hey everyone, since this is a common question, I'll answer it in general This is how i would do it if i did it all over again 1. First learn what all the basic data structures and algorithms are in general, maybe youtube tutorials or a free course online (I'll research more into this, I skipped this step because i took a DS&A course in college) 2. Go through any guided service to drill in the fundamentals for DS&A (algoexpert, CTCI, whatever you want). My favorite was Elements of Programming Interviews in Python, and at the beginning of the book they have a "recommended questions" list based off your time frame. Honestly all those questions are gold, so pick the one that gives a time frame of about a month (it'll cherry pick about 5-6 questions per chapter) and do all the questions and make sure you understand them. 3. Last, just do leetcode questions. Skip the hard ones for now, and just do as many 'medium' questions as you can, but focus on really working your problem solving skills for each one. Make sure you record the questions you did, and if you got one wrong, repeat it a couple days later.
Thanks @KC! At what point do you think it's good to start applying for jobs then? Would you say we need to be able to solve most medium level problems first? What do you think is a realistic target? My thought is that I'm afraid to apply for the jobs I want because if I fail the interview challenges then maybe I lose the opportunity to try again. Ie, they track that you failed the interview so if you apply again they already have you in the system as to not waste their time to interview you again a second time later (even if we did improve over the time). What do you think?
Thank you KC for these videos! As a college student with limited time, it's extremely helpful to be able to hear your advice. I am currently taking DS&A in college and I highly recommend the free UA-cam playlist "Data Structures and Algorithms Full Course" by BroCode. I am doing very well in my class because of it and highly recommend other beginners to watch it. Hope you can add it to your list of resources. Thanks again for your work!
I really like the “the final boss is too hard” analogy! That’s exactly how these questions feel when you don’t come at them with strong fundamentals and a good understanding of the solution patterns. Keep the vids coming!
This really resonates with me about how I've been struggling to get started on leetcode and software dev interviews. Thank you for sharing your valuable experience with us and how you've overcome your struggles. Really appreciate your content.
You just summed up what I'm going through right now until the 5minute mark. It's scary how similar our thinking is. Everytime one of your videos drop, I know I'm always going to feel better somehow. Thank you for posting
just completing something from start to the absolute finish really helped me get over my procastination. Like it started with video games, and now I make sure my leetcode goals are met of the weekend. Same, after a work day, there's barely any time for leetcode, so it's usually just few problems on the weekend, or best, just give the weekly contest :) . I just decide clear goals, or "minimum" goals for the day and that's it, make sure those are completed. If not, I stay extra time and make sure it's completed
Hey, I just wanted to say that your channel has been a great motivator for me to get started with learning the fundamentals well. You’re the most human tech guy I’ve met so far
Really appreciate your honesty man.. As a person trying to break into tech industry without a CS or related degree, learning about other people's experiences really makes me feel assured that it is up to how much of dedication I put in, instead of other external factors like degrees.
Yes dude!! Some of the best, and brightest engineers I ever worked with didn't have CS degrees, their drive and ambition to get them to the position they're in really shines in all aspects of their life. Good luck, you'll make it
I feel it's okay to take more time to get through leetcode. I've been trying for longer than you were and still not able to get it through interviews. Although I'm def getting better. I relate to you a LOT. Feel I'm exactly like you. But I feel like the most imp thing I learnt. Leetcode has helped small aspects of my personality which I feel will be more important in the long run like my patience, persistent, delayed gratification. I feel the same as it is for you. I also used to get inspired by these "Study smart not hard" type of videos, but Leetcode has helped me focus on developing my craft regardless of the result. I feel like even if you took a year, you were able to improve on your discipline and avoid procrastination.
I am currently working my way through the book Elements of Programming Interviews in Java and doing leetcode problems on the side. Thank you for these insightful videos.
most crucial questions: 1.what is your strategy to approach medium hard leetcode? - do u set a timer, try problem for 20-30min(aka simulating real interview) then look up solution if can't solve? or do u just put the problem away and try another one? i honestly cant solve hard leetcode! i m 90% sure i will face it during interview. what is my strategy? i ve been prepping for about 7mo. I still have lots of leetcode hards to do, should i just try them , then look up solution, then memorize solution/pattern?
