Day 0 of My LeetCode Journey

It’s been quite some time since my last blog post, I have a new job and naturally stopped working on most of my side projects - not permanently however.

My life is constantly moving between two phases - my knowledge-thirsty and eager to learn side that loves just jumping into solving problems and receiving feedback quite quickly. It makes sense, I mean it sort of functions as a means of instant gratification while also being a very practical way to learn.

Then there’s the other side of me which strongly believes that theory can only take you so far - does it matter that you can code a binary search algorithm if you can’t show any practical projects that you’ve built? I obviously chose the latter so all prior blog posts revolved around side-projects I have been tackling. I don’t regret this but I fear I have been neglecting the other side.

In an attempt to balance this, I have formulated a plan. Well it’s more of a free structured learning resource called AlgoMap. Essentially, it serves as a way to gradually progress through LeetCode problems in a way that scales up in difficulty as you increase in skill. I would like to think this is something that could come back to me as I move through it since I laid the fundamental knowledge in the good old days of 2018.

The idea is to use the remainder of the year to tackle one problem each day. This should have me completing the entire AlgoMap ahead of schedule but considering today is day 0 and life is full of surprises, I’ll keep the extra days as security in case I don’t stay consistent. Also, weekends are not an option. I am very aware of my life and I know I could never consistently dedicate every single weekend. A few definitely, but once I miss a weekend it could throw off my entire plan.

Safe to say, I am probably going to have a different tune once I get into the groove. Anyways, once I crack the AlgoMap the plan is to then focus on other interview skills such as architecture and maybe grab a few more certs. My current job has me working at a startup which has been great for learning but I think the biggest challenge of any software developer is breaking into FAANG companies. Especially someone outside the States. It’s already ridiculously difficult for them, imagine for an outsider. A foreigner in their eyes. I do love an impossible task, but this might be the most difficult undertaking of my life.

My thinking is if I can follow the same training that others who have successfully landed the jobs have - I could aim for FAANG and if I fail, I could still land a really good job. I believe I can do that at least. I do want to emphasise that learning and staying upskilled is the priority, but there’s no harm in being rewarded with a good salary for it.

Remember:

“

There is no limit into how much you can invest into yourself

”