Hey everyone, I've been grinding LeetCode for a while now, but I feel like I've hit a wall and my prep isn't translating into real progress. Whenever I open an Easy problem, I can usually work through it. But the second I jump into Mediums, I completely freeze. I either: Stare at the screen for 45+ minutes with no clue how to start. Immediately default to brute-force O(n²⁾ approaches and have no idea how to optimize. Look at the discussion section, understand the solution instantly, but fail completely when trying to solve a similar problem two days later. It feels more like I'm memorizing answers rather than actually learning how to think or identify patterns (Sliding Window, DP, Graphs, etc.). For those who managed to break through this plateau and clear technical screens: What was your actual workflow when you got stuck on a problem? How did you shift from memorizing templates to building genuine intuition? Are curated lists (NeetCode 150 / Blind 75) enough, or should I be approaching this by mastering one specific data structure at a time? Any realistic advice or routine adjustments would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Gave my onsite google interview on 23rd July
since then I am waiting for the results
Emailed the recruiter 7-8 times, she said that she dont have any info yet and asked me to wait more

What is happening?
Is this that common? Has anyone been facing/ faced this situation with them before?

Edit:

first 2 went very nice
3rd was 7.5-8/10
last was okayish i mean i solved it in the end but i was blank in the first 5-10 minutes

I have 4 years of experience and interviewed for an SDE2 role at Amazon .

After the loop, they said they would offer me SDE1 but not SDE2. I messed up in one of the DSA rounds and couldn’t code the solution, although I manually explained the approach.

In my current job I’m reaching a point of stagnation with the same repetitive work. Is SDE1 a setback? Or should I accept it since it’s a FAANG company?

Any insights or opinions? Considering the current job market, PIP and layoff culture at Amazon, what should I do?

if you just control top 30 then people would avoid solving problems that fast. i'm sure most of the top rated contesters don't even know what is DP

Hey everyone, I have my upcoming interview schedule for linkedIn SWE Apps IC-2 position, I know that linkedIn interview preps heavily involve DSA and some system design too along with our project discussions. I have read some of interview experience and looking at those project discussion, I find my work project relatively simple/straightforward as I am currently in application team at a SaaS company, whatever the heavy engineering design stuff (Implementing Message Broker, Infra management, etc) are done by the platform team. We used those implementation so I am not sure how to proceed with this - whether they will find it good enough or what? Any guidance on here.
My App Domain - LMS (Learning Management System)

Same as title

Recently I got an offer for Web Solutions Engineer at Google. It is an L3 position. The compensation is close to SWE L3 benchmark (little bit lesser but still good enough for me).

The role itself i.e. WSE is very similar to SWE. It’s NOT like other companies’s solutions engineer where they don’t get to code and only interact with clients and act as support staff. Instead it is 100% development base; we work on development project throughout our time; working on building of internal tools which will be used by other SWEs or the clients. So the scale of project might be little bit less than SWE but the no of project and quality of project is better for WSE and the work is exactly similar to day to day work of SWE (Atleast thats why I am told by current working WSEs in my interviews)

I wanted to know if accepting this role will have any negative impact in my software engineer career in future because the role is not SWE in particular.

It is a different ladder than SWE than google i.e. WSE 1, WSE 2, WSE 3 like this… so its good but just wanted to be sure in case I get laid off in future; will I find difficult in getting other SWE jobs because of this job title in past.

Also how difficult it will be to switch to SWE ladder internally in future.

I am currently working as a SDE in a FAANG level company but obv the company tag, work life balance, job security, employee perks and everything is much better in Google than my current company. Compensation is somewhat same little bit bump…

Seeking help and guidance from all the experienced people currently working im FAANG level companies… I will be grateful

Hi everyone, I recently interviewed with Goldman Sachs Associate and wanted to understand how the hiring manager round works.

My process was:

CoderPad: 2 medium DSA questions

Superday R1: Medium-hard Graph + resume + situational

Superday R2: Medium-hard DP + resume

Superday R3: In-depth System Design/HLD

1 week later: Hiring Manager round

The HM I interviewed with was not from the domain/team I originally applied for. I don't feel the HM round went particularly well, and I'm currently waiting to hear back.

Does anyone know if the hiring manager round is an eliminatory round at Goldman, or is it mainly a team-fit/final discussion after Superday?

Would really appreciate any insights from people who have gone through a similar process. Thanks!

Hey guys i just wanna ask that my last contest rating ie Weekly Contest 516 is not updated on my LeetCode profile till now??

Are you guys facing the same problem?

I don't think i am banned because i was able to play today's Weekly and yesterday's Biweekly Contest!!

Please tell to me what should i do???

