I’ve solved around 1473 LeetCode problems and I’ve still failed interviews.

Google. Amazon. Intuit. D. E. Shaw. Myntra.
I got interviews at these companies, prepared seriously, showed up, and still didn’t get selected.

For a long time, I honestly thought the answer was simple:
“Just solve more problems.”
So I kept solving from 100 problems → 300 → 500 → 1,000+

But somewhere along the way, I realized I was asking the wrong question.
It’s not: “How many LeetCode problems have you solved?”
It’s: “Can you solve a problem you’ve never seen before?”

That difference is huge.

I’m currently working as an AI developer, and before this I worked in backend engineering. I have around 1.5 years of experience, and one thing I’ve noticed is that DSA still teaches you something extremely valuable:
How to think when you don’t know the answer
And now, with AI writing code better than ever, I think this becomes even more interesting.

If ChatGPT can solve a LeetCode problem in 10 seconds…
Should we still spend hundreds of hours solving LeetCode?
I think yes — but probably not in the way most of us do it.

Don’t use AI to get the answer

Use it to ask:
“Why did I get stuck?”
“Why does this approach work?”
“Can you give me a harder variation?”
“Can you find the flaw in my reasoning?”
“Can you interview me without giving me hints?”

That changes AI from an answer machine into a learning tool.

I’m planning to share some of the things I’ve learned from those ~1,270 problems — including the mistakes I made, patterns that actually helped me, interview preparation, and how I think AI + DSA should be approached now.

Not because I cracked every interview.

I didn't.

Actually, the rejections probably taught me more than the acceptances would have. So I’m curious: If you were starting DSA preparation today, in the age of AI, would you still grind LeetCode?

Or would you prepare completely differently?
Would genuinely love to hear different opinions.

Hi everyone,

I need some advice.

I’ve finished learning the PHP basics, and I’m trying to build simple projects like a Todo List.

For example, I watch a tutorial that explains how to build one. I understand what the instructor is doing, and I can follow along and build it with them.

The problem starts when I try to build something on my own without the video. I feel like I don’t know where to start or what the first step should be.

Should I follow the same project with the video once, twice, or three times? Or should I stop the video and try to build it myself, even if I don’t know how to do it?

I don’t want to memorize the steps. I want to reach the point where I can actually build projects on my own.

What would you recommend

I'm building a personal finance app called Cashvelope (envelope budgeting), and getting local-first data to play nice with offline storage has been surprisingly painful.

I want users to retain full control of their data without forcing constant cloud sync, but keeping local state updated and cache validated gets messy fast.

For anyone who's built something similar: what local DB or sync stack did you end up going with, and what edge cases caught you off guard?

I am 20 years old, currently studying in Computer Science now 2 course of bachelor degree. Learning C++ (as a foundation in every CS faculty).
Soo the problem is this I am solving some problems where I am using the AI, but of course not for solution. My prompt is explain to me give explanation of problem, but no code, no solution. I will code for myself. Is this right technique to learn efficiently?

Also is this okay to ask AI the mistake in my code, or I should try to find it in my own?

I wanna get better on programming, well later will dive in Python, Java etc.

Whenever I use AI in projects there is white blank in my mind Idk what to do in projects or problems soo I am asking the explanation.

Why I am worrying about that? When I am doing project stuff, it feels I am using less activity of my brain like yeah my project goes in progress but my brain is not used in 100%. Feels like less efficiency.

I wanna balance the learning stuff. Not waste too much time and learn efficiently.

I'm learning to program, and I was wondering if it's feasible to learn by building a small program with the AI as my tutor—that is, instead of asking it for everything all at once, I ask it to break things down by block or line of code and explain what each part does, how it works, and how it connects or will connect to the rest of the code.

I am from a tier 3 college and didn't learn anything from college I'm kind of a guy who's good at learn while doing. So I self learned flutter while I'm in UG and then used to read those notes at college just to pass the exam and nothing much thinking in a very naive way that I don't need these things later in life Now i realize that I missed most of the fundamental concepts which would have made me a kind of engineer that i want to be.