Hey! 1. Yeah exactly, and then while looking at the solution, I just try to understand it conceptually, and then reproduce the problem. Then I move onto another question, and I come back to the same question that I struggled with a couple days later (I learned this from a course its called spaced repetition if you want to look it up) 2. Yeah the hard leetcode questions usually are really hard, I would say don't get frustrated if you can't solve them, most interviews should be in the medium leetcode range
I only attempt LC hard when I get tricked into doing so via those packaged tutorials on leetcode premium - where you only find out after you are struggling for a while and search for that problem. In any case you won’t be asked leetcode hard in phone screen as it is too high a filter - then on-site you have at least two rounds of questions where they ask two questions in 45 mins. A LC hard that a person has never seen before would take longer in an interview. Better to get breathe of signal than a very binary hard question. (Note never worked at a Faang company but currently interviewing with them)
@@mlguy8376 dude thx but even on leetcode they say sometimes faang ask hard during phone screen. Cuz I m not that good with leetcoding I plan to just try, then lookup solution for hards.
@@qazaqempire2446 they do sometimes, if they don’t like you - or exceptional? If you are exceptional I would have thought you would be rubber stamped through. In any case, you do what you need to do to feel comfortable - but the amount of people doing phone screens and sometimes you expect a hard. Vs not spending time on mediums which will likely come up seems wasteful unless you have plenty of time to grind. But like I said I do not work at these places yet - i am not even grinding LC hard level for E6 ML SWE.
This is the second video of yours that I watched and the parts about procrastination, looking at the top 1% software engineers and feeling incompetent and feeling stuck in the tutorial hell loop instead of trying to tackle hard problems head on is all so relatable. Subscribed already.
Hi Kevin I'm having a similar problem. I have been doing leetcode for 2 years now on and off. Solved over 540 problems but gave 2 times an Amazon interview but couldn't even solve one question out of 2. Could you please upload a video explaining how you could have done it differently in 3 to 5 months?? I really need to crack into faang.
I've been trying to study with AlgoExpert for the past 3 months or so and I do think its helpful, but I think I tend to have a habit of not wanting to try doing a solution I know is bad. So I would wanna watch every single video they had, I mean that's what I was really paying for 😅. Though I also think it's because I want to know how to do these problems in Python because I felt that C++ held me back for so many years on these problems. I question when I'm really "ready" for these interviews, maybe it's just best to try for them at all.
so is AlgoExpert a waste of time in preparing for these software engineering interviews? I was thinking about buying it... Also, even full-stack web development jobs are not super easy to get into either.
Algoexpert was actually a great service, I think it just wasn't particularly my taste because the explanations to the solutions were too long (sometimes 30+ minutes) but the content is genuinely good and Clement explains things very clearly. And agreed full stack jobs are harder to get these days, i'll prob elaborate in a video sometime
I have a question: I've done 300+ leetcode problems but I have nothing to put on my resume. I don't think doing leetcode alone is enough. What else should I do? I am trying to get an associate gameplay engineer role.
Hmm are you not getting any call backs at all? What does your resume look like? If you have nothing to put on your resume I would recommend just creating some side projects and putting them in so you can have a few things to talk about in your interview/on calls. I'm not too sure about the gaming world thought because I work in web application land :/
Hello! Thanks a lot for putting up those videos! I can really relate to your experience with leetcoding. I was wondering if you have any tips on how to prepare for system design questions? 🤔
Do you think you could make some content for learning ON the job? There is such a saturation of content for people GETTING their first tech job... But how can I better my career and level up now that im in?
hey! So I would do this: 1. First learn what all the basic data structures and algorithms are in general, maybe youtube tutorials or a free course online (I'll research more into this, I skipped this step because i took a DS&A course in college) 2. Go through any guided service to drill in the fundamentals for DS&A (algoexpert, CTCI, whatever you want). My favorite was Elements of Programming Interviews in Python, and at the beginning of the book they have a "recommended questions" list based off your time frame. Honestly all those questions are gold, so pick the one that gives a time frame of about a month (it'll cherry pick about 5-6 questions per chapter) and do all the questions and make sure you understand them. 3. Last, just do leetcode questions. Skip the hard ones for now, and just do as many 'medium' questions as you can, but focus on really working your problem solving skills for each one. Make sure you record the questions you did, and if you got one wrong, repeat it a couple days later.
