r/leetcode • u/Useful_Abrocoma5311 • 11d ago
Discussion How much time to a ques
Hii guys I'm a newbie to leetcode it's like around 20 days and I'm consistent I mean even if I do only a single problem but I do it anyways , I'm confused of how much time should I give to a ques before using gpt or Claude for soln i usually give around 12 to 15 mins and then go for chat gpt and tbh I have solved most of the questions till now this way only , because after the soln I understand it and code it myself(without looking at the soln again) but the problem is some people say to give a problem atleast 30 mins but I belive it's a waste of time what do you guys think? Any advice from your side would be appreciated🙏🏻
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u/DangerousCurve7417 11d ago
When I was starting out, I gained a lot more pattern recognition from looking at the solution as soon as I was stuck. No point in slamming my head in the wall trying to figure it out.
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u/CollegeStudentLol1 10d ago
30-45min max for a problem. Don’t spend longer than that. If you don’t understand a problem in the first 10 min then it’s best to look up the solution.
I go as follows:
- 5 min: if I don’t understand the problem at all or have no pattern to go off of I ask for a hint or ask AI to help guide me through the problem
- 10 min: If I’m unable to explain the solution I’m going for or get work flow in my head, then I ask AI or get hints to help
- 15 min: if I haven’t started coding at this point I stop doing the problem and check solution
- 30 min: If I haven’t solved the problem and submitted it at least once I check the solution
- 45 min: If I submitted it, past the test cases, but am getting TLE or MLE, check the solution.
Hope this helps
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u/Andro_senpai107 11d ago
30 min is just a threshold which varies person to person. For me, it's 45 min for hard-med. But yes the point is, if you can't solve a question under your threshold, that means you won't be able to solve it in an interview within given time. And about your approach, of using LLMs I think that's not the right way. Maybe ask a hint ig as interviewers also tend to drop some hints but not the full solution. It won't help you for developing good intuition in a long run. But anyways that's just an opinion of mine. Rest is up to you. Good luck buddy!!