LeetCode Was Hard Until I Learned These 3 Things

Matt Guest2024-01-26

coding#coding interview#coding interviews#microsoft#google#google coding interview#leetcode#lc#coding patterns#maang#faang

4K views|6 months ago

💫 Short Summary

This video provides three key tips for improving coding interview skills: 1) practice how you'll interview by mimicking real-world coding interviews, timing yourself, and voicing your thoughts out loud; 2) focus on high ROI topics such as arrays, strings, hash tables, and dynamic programming; 3) learn coding patterns, which are proven techniques that can be applied to solve a wide variety of problems. The video also mentions a platform called Tech Interviews IO for learning coding patterns and avoiding common interview mistakes.

✨ Highlights

📊 Transcript

✦

Introduction and Tips for Improving Coding Interview Skills

00:00

The speaker used to earn $5 an hour at a startup but managed to land a six-figure job at Amazon in under two years without a CS degree.

Three key tips for improving LeetCode skills are shared.

Tip 1: Practice how you'll interview by mimicking the real-world coding interview as much as possible, including timing yourself and voicing your thoughts out loud.

Tip 2: Focus on high ROI topics, such as arrays, strings, hash tables, and dynamic programming, which are commonly asked in coding interviews.

Tip 3: Learn coding patterns, which are proven techniques that can be applied to solve a wide variety of problems.

✦

How to Practice for Coding Interviews

02:41

Allocate 4 to 6 weeks for prep, with 2 to 3 hours of practice 5 to 6 days a week.

Suggests treating interview prepping like a part-time job or side hustle.

Practicing with a friend and taking turns mock interviewing each other can be helpful.

✦

Focus on High ROI Topics

05:25

Prioritize studying and practicing questions with a higher likelihood of being asked in coding interviews, such as arrays, strings, hash tables, and dynamic programming.

It's not necessary to solve hundreds of problems or tackle less commonly asked question types, but they should not be ignored completely.

✦

Importance of Learning Coding Patterns

06:27

Coding patterns have been a game changer for the speaker in coding interviews.

They are proven techniques that, once learned, can be applied to solve a wide variety of problems.

Examples of coding patterns include the sliding window pattern for optimizing time and space complexity.

Studying with intent, focusing on one group of problems at a time, and practicing handwritten solutions can help in learning coding patterns faster.

Tech interview platform TechInterviews.io is recommended for learning coding patterns more effectively.

✦

Conclusion

08:55

Learning coding patterns is essential for interview preparation.

It is recommended to focus on learning the key building blocks that underlie most algorithm problems.

TechInterviews.io is suggested as a platform to learn coding patterns more effectively.