It is more about consistency for me. Sticking to solving at least 1 question each day (submitting old codes on some day) helps me remain focused on my goal.
I'm not sure of everyone's personal case, but I think for past me if I had future me sitting next to me coaching him (😆) it would probably take past Kevin like 6 months. Still a long time but hey, past Kevin was and probably still is very mediocre.
Can we do a full stop and realize that most companies outside of FAANG companies don't need you to be able to do complex algorithmic questions. There is a huge skill gap and people need to understand that there is a huge gap. If you are getting in to software dev, you should know that MOST jobs do not require medium/hard level leetcode questions. There are MANY companies that won't ask for anything other than easy leetcode questions, guaranteed.
hey everyone, since this is a common question, I'll answer it in general
This is how i would do it if i did it all over again
1. First learn what all the basic data structures and algorithms are in general, maybe youtube tutorials or a free course online (I'll research more into this, I skipped this step because i took a DS&A course in college)
2. Go through any guided service to drill in the fundamentals for DS&A (algoexpert, CTCI, whatever you want). My favorite was Elements of Programming Interviews in Python, and at the beginning of the book they have a "recommended questions" list based off your time frame. Honestly all those questions are gold, so pick the one that gives a time frame of about a month (it'll cherry pick about 5-6 questions per chapter) and do all the questions and make sure you understand them.
3. Last, just do leetcode questions. Skip the hard ones for now, and just do as many 'medium' questions as you can, but focus on really working your problem solving skills for each one. Make sure you record the questions you did, and if you got one wrong, repeat it a couple days later.
Thanks @KC! At what point do you think it's good to start applying for jobs then? Would you say we need to be able to solve most medium level problems first? What do you think is a realistic target? My thought is that I'm afraid to apply for the jobs I want because if I fail the interview challenges then maybe I lose the opportunity to try again. Ie, they track that you failed the interview so if you apply again they already have you in the system as to not waste their time to interview you again a second time later (even if we did improve over the time). What do you think?
Thank you so much for this
Thank you KC for these videos! As a college student with limited time, it's extremely helpful to be able to hear your advice. I am currently taking DS&A in college and I highly recommend the free UA-cam playlist "Data Structures and Algorithms Full Course" by BroCode. I am doing very well in my class because of it and highly recommend other beginners to watch it. Hope you can add it to your list of resources. Thanks again for your work!
Thank you! Really appreciate it 💪
thanks man, really appreciate it, I am just start studying coding like 4 days ago
I really like the “the final boss is too hard” analogy! That’s exactly how these questions feel when you don’t come at them with strong fundamentals and a good understanding of the solution patterns. Keep the vids coming!
Love to see the growth in your videos! This man's cranking out quality content stuff quick.
never have I resonated with a youtube video so much, thanks a lot for your work and honesty.
This really resonates with me about how I've been struggling to get started on leetcode and software dev interviews. Thank you for sharing your valuable experience with us and how you've overcome your struggles. Really appreciate your content.
You just summed up what I'm going through right now until the 5minute mark. It's scary how similar our thinking is. Everytime one of your videos drop, I know I'm always going to feel better somehow. Thank you for posting
So genuine. Keep posting and doing the good work
just completing something from start to the absolute finish really helped me get over my procastination. Like it started with video games, and now I make sure my leetcode goals are met of the weekend. Same, after a work day, there's barely any time for leetcode, so it's usually just few problems on the weekend, or best, just give the weekly contest :) . I just decide clear goals, or "minimum" goals for the day and that's it, make sure those are completed. If not, I stay extra time and make sure it's completed
Hey, I just wanted to say that your channel has been a great motivator for me to get started with learning the fundamentals well. You’re the most human tech guy I’ve met so far
Thank you man!! Really appreciate the kind words :D
dude your motivation is gold.
Thanks, KC! I've now found where I should begin after almost 3 years of doing one thing and then another.
Really appreciate your honesty man..
As a person trying to break into tech industry without a CS or related degree, learning about other people's experiences really makes me feel assured that it is up to how much of dedication I put in, instead of other external factors like degrees.
