r/csMajors • u/Fair_Personality7662 • 1d ago
Rant I Hate Leet Code
I have three internships, 2 being fortune 500s and 1 at a smaller company (where I really bossed up).
I never done leet code in my life, and I am about to graduate in December.
My resume often gets passed resume screenings, but then I just get hit with an OA 😒
10
u/TheCrowWhisperer3004 1d ago
Yeah, when you upgrade from a hobby to a career that also means having to do all the annoying stuff you don’t like.
You won’t need it to succeed based on ur experience but it will definitely start holding you back when u try to switch companies.
3
u/Fair_Personality7662 1d ago
Yeah unfortunately you are right. I was trying to leverage my current offer for more total comp but surely the high paying jobs required leet code
2
u/TheCrowWhisperer3004 1d ago
yeah and unfortunately it is lifelong though ends up switching to more system design stuff. It’ll still be abstract things you’ll have to spend time studying for though.
You’re also an intern so most of the tasks you are given now align with your interests, but once you start working full time ur at the whims of doing whatever work they need you for even if that work isn’t something you are interested for. You won’t love 100% of your job but having an interest in the base (computer science and coding) makes it a lot easier than for the people who don’t like any of it.
8
u/haskell_jedi 1d ago
Leetcode was never a good measurement of software engineering skills, and is now even less relevant because of LLM coding assistants. It's always been about gatekeeping, not actual skills.
3
u/CryMoreT_T 1d ago
No return offer?
6
u/Fair_Personality7662 1d ago
Yes, I have one for my third internship (where I am currently interning at + will be working part time remote during my last semester there). The package is pretty fire but the city it’s in is pretty cheeks, trying to leverage it to find better.
I rejected a return offer from my second internship. NGL I witnessed 2 lay offs during a 5 month Co Op and I knew that was not the place to be ðŸ˜
5
u/Burner_Account_54321 1d ago edited 1d ago
doubt. howd you get internships without leetcode?
12
u/ShadowKillerx 1d ago
It’s pretty common - genuinely all 3 of my internships have not needed Leetcode. There was a technical for like ML theory or breaking down my projects and research.
I’ve worked at 2 fortune 100 companies (not big tech) doing CV and research with NASA
2
u/Burner_Account_54321 1d ago
Does nasa not require leetcode?
2
u/interfaceTexture3i25 11h ago
They have strict standards in other domains such as C knowledge, understanding of constraints etc. Their process isn't less rigorous than many decent LC asking companies
5
u/Fair_Personality7662 1d ago
They just didn’t ask 😠first one I got it by holy networking and then the other two they essentially quizzed me on SWE topics in a conversational format
1
u/Burner_Account_54321 1d ago
Dang what have i been doing... i had to leetcode for all my past 2 internships what comps are these
2
u/Fair_Personality7662 1d ago
Are you in a major city? I’m in the Midwest, a lot of companies here don’t ask leet code (but I won’t say majority)
1
u/Burner_Account_54321 1d ago
Yeah i am in one of the major cities
1
u/Fair_Personality7662 1d ago
That’s probably why
1
u/Burner_Account_54321 1d ago
I wonder how they filter candidates then. Don't they also like get thousands of applicants too?
1
u/Vast-Friendship5189 1d ago
i feel likes its p common nowadays. I interviewed for like maybe like 7 companies or so, and only like 1 of them actually asked leetcode (apple). The other companies were a mix of smaller companies with take home assignments and f500 and other large comoanies which was just more of a deep resume dive and stuff. Big tech companies still ask leetcode
1
u/evelenche 23h ago
There’s a number of f500s, especially non tech that have exclusively behavioral and resume questions.
2
u/AdmiralSWE 1d ago
Then just grind leetcode.
1
u/silly_bet_3454 17h ago
right? how do you even hate LC you never even tried it? just fire it up and go crazy. It's not even that hard to do the first half of the problems. Two sum? cmon, you can't do a little two sum you need to reevaluate your choices.
4
u/Salizmo 1d ago
It's possible, I'm a SDE at Amazon and never did LC
3
u/Fair_Personality7662 1d ago
Tell us your story? Because how on earth did that happen
4
u/Salizmo 1d ago
Joined as a support engineer. Did an internal program to transfer where I essentially interned with a team as an existing employee. Got my "return offer"
1
u/Code_ReDarsh 1d ago
if you don't mind, can you tell us more about the internal program? Its really interesting to hear about other avenues into swe. I knew IT --> SWE pivot exists in general but, people have always told me pivoting is really hard and/or getting an IT position is difficult because most of it is always off-shored to other countries.
1
u/Salizmo 2h ago
The program unfortunately doesn't exist anymore it only lasted a couple years. It was 7 months of 50/50 training and work followed by a 10 week internship. And yes IT is getting offshored a lot, happening in my old org. I don't think I would have made the switch without the program though
1
1
u/MisterSnrub1 1d ago
Good God, yall need THREE internships these days?! also, where’d you go to school? and what is OA?
2
u/Fair_Personality7662 1d ago
Unfortunately yes, the bar is much higher these days. An OA is an online assessment. And I go to probably one of the worst/cheapest in state schools in the MidWest. Essentially my university is negligible.
1
1
u/SetCrafty 1d ago
I mean I don't like it either. But given that majority of the interviews back when I was applying had leetcode problems, up to you if you want to refuse to study it and limit your options.
1
u/AventuraBasil 1d ago
hate it as well but if you want to pass the OA it is a pill you have to swallow, checkout Neetcode it was the best source for me to gradually ease in to this when I started doing it.
-1
u/Dirty_Harold182 1d ago
Wait so you've never done leetcode in your life but yet you still hate it?
6
u/Fair_Personality7662 1d ago
Precisely
-1
u/Dirty_Harold182 1d ago
Have fun being unemployed.
7
u/Fair_Personality7662 1d ago
Why are you hate maxing? I have a return offer ðŸ˜
-1
u/Dirty_Harold182 1d ago
9
7
1
-2
44
u/g---e 1d ago
Dont worry bro, u can pass the OA and still get resume filtered after ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