00:00 if you're struggling with solving Le

00:01 code questions then you came to the

00:03 right video I used to be just like you

00:06 but after dozens of coding interviews

00:08 under my belt I've learned a few tricks

00:10 along the way for better for worse Le

00:13 code style questions are the norm for

00:14 interviewers at most tech companies and

00:17 instead of complaining about the coding

00:18 interview process you can instead learn

00:20 the strategies that top Engineers use

00:22 when prepping for their coding

00:24 interviews you see coding interviews are

00:26 like a game and like all games there are

00:28 strategies you can use to win

00:30 but most software Engineers don't know

00:32 these strategies and coupled with the

00:35 super competitive market for tech jobs

00:36 these days it's no wonder why software

00:39 Engineers are having a hard time the

00:41 reason for this is if I'm being honest

00:44 most people just don't know how to

00:45 properly prepare for coding interviews

00:48 remember Le code is a skill and any

00:50 skill can be learned that's why I'm

00:52 going to share three key tips you need

00:54 to follow if you want to improve your Le

00:56 code skills these are the three tips I

00:58 use to go for making $5 an hour working

01:01 at a startup Yes you heard that right $5

01:04 an hour to making six figures at Amazon

01:08 in under two years and I was able to do

01:10 this without any CS degree and being a

01:12 completely self-taught programmer I'm a

01:14 firm believer that if I can break into

01:16 the tech industry and land a lucrative

01:18 Tech job then you can too and the whole

01:21 purpose of this channel is for me to

01:22 share all the information I wish I had

01:25 when I was just starting out so just sit

01:27 back and listen as I give you these

01:29 actionable tips that're going to change

01:30 the way your interview prep forever all

01:33 right let's jump into tip number three

01:35 which is to practice how you'll

01:36 interview what do I mean by this

01:39 basically you need to mimic the real

01:41 world coding interview as much as

01:43 possible you need to get used to solving

01:44 problems the same way you would in a

01:46 real life interview setting one thing

01:48 you can try when solving problems is to

01:50 make sure to time yourself like a real

01:53 coding interview you only have a set

01:54 amount of time usually 45 minutes to 1

01:57 hour I recommend for easy questions aim

02:00 for around 30 minutes for medium and

02:02 hard questions give yourself at least 45

02:05 minutes up to 1 hour if you find

02:07 yourself stuck don't be afraid to look

02:09 up the solution if you do though then

02:12 the key here is to fully understand the

02:14 solution afterwards you can mark it for

02:16 review and come back to it a few days

02:18 later while timing yourself is crucial

02:21 it's not enough on its own another thing

02:23 I've done with great success is voicing

02:25 my thoughts out loud you see every

02:28 interviewer is going to judge you on the

02:29 way you approach problems so using this

02:32 strategy is good practice I know it

02:34 sounds weird but voicing your doubts

02:37 concerns and ideas about the problem out

02:39 loud can help with your thought process

02:41 and get the juices flowing it's the same

02:44 reason why some software Engineers use

02:45 rubber ducks to help them solve problems

02:48 asking questions about the input

02:50 expected output and potential edge cases

02:52 is all fair game questions like are

02:55 negative numbers allowed for the input

02:57 or how is the input stored and and can

03:00 you modify the original array graph or

03:03 data structure in any way even repeating

03:05 the question back in your own words

03:07 helps and finally if we're talking about

03:10 how to practice for coding interviews

03:12 then we should also discuss timeline and

03:14 schedule before you even think about

03:16 going on a coding interview you need to

03:18 have adequate time to prep I suggest at

03:21 least four to six weeks I found this to

03:23 be the sweet spot as it allows you to

03:25 review foundational topics like data

03:28 structures and text specific topics for

03:31 example if you're an iOS Developer you

03:33 need to talk about things like

03:35 concurrency the MVC pattern and stuff

03:38 like that but it also gives you time to

03:40 practice your problem solving abilities

03:42 which is why I suggest at least 2 to 3

03:44 hours 5 to 6 days a week this should

03:47 give you enough time every day to solve

03:49 at least a couple of Le code questions

03:51 and fully understand their Solutions it

03:53 helps to think of interview prepping

03:55 like a part-time job or a side hustle it

03:58 needs to become part of your routine

04:00 also this one might seem obvious but if

04:03 you have a friend then you guys can take

04:05 turns mock interviewing each other that

04:07 also really helps all right so that's it

04:10 for tip number three let's move on to

04:12 tip number two which is to focus on high

04:15 Roi topics Roi means return on

04:19 investment which in this case means

04:20 focusing on questions that have a higher

04:22 likelihood of being asked during a

04:24 coding interview here's a graphic

04:26 showing the distribution of various

04:28 problem Types on leak code

04:30 as you can see arrays strings hash

04:33 tables and dynamic programming are some

04:35 of the most commonly asked questions

04:37 it's very common for candidates to get

04:39 overwhelmed when interview prepping

04:41 because they think they have to solve

04:42 hundreds of problems or tackle a bunch

04:45 of hard problems but that's just not

04:47 true now I'm not saying to ignore less

04:49 commonly asked question types like stack

04:52 or heat problems you should still study

04:54 those topics too the point I'm trying to

04:56 make is to prioritize questions that

04:58 have a higher chance of being asked

04:59 asked I left the link to the graphic in

05:02 the description below but still if you

05:05 suck at graph problems then focus on

05:07 graphs if you suck at dynamic

05:08 programming problems then focus on

05:10 dynamic programming I find the strategy

05:13 very effective and it's helped me stay

05:15 on course when I was prepping for my

05:17 interviews remember prep smarter not

05:20 harder all right so that's it for tip

05:23 number two now let's move on to the

05:25 final and most important tip which is to

05:27 learn coding patterns coding patterns

05:30 have been the single greatest game

05:32 changer for me when it comes to coding

05:33 interviews once I was able to learn what

05:35 these patterns are it's supercharged my

05:38 interview prep in ways I never thought

05:39 of before I was able to walk into

05:41 interviews and have the confidence that