Yes dude!! Some of the best, and brightest engineers I ever worked with didn't have CS degrees, their drive and ambition to get them to the position they're in really shines in all aspects of their life. Good luck, you'll make it
Really appreciate you sharing your story! I was "ignited"!
I feel it's okay to take more time to get through leetcode. I've been trying for longer than you were and still not able to get it through interviews. Although I'm def getting better. I relate to you a LOT. Feel I'm exactly like you. But I feel like the most imp thing I learnt. Leetcode has helped small aspects of my personality which I feel will be more important in the long run like my patience, persistent, delayed gratification. I feel the same as it is for you. I also used to get inspired by these "Study smart not hard" type of videos, but Leetcode has helped me focus on developing my craft regardless of the result. I feel like even if you took a year, you were able to improve on your discipline and avoid procrastination.
Yeah learning Leetcode is a niche in the personal development field haha
I am currently working my way through the book Elements of Programming Interviews in Java and doing leetcode problems on the side. Thank you for these insightful videos.
I'm about to order it, how did you find this book? I wonder is it maintains all the goodness KC says the Python version has
@@Vgang101 You can order the book on Amazon.
@@isaiahparker6170 thanks, I meant what did you think of this book :)
love the videos
most crucial questions:
1.what is your strategy to approach medium hard leetcode? - do u set a timer, try problem for 20-30min(aka simulating real interview) then look up solution if can't solve?
or do u just put the problem away and try another one?
i honestly cant solve hard leetcode! i m 90% sure i will face it during interview. what is my strategy? i ve been prepping for about 7mo. I still have lots of leetcode hards to do, should i just try them , then look up solution, then memorize solution/pattern?
Hey!
1. Yeah exactly, and then while looking at the solution, I just try to understand it conceptually, and then reproduce the problem. Then I move onto another question, and I come back to the same question that I struggled with a couple days later (I learned this from a course its called spaced repetition if you want to look it up)
2. Yeah the hard leetcode questions usually are really hard, I would say don't get frustrated if you can't solve them, most interviews should be in the medium leetcode range
I only attempt LC hard when I get tricked into doing so via those packaged tutorials on leetcode premium - where you only find out after you are struggling for a while and search for that problem. In any case you won’t be asked leetcode hard in phone screen as it is too high a filter - then on-site you have at least two rounds of questions where they ask two questions in 45 mins. A LC hard that a person has never seen before would take longer in an interview. Better to get breathe of signal than a very binary hard question. (Note never worked at a Faang company but currently interviewing with them)
@@mlguy8376 dude thx but even on leetcode they say sometimes faang ask hard during phone screen. Cuz I m not that good with leetcoding I plan to just try, then lookup solution for hards.
@@qazaqempire2446 they do sometimes, if they don’t like you - or exceptional? If you are exceptional I would have thought you would be rubber stamped through. In any case, you do what you need to do to feel comfortable - but the amount of people doing phone screens and sometimes you expect a hard. Vs not spending time on mediums which will likely come up seems wasteful unless you have plenty of time to grind. But like I said I do not work at these places yet - i am not even grinding LC hard level for E6 ML SWE.
This video has great B roll!
Very good video!
This is the second video of yours that I watched and the parts about procrastination, looking at the top 1% software engineers and feeling incompetent and feeling stuck in the tutorial hell loop instead of trying to tackle hard problems head on is all so relatable. Subscribed already.
where did you find these startup companies?
Grate video I'm about to start doing leetcode problem in a few weeks still study the basic synxta and loops and list
Hi Kevin I'm having a similar problem. I have been doing leetcode for 2 years now on and off. Solved over 540 problems but gave 2 times an Amazon interview but couldn't even solve one question out of 2. Could you please upload a video explaining how you could have done it differently in 3 to 5 months?? I really need to crack into faang.
nice one, hope you get more subscribers
I am facing the same issue. I am able to solve easy leet code problems but I cannot make any progress on medium and hard problems.
I've been trying to study with AlgoExpert for the past 3 months or so and I do think its helpful, but I think I tend to have a habit of not wanting to try doing a solution I know is bad. So I would wanna watch every single video they had, I mean that's what I was really paying for 😅. Though I also think it's because I want to know how to do these problems in Python because I felt that C++ held me back for so many years on these problems. I question when I'm really "ready" for these interviews, maybe it's just best to try for them at all.