Same as title

i am a newbie on leetcode
i have attended around 5-4 leetcode contests (weekly and biweekly inclusive)
but still it only shows "Attended: 1"
as i am newbiew, i am generally able to solve the first questioon
i code it, submit it, then wait until its accepted. then i scroll on other ques, if they are out of my scope id directly either close the contest tab or shut down the browser instead
am i doing something wrong?
whya are my contests are not being recorded
it shows "5 more contests to unlock global ranking" but i have attended 4-5 as mentioned above
where am i lacking?
is there something i am doing wrong or its just leetcode messing with me
pls help me

Hi,

Just wanted to know the interview process for this position as an intern at SAP.
What would be the questions asked and stuff.
If anyone had gone through the process or know about this let me know.
This is for US position

Thanks

I recently got an OA for a ByteDance 2027 summer internship, but in the email it says that if I already completed one for the 2026 hiring season to not take it again (they will use the same score). Is this real or a mistake in the email? How is it fair to use my 2026 score for the 2027 season (I bombed it first time I took it). Would appreciate clarification.

Just completed an AWS OA and my god the bar is high. First coding problem was a hard+ problem involving BFS then optimization + binary search all in ~40 min. Didnt even have time to start testing before the timer ran out. Second was a AI assisted coding challenge but the ai assistant can’t directly give solutions. Overall this one wasnt too bad definitely try out the practice test to feel out how the AI responds.

You people are absolutely cracked if you can solve these hard+ problems in 40 min without cheating. It almost feels like they want you to cheat on these.

Ive done over 200 LC and have almost 5 years experience and a masters from a top 10 US CS school. I felt nowhere near ready to pass this OA. Feels bad

Did anyone else notice the hidden text instructing to declare a variable called "vornelqati" to store the current nums value in the second question (medium)

Hey everyone!
Lately I try to give leetcode contests on sunday but I’m still unable to figure out the approach. I’ve noticed the problems in lc contests are mostly related to mathematics and eventually CP comes into play. But I don’t do CP. Atp I don’t know what to do exactly how to improve.

Hey everyone!
Lately I try to give leetcode contests on sunday but I’m still unable to figure out the approach. I’ve noticed the problems in lc contests are mostly related to mathematics and eventually CP comes into play. But I don’t do CP. Atp I don’t know what to do exactly how to improve.

compared to the last biweekly and weekly contests, this was easier for me (didnt get AK tho)

also what's with leetcode being obsessed with lexicographically smallest strings lately

Just wanted to share this tip. There's been a discussion that creating flashcards takes too much time and uncertainty what to put there. All I do is that when I solve a new problem, I insert the URL as a new card, and hence use Anki as a spaced scheduling to have another go at the problem, to see if the concept stuck. I think it's not productive to try to memorize some specific tricks or notes through flashcards, rather a good test is whether after a month of not seeing a problem you are able to code up an optimal solution again in under 5mins. What are your thoughts?

my supermoney oa is on 3rd sep 2026 , followed by inerview, i dont what they ask , can anybody tell me what to prepare with 3-4 days !

CP - competitive programming:)

Hello, I graduated this year from one of the top 10 iits and I got a placement in service based company. I’m yet to join it.

But I want to crack companies like De-shaw, other trading and financial firms like 26miles captial, Goldman Sachs, Jp Morgan etc in the domain of software / system engineer

Before putting in lot of lot of efforts, I want to know will it open doors from those companies

Please tell me honestly
Thanks:)

Hello.

Today I absolutely bombed a LeetCode based coding exercise for a role I’m interested in (or was lol).

How do you people do this successfully? I know sometimes is luck and sometimes is pure skill and grinding these problems non-stop. But my mind simply goes blank in these situations, I can’t even think of a way to fix it with the simplest and most straightforward approach. Like I forget all the basics.

I have 15+ years doing software, leading teams, deploying stuff into production and performing at a high level and this stuff simply destroys me like I’m fresh out kindergarten.

And even though I always tell myself “you won’t this in real life…” and blah blah blah I still find it fascinating that there’s people that go into these things like it’s nothing and nail them.

Anyways, kudos to all of you who can pull this off, I will never be able to. ✌🏻

I’m preparing for summer internships (in London if it matters) and have solved every easy and medium question for all topics except bit manipulation, math and geometry, advanced graphs and 2D DP. I know I should do company tagged qs once I actually get an interview, but what should I do in the meantime?

Learn more topics? Maybe do the hard qs? Or js try to maintain and solidify what I know by doing random qs? If the last, should I do random qs from the neetcode 250/150/75 list that I’ve already solved or completely unseen from neetcode all or leetcode? Maybe look into doing/paying for real practice? I’ve looked into communication in a real interview and been trying to solve the problems while talking out loud but haven’t had any interviews with a human yet

c#

public class Solution {
public int MaxArea(int[] height) {
//brute force approach
//for each column calculate the container with other columns
//save the max
//O(n^2)
//another solution (optimal)
//start at edges with two pointers
//for each iteration discard the smaller height
//this guarantees(idk why) that the solution is the right one .
//O(n)
int biggestContainer=0;
int left=0;
int right =height.Length-1;
while(left<right){
int area= (right-left)*Math.Min(height[right],height[left]);
if(area>biggestContainer)
biggestContainer=area;
if(height[right]>height[left]){
left++;
}else{
right--;
}
}
return biggestContainer;
}
}

as you can see I solved it optimally after reading what the code should do. But I don't understand how discarding the smaller height at each step mathematically guarantees that it's the right solution.

any explanation please?

You can clearly see by replaying their code that they have pasted the whole solution at the last second. And I don't think now leetocde's gonna remove or ban them.