05:44 no matter what problem was given to me

05:46 if I could determine which pattern best

05:47 suited the problem then I would be able

05:49 to solve it if you don't know what

05:51 coding patterns are they're proven

05:52 techniques shared by several coding

05:54 problems you can think of coding

05:56 patterns as proven templates that once

05:59 learned learned can be applied to solve

06:00 a wide variety of problems for example

06:04 one of the most famous coding patterns

06:05 is the sliding window pattern it's

06:07 useful when dealing with problems that

06:09 require tracking a subset of consecutive

06:11 elements in an array link list or string

06:15 this pattern officially maintains a

06:16 window of elements updating it as it

06:19 moves through the sequence a very useful

06:21 pattern for optimizing time and space

06:23 complexity there are also other patterns

06:25 like two pointers Union find modified

06:28 binary search and many more now I'm not

06:31 going to cover all the coding patterns

06:33 in this video as that would make this

06:35 video an hour long but I have written an

06:38 article covering the top 15 patterns

06:40 most commonly used in coding interviews

06:43 if that sounds interesting to you then

06:44 please check out the link in the

06:45 description below after you're done with

06:47 the video of course in any case the

06:49 thing about coding patterns is there's

06:51 something that takes time to develop

06:53 only after you solve enough problems

06:55 over a long enough period of time do

06:57 these patterns start to make sense to

06:58 you so then that begs the question how

07:01 can you learn these patterns faster the

07:03 first thing you can Implement into your

07:05 interview prepping is to study with

07:07 intent what I mean is to focus on one

07:10 group of problems at a time for example

07:12 you compile a list of graph problems on

07:14 leak code and practice only solving

07:16 those for a few days after solving a

07:18 problem write down by hand on a piece of

07:21 paper or notebook your findings things

07:23 like your Brute Force solution your

07:26 optimal solution and how you optimize

07:28 the solution really get detailed if you

07:31 do this for enough problems you can

07:33 start to find similarities between

07:34 problems in that group eventually you'll

07:37 start to notice how all graph problems

07:39 involve some sort of traversal method

07:41 using either breath verse search or

07:42 death first search then you'll begin to

07:44 notice that most graph problems involve

07:47 either traversing a graph in a certain

07:48 way grouping components together or

07:51 determining a proper ordering of some

07:53 sort after enough time you'll start to

07:55 develop an intuition for graph problems

07:58 to the point where you know exactly when

08:00 you're faced with one and the best ways

08:02 to optimize a problem in that category

08:05 once you learn one concept then choose

08:07 another to focus on and repeat this

08:09 until you feel ready to interview the

08:11 thing is this is easier said than done

08:14 especially if you're new to the tech

08:15 field this is exactly why I've created

08:17 Tech interviews iio it's an online

08:19 learning platform tailor made to teach

08:21 you all of the important coding patterns

08:23 you might encounter in a coding

08:24 interview you see coding patterns are

08:27 the superior way to prep because the

08:29 human brain internalizes information

08:31 better when we can apply systematic

08:33 proven knowledge to problems instead of

08:35 grinding hundreds of problems on Le code

08:38 why not focus your prep time on learning

08:39 the key building blocks that underly

08:41 most algorithm problems the key benefits

08:44 are that you reduce prep time

08:45 significantly and retain information for

08:48 much longer you can sign up and try the

08:51 free content available on the site

08:53 completely risk-free so if you're

08:54 looking to supercharge your interview

08:55 prep then I suggest checking out Tech

08:57 interviews IO either way you can't

09:00 afford to ignore coding patterns in your

09:01 interview prep anymore the benefits of

09:03 learning them are too high to leave them

09:05 out but learning how to Le code and

09:08 interview prep effectively is only one

09:11 side of the coin there's still a lot of

09:12 mistakes you can make as an interview

09:14 candidate and believe me I've made my

09:17 fair share of mistakes once I've learned

09:19 which mistakes to avoid though I notice

09:21 I received fewer rejections and more

09:23 offer letters if you're looking to

09:25 improve your coding interview

09:26 performance then you're going to want to

09:28 check out this video video to see which

09:30 mistakes you should be avoiding when

09:31 you're out interviewing thanks for

09:33 watching and I'll see you in the next

09:35 one

💫 FAQs about This YouTube Video

1. What are the three key tips for improving LeetCode skills and preparing for coding interviews?

The three key tips for improving LeetCode skills and preparing for coding interviews are: 1. Practice how you'll interview by mimicking the real-world coding interview, timing yourself, and voicing your thoughts out loud. 2. Focus on high ROI (Return on Investment) topics such as arrays, strings, hash tables, and dynamic programming. 3. Learn coding patterns, which are proven techniques to solve coding problems efficiently.

2. How can one effectively prepare for coding interviews?

To effectively prepare for coding interviews, it's important to practice how you'll interview, focus on high ROI topics, and learn coding patterns. Mimicking the real-world coding interview, timing yourself, voicing your thoughts out loud, and focusing on important topics such as arrays, strings, hash tables, and dynamic programming can greatly improve preparation. Additionally, learning coding patterns can help solve coding problems efficiently and boost interview performance.

3. What is the importance of learning coding patterns for coding interviews?

Learning coding patterns is important for coding interviews because it equips candidates with proven techniques to solve coding problems efficiently. By understanding coding patterns, candidates can approach a wide variety of problems with confidence and accuracy, ultimately enhancing their performance during coding interviews.

4. How can candidates improve their LeetCode skills?

Candidates can improve their LeetCode skills by practicing how they'll interview, focusing on high ROI topics such as arrays, strings, hash tables, and dynamic programming, and learning coding patterns. Mimicking the real-world coding interview, timing oneself, voicing thoughts out loud, and mastering important topics and patterns can significantly enhance LeetCode skills.

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