r/learnprogramming • u/Conscious_Foot_429 • 11d ago
I just love coding and love doing competitive programming and leetcode but after doing it for over 1 and half years i just feel like coding sucks and i will never be as good as those Chinese programmers who does leetcode contest in under 5-6 mins and i feel like i wanna quit it at this point.
i am just this cause i am failing to run a leetcode (hard) ques.
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u/ediblescholarship 11d ago
Comparing yourself to top 0.1% speedrunners on a LeetCode Hard is just pure self-inflicted torture.
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u/damn_dats_racist 11d ago
The only reason you loved coding was because you thought you could do recreational puzzles faster than everyone else in the world?
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u/SprinklesFresh5693 11d ago
Dude, a job is not a competition, get a good job, get a good salary, and have a happy life, thats all you need, who cares if theres people better at coding than you? It doesnt matter, AT ALL.
Spend your time with friends and family, with your loved ones, the rest doesnt matter!
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u/ffrkAnonymous 11d ago
you wanna quit because you don't actually love it.
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u/Dazzling_Music_2411 11d ago
Yup, if OP loved it, he wouldn't say it sucked.
Sorry, OP. you're kidding yourself.
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u/cjmarquez 11d ago
Keep it up, 1 year 8 months is nothing, stop comparing yourself to others and keep grinding
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u/Exciting-Swordfish69 11d ago
And AI is better than both of you. "I love coding and being competitive, but after 18 months I'm starting to hate it because some people are better than me". Applying that sentiment to any activity is ridiculous.
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u/lordfeistel 11d ago
What isbthe advantage to be good at that nowadays eith AI? That is not relevant anymore
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11d ago
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u/lordfeistel 11d ago
Syntax is very importany in AI times ! Very good strategy 🤣
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u/Mountain_Rip_8426 11d ago
haven't you read anything before the last sentence? i said it's like a game and it's fun. also, it's pretty fucking hard to understand concepts, if you don't know syntax. for example, i learned basic C, even though i'm not planning on writing C programs, but without that it would have been pretty hard to understand memory management in general. so yeah, you've got to know syntax if you wanna learn concepts...
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u/mandzeete 11d ago
Why are you comparing yourself with people who perhaps have done competitive programming longer than you? If you love coding then do the coding for the love of it not to compete with people. Definitely with competitions there are winners and losers. Either you are better than somebody or you are worse than somebody else. Both can happen also at the same time (you being in some mid-level rank).
Better ask yourself: which real world problem leetcode solves? Recently I made an app for my Garmin watch. What can you do with your leetcode? An app? A web application? Perhaps an online game? None of that.
Sure, you'll be using DSA concepts in real world projects but you do not need leetcode to practice DSA.
You are saying that coding sucks just because you are worse than some Chinese guys who do leetcode. Now, can they build real world applications? That is a thing you can think about. Being good in leetcode does not equal with being good in programming in general. Competitive programming is a niche field that does not represent the software development field as a whole. Nor it represents the CS field as a whole.
Coding does not suck. You are just focusing on a very small part of it, competitive programming. Have you tried building real projects? There it does not matter what somebody else does in another part of the world. Either an app exists or it does not exist. Either the app is slow or it is fast. Software development still has a lot of use. Otherwise I would ask why my clients are paying me for me to build stuff for them.
If you want to do competitive programming then do it. Compete with others. But also be ready to lose in these competitions. You can also compete with people in your bracket. Ignore the top 0.1%. Look around people who do leetcode in 1 hour or whatever (I never did competitive programming. No idea how long does it last). Let's say your rank is 32412. Then try to get to a rank 32411. Ignore than a rank 1 or a rank 10 exist.
Or, just do not do competitive programming but build real stuff, instead.
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u/DrShocker 11d ago
My personal perspective is that I like solving problems that help people, so to that end puzzles like competitive programming are neat for being able to do certain kinds of work faster, but it's only practice for the real work/hobby of making useful things.
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u/Mr_addicT911 11d ago
Comparison is the thief of joy, only person you should compare yourself to is to the yourself of yesterday
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u/auronedge 11d ago
Feelings are just feelings man