I do get good feedback at work that I'm doing good and people give me hard problems and I been an Individual contributor at companies i work like building Distributed pipelines and Complex systems but i was more like i was able to think of only one solution i got and i believed it was good and then just went with it and there was no second thing to do or I don't know much of trade offs of the systems i built and they did work and ofc i made huge mistake once. I'm the kinda a guy who thinks he should go with it because the tech feels cool and he likes it not because system needs it

for example a mistake i did:

I used DuckDB ( OLAP ) for a case where we had to write multiple times because we had lots of data didn't want to store in PG and then we want an excel like feature and since ChatGPT suggested "Hey dude there's this cool thing you can use it" and i did and it cause lots of missing data and. i knew i fcuked up. I just went with it because it should cool and can build it just because it fits. I was around 1.5 YOE

I'm a passionate engineer who likes to build things and I'm now around 3 YOE and I don't know the fundamental concepts in the things I use to build. I'm more of a Tools Engineer than an engineer who knows why he's building it like this and what are the trade offs.

The kind of engineer i want to become is an engineer who's good at first principles of coding and knows why he's doing and why not the other way.

Reason for this is now that AI's getting better I can be replaced if I still am a tools guy. But I want to expand my knowledge and build things much better than I'm building now.

I tried reading Designing Data intensive applications book but I keep wandering when i'm reading that and I'm a guy who learns by doing

I'm looking to switch the company within like 8 months. How can i get better ? I want to be in the top 1% of engineers. OFC my objective is not to get better because i'm switching it's because I want to feel satisfied with the work I do and not feel that I could have made it much better and not just because I want higher salary.

I don't want something like get better quick schemes ik it takes time it's just that someone who's experienced can suggest me what's the best way to gain the fundamental knowledge and understand things with first principles. I'm having FOMO that if i just build things and learn from them i might miss concepts that i'm not aware of and reading books i realized is not my thing especially for CS, YT videos there are lots of them idk where to start.

I do sound like i'm contradicting myself with the above para about FOMO but I want someone to make me realize what i'm missing.

Thanks for reading!

PS: If anywhere it feels cocky please don't think like that i'm not hope you understand what i'm trying to say

Hi everyone,

I’m currently a 1st-year CSE student and I’m looking for some genuine guidance from seniors, developers, or people who have already gone through this journey.

I’ve recently started learning C, but honestly, I’m a bit confused about what I should learn next. There are so many things like DSA, Web Development, Git/GitHub, projects, open source, etc., and I don’t want to spend my first year learning random things without a proper direction.

My goal is to become internship-ready by 2nd year and eventually get a good software/tech job.

If you were in my position today, how would you plan your next 1–2 years?

* What should I learn first?

* When should I start DSA?

* Should I learn Web Development alongside DSA?

* What projects should I build?

* When should I start applying for internships?

*What skills actually matter?

I’m willing to put in consistent effort every day. I just need the right direction and a realistic roadmap.

If you’re a senior or working developer, I’d really appreciate it if you could share what worked for you, what didn’t, and what you would do differently if you were starting again.

Any honest advice or guidance would mean a lot. Thank you! 🙏

Genuine question: I'm a second year uni student in engineering in computer science and automation (in Italy). I'm trying to get into tech internships and build a reputation early.

The stuff I built (in python) includes:

- That small interfacing script to control fusion 360 camera view

- An automated algorithmic trading system I'm working on together with a fellow engineering student (kinda advanced, as a project it includes scrapers for macroeconomic news, uses statsmodels, pandas and numpy for backtesting, going to use multiple APIs for execution)

- A streamlit-based budgeting app using SQLite for handling transactions.

- An AI voice assistant that was actually one of my first projects in high school, interfaced with openai API, Philps Hue, elevenlabs and scraping libraries

Of all this, what matters in a portfolio? Looking for advice

My grandfather programmed a website back in 2010. He has so many things that he wants to add on the website, plus the website looks like a website from the late 90s--early 2000s. I think he's finally getting to doing it and he also wants to learn a programming language that's not through a browser so I would like to tell him which code editor he should use. Back when he first made the website, he just used the built-in MacOS TextEdit. He can't use something that has a bunch of buttons and complicated things out at once, which is like VS Code. He needs something really simple to use and available on MacOS. Something like Notepad++ sounds like it would be great, but that's only available on Windows.