Your personality is really funny lol
so is AlgoExpert a waste of time in preparing for these software engineering interviews? I was thinking about buying it... Also, even full-stack web development jobs are not super easy to get into either.
Algoexpert was actually a great service, I think it just wasn't particularly my taste because the explanations to the solutions were too long (sometimes 30+ minutes) but the content is genuinely good and Clement explains things very clearly.
And agreed full stack jobs are harder to get these days, i'll prob elaborate in a video sometime
What language you use for leetcode
My god Kevin, your story is so similar to mine. I'm in the process of grinding leetcode too but everything is SO hard
You'll get there! I spent soooo many days upon weeks being like WTF am i looking at? 😂
@@CreatedByKC thanks for the encouragement :) lawd knows I need it
I have a question: I've done 300+ leetcode problems but I have nothing to put on my resume. I don't think doing leetcode alone is enough. What else should I do? I am trying to get an associate gameplay engineer role.
Hmm are you not getting any call backs at all? What does your resume look like?
If you have nothing to put on your resume I would recommend just creating some side projects and putting them in so you can have a few things to talk about in your interview/on calls. I'm not too sure about the gaming world thought because I work in web application land :/
Hello! Thanks a lot for putting up those videos! I can really relate to your experience with leetcoding. I was wondering if you have any tips on how to prepare for system design questions? 🤔
Yes! I'll try to cover that in future videos
hi from kazakstan, i have huge impostor syndrome, and ur videos are motivating..
hey man! if you would do this again, how would you study ? what smarter ways would you approach it?
Hey thanks for watching! Yeah a lot of people asked this, so i pinned the comment to the top of the comments section :D
Do you think you could make some content for learning ON the job? There is such a saturation of content for people GETTING their first tech job... But how can I better my career and level up now that im in?
Definitely, I'll be planning more career focused videos soon too, more to come! Thanks for watching!
@@CreatedByKC thanks for the content king, it’s some of my favorite in the category
Thanks man! This is super helpful!
Glad to finally find an average programmer like me, not struggling to choose between $200k FANG offers, 6 months before graduation :P
😂
So instead of doing random leetcode problems and buying algoexpert would you recommend just follow EPI?
hey! So a bit of both, I pinned the answer to the top of the comments section because a lot of people asked this too :D Thanks for watching!
Your LinkedIn link?
How would you study now if you had to start it all over again?
hey! So I would do this:
1. First learn what all the basic data structures and algorithms are in general, maybe youtube tutorials or a free course online (I'll research more into this, I skipped this step because i took a DS&A course in college)
2. Go through any guided service to drill in the fundamentals for DS&A (algoexpert, CTCI, whatever you want). My favorite was Elements of Programming Interviews in Python, and at the beginning of the book they have a "recommended questions" list based off your time frame. Honestly all those questions are gold, so pick the one that gives a time frame of about a month (it'll cherry pick about 5-6 questions per chapter) and do all the questions and make sure you understand them.
3. Last, just do leetcode questions. Skip the hard ones for now, and just do as many 'medium' questions as you can, but focus on really working your problem solving skills for each one. Make sure you record the questions you did, and if you got one wrong, repeat it a couple days later.
awesome!!
It is more about consistency for me. Sticking to solving at least 1 question each day (submitting old codes on some day) helps me remain focused on my goal.
OMG this is literally me, but without any leetcode.
So, how long should it take me, bruh?
I'm not sure of everyone's personal case, but I think for past me if I had future me sitting next to me coaching him (😆) it would probably take past Kevin like 6 months. Still a long time but hey, past Kevin was and probably still is very mediocre.
2:49 that's me 100% xDD
Nice!!
Can we do a full stop and realize that most companies outside of FAANG companies don't need you to be able to do complex algorithmic questions. There is a huge skill gap and people need to understand that there is a huge gap. If you are getting in to software dev, you should know that MOST jobs do not require medium/hard level leetcode questions. There are MANY companies that won't ask for anything other than easy leetcode questions, guaranteed.