they are a necessary evil. 😔
My Question is when u started was it that u got the answer to question asap? Like were u able to solve all questions by yourself or had to refer google or CZcams explanations sometimes??
It’s all a game don’t be afraid to copy and paste (faster than typing) just make sure you understand what your doing.
Do you think that once you good at Leetcode, it will last long time? if so, how long?
in my opinion, your "data structure memory" retains much longer. But to solve a specific medium-hard DP Problem after 6 months coming back is difficult. Some engineers do one everyday lol
you use it or you lose it.
but once you know the fundamentals it is easy to get started again after a long break.
any recommendations for go? I mean any specific book in golang programming that covers most of algorithms and data structures
please do a video on how did you cope with mental challenges that you faced while studying for a long time
Super helpful!!
Hello Kevin, how many years did you spend in smaller companies before embarking on this journey and eventually moved to a big tech company? Would love to know
He literally said 2 years in the video.
Why?? You don’t learn anything about design and engineering.
It’s a nice academic challenge but the real world doesn’t care about academici challenges.
If they truly did then they didn’t stop teaching assembly. That is what you learn the most.
legit
man great material i can agree with it 100% intewies are growing harder with pandemic fallout, reasons .... practice practice but us there a limit ?
Honestly I'm trying to venture out of corporate . You spend so many months practicing these questions, putting in so many hours and it does not even guarantee you a job. At least to me that is time stolen. I could have spent that that time working on any project , learning any new skill that could have the potential of becoming something bigger. I understand how great it is to have a well paying job at a big company, and to have benefits and security of consistent payment, but at the same time at least to me I feel like my skill, energy, and time would be better off put into something I actually enjoy working on.
Thanks! I learnt much from your CZcams!
Glad to hear it! :D
Nice Vlog
Brother could you please upload the excel sheet where you have listed all the questions you solved. It would be of immense help to all of us here :). Thank you for an excellent video
Look up blind 75. That’s the list that most use
@@advithvashist9889 yeah i’ve heard of that list as well. Thanks for the recommendation 👍🏻
Useful, thanks
I never want to work as a developer, but I am interested enough to do my own stuff. Is data structures and algorithms good if I want to make a website with user login? I could use word press, but I actually want to custom build my own site.
No.... Do not overcomplicate it.
Lets think we get a job in the services company and there we first improve on our given domain and if we dont want it we can change the domain there itself and try there for big tech company
Hey, thanks for making this video!
You said all you need is that python interviewing book - are you saying that in terms of studying, if you grind that book, then do leet code, you should be able to achieve the win condition of SWE at a large tech company?
hey man, and yeah exactly.
From my trials and error, just using that book, coding with only python, and then making sure you're doing new leetcode questions every day (and making sure you're timing yourself and trying to simulate the uncomfortable pressure of an interview) is all you need. It would have probably saved me months of time if I just did those.
@@CreatedByKC interesting are you a software engineer at a large company or a front end engineer?
My current plan was to do CS50 and listen to data structure theory from MIT, but the idea of only focusing on the python book is truly compelling
@@CreatedByKC Thanks for than insight. Will start off with that.
thank you
Thank you for all of your helpful videos! I’m a senior high school student planning to major in CS and become a SE. I’ve been looking for internships to do this summer, and I would very much appreciate it if you can recommend any software engineering internships that high school student can apply for besides Google’s CSSI. Here are some of my experiences in CS: I’ve created an AI model to diagnose cataracts using Python and a bell schedule web app using JS, TS, and React. Thank you!
Hey! Dang you're killing it starting so early, honestly I'm not sure about internships for high school students, but given how much you know I would say just apply anywhere that has an internship. You'll definitely get something with what you've done so far. Good luck!
@@CreatedByKC Thank you for your advice! Yes, I'll try applying to different companies and see how it works out!
6:20 hahaha , that healed my heart :D
Thank you so much for sharing your experience! Kind of a dumb question maybe, but I am really focused on C# with Unity and dotnet right now. Would you say that learning these data structures and algorithms are required for C# development? I’d probably need to learn Python in order to tackle these kind of interviews…
No you can do these in c# , that would not be a problem
data structures and algorithms are not related that much to a programming language.. once you know them, you can apply the principles to many programming languages.
data structures and algorithms are programming language secular stuff but python has many pre-built types that make it easier to use data structures without having to build them from scratch using more primitive data types in other languages ... whether you need to learn python or not no one can answer except you ... there must be reasons why you are focused on c-sharp and unity ... if those reasons are not valid then only you should start exploring other languages ... since c is a much older language (and i am assuming c-sharp is closer in syntax and spirit to it) you may quickly benefit from a ds-algo book which used c as teaching language ... or else an equivalent translation for c# may be already there ... do not abandon c# simply because python is getting popular ... reexamine if c# meets your career goal
Thanks so much
Did you apply to multiple companies? How many interviews did you go through before you got a job? Did you fail any interviews and then reapply?
You know you’re in California whenever you see a gated door like that lol
May I ask how much time do you spend a day for programming practice? Just 2 hours per day from 5pm to 7pm?
Thank you for a nice video Kevin, could you please tell me if I need to know python as programming language for studying the book which you recommended, or my JS skills would be enough? Thank you!