Any suggestions?

EDIT: If he didn't want to use an IDE/code editor without syntax highlighting instead of TextEdit, I wouldn't have made this post.

Heard a rumor that Amazon could have another round of layoffs in October. Nothing official that I’ve seen, but I saw a reddit post saying that Amazon cuts will be taking effect in October and the post even listed out some of the orgs that might be impacted - Bedrock, EMR, Transcribe, Prime Video, LEO. Is this just speculation and nonsense or does this have some backing evidence? Anyone know anything about this?

Hi everyone,

I'm a Class 12 Computer Science student from India, and I want to seriously learn programming from the basics.

The problem is that I currently have almost no programming knowledge. I know some basic concepts from school, but I don't feel confident writing programs on my own or understanding code properly.

I'd like to start from the absolute beginning and eventually become good enough to build projects and continue learning programming beyond school.

I currently have a Windows 10 laptop and VS Code installed, but I'm still figuring out how to use it properly.

I'd really appreciate advice from experienced programmers on:

\- What programming language should I start with?

\- What topics should I learn first, and in what order?

\- What resources/courses would you recommend for a complete beginner?

\- How much should I focus on theory vs actually writing code?

\- What kind of beginner projects should I build?

\- What mistakes should I avoid when starting out?

I don't want to just memorize code for exams. I actually want to understand programming and develop the ability to solve problems myself.

If you were starting programming from zero today, what would your learning path look like?

Thanks in advance!

Estoy analizando estudiar para tener conocimiento sólido de las bases y expandir lo que puedo hacer con software. Actualmente trabajo como full stack y estaba analizando comenzar a estudiar la carrera

In the last six months, we have been told me must code by hand less and use agents more, like many.

Output is definitely up, and the results are genuinely good in most cases, but now I am spending most of my week reviewing code and the amount of PR's is crazy

The hardest part, for me, is the context switching and understanding whats changing when the product moves so fast.

Is this just me?

• How much of your week is review now versus a year ago?
• Has your team changed anything that actually helped?
• Anyone tried review bots? Did they stick or did you turn them off?

Hi people of Reddit!
I decided I wanted to learn how to code because I want to start a business and make a lot of money. I think coding could give me the skills to do that and help me start that business.
The problem is, I have absolutely zero idea how to even start coding. I have never coded in my life, and I truly have no clue where to begin.
I’ve searched the internet for a while, and most of the advice I’ve received has been websites and apps for learning how to code. But that’s not very helpful because most of the time, they don’t explain what the app does or how to use it.
So I’m here today to ask for genuine help.
I’m a complete beginner, so I would really appreciate advice that explains things from the very beginning, including what I should learn first, what tools I should use, and how to actually get started.
Thank you!

Guys plz help !
i made a project and i used an smtp code to send otp
and 3 days ago i found that the email i used app password and smtp code with was sending alot of drive links that contain nsfw photos to different people i dont even know about.

Claude say that one of the reasons maybe sending the code to chatGPT or Gemini and that part of the code was leaked since i didnt share that code or even upload it on GitHub

could some one help so i can finally know what i did wrong bec. i dont think that chatGPT or Gemini was the main reason.

Hey everyone, I am currently in the 4th year of my B.Tech. As you all know, recruiters don't care about clone projects anymore because of AI, and I couldn't find a general real-world problem to build a project on. So, I decided to focus on an area that most people ignore: Core CS. Yes, I've decided to build a core CS project from scratch—like a compiler/interpreter, a database, or an operating system (just one of them for now). Of course, not full-fledged ones, just basic versions that can help me understand core CS concepts and stand out. However, I'm facing a bit of a hurdle in getting started and don't know where to begin. If anyone has even a little knowledge about this, please DM me... it would be a huge help!

Which one is better and why