Should you grind LeetCode? ft. NeetCode | Backend Banter 051

In today’s episode, we bring fellow developer and tech content creator NeetCode, to talk about his obstacles and observations on his path in becoming a FAANG engineer, where he shares his struggles and how he started both his tech career and content creation journeys.
Among a variety of other topics, NeetCode shares his advice for anyone that’s open to receiving it, and explains the pros and cons of grinding LeetCode, if it is even worth doing it or not, while also dabbling into why networking is somewhat important and highlights the importance of standing out in today’s job market environment.
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⁠Neetcode's Website: ⁠neetcode.io/⁠
Neetcode's KZbin: ⁠@NeetCode
Neetcode's Twitter: ⁠ / neetcode1⁠
Neetcode's LinkedIn: ⁠ / ⁠
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
00:46 Who is NeetCode and a bit of his background
02:24 Why did NeetCode start a KZbin Channel?
03:40 People don't talk about where they mess up at these big companies
04:47 Portray yourself in the best possible light at interviews
07:37 Why LeetCode?
08:44 Why Grinding LeetCode is not the smartest choice
11:31 Why LeetCode is still important if your goal is a FAANG-level company
14:47 What would be the approach for someone with CS-degree knowledge that wants to get into Google in 2024/2025
17:26 How to know if you're having trouble getting or passing interviews?
19:01 You can put projects on a resume, not LeetCode solutions
21:47 Tutorial Hell
24:47 You have to be able to prove your knowledge, just putting it on the resume isn't enough
29:20 You don't have to do content creation to get a developer job
30:29 Social Media works well for networking
33:03 NeetCode philosophy
37:57 Monetizing education content
42:17 How to level up the product experience
44:04 Amazon vs Google's culture
46:24 As usual, managers don't know what they're doing a lot of the time
49:30 Managers at these companies should be technical
51:17 Difference between Engineers and other Tech Roles
55:40 Where to find NeetCode

[@rafay_syed]

I love Navi's simple setup. A bed, a side table and a MacBook

[@moveonvillain1080]

Leetcode is really not for upskilling but the industry has a secret handshake and it does not hurt to learn it if you want to move to better opportunities

[@gandalfthegrey2777]

in today's date not doing leetcode as a junior is just locking yourself out of half the opportunities, because so many companies at every level ask standard technical whiteboard questions that using some site like leetcode to practice them is essential to clear these rounds easily. Also I do think it is upskilling, My problem solving skills have improved since I started solving leetcode questions

[@tjdgmlchl6305]

@@gandalfthegrey2777 on point! even small companies and non-tech companies all have leetcode style OA now…. it feels impossible to get in the door without passing the initial technical screenings

[@amansarma417]

Thats primeagens line

[@moveonvillain1080]

​@@amansarma417 Prime mentioned 📢📢

[@ibrahimalshubaily9520]

@@amansarma417 yes u should site bruv

[@0brooo]

I can begin to thank you Neetcode. I was near giving up on compsci. Having graduated with a degree, I felt that I was the only one failing to perform well on leetcode. To hear that were not to come up with formulas or understand them but instead memorize them enough to use versions of it. It’s great, he’s the relief I needed

[@ambujmittal6824]

The crossover we didn't know we needed

[@0e0]

great convo...definitely gonna check the neetcode site

[@BruceSailes]

Awesome interview! Makes me approach content creation in a different light!

[@lemonadeintech]

Gained a lot of perspective! Great vid!

[@JoshPeterson]

"voluntarily left that job" is the most graceful way I've ever heard anyone say "I quit" 😂

[@vasinelluri1936]

Great video. Thanks for doing this!

[@iliyalyan8937]

Neetcode subscriber here, love it, love the author!

[@innu8462]

Man, I loved this episode a lot!

[@vigneshmoorthie922]

I guess overall the best balance would be to practice Leet Code problems and have one or maybe two solid projects to showcase. But what constitutes a remarkable project? I feel there has to be understanding on how much to expect from a candidate. Should publishing an app be enough? Should it implement some currently popular framework? Should it have at least some active users? What if you're in a scenario where you built an app all on your own, but it wasn't considered remarkable according to the interviewer, what then? I personally find it hard to come up with ideas on what to build for a project as a backend dev, since usually backend software is built to solve a problem, so my brain finds it hard to come up with a problem to solve, since there's an app for almost everything on the app store or google play store. So I have shifted to just cloning existing apps and making them better in my own way instead.

[@AspirantDeveloper]

Fun convo.

[@destinlee]

NeetCode no way!! awesome guest :)

[@x.e.b.u]

I find him funny - especially his rants

[@prashlovessamosa]

Great talk

[@kengxi]

From a perspective of improving as a developer then no. Leetcode is not what you should be spending a whole lot of time on. However for vast majority of companies you will be required to do some kind of leetcode style interviews. This is the norm now it's no longer reserved for FAANG/MAANG companies. If you are unemployed leetcode is something you will most likely have to do, but not necessarily the only thing. There is a reason why people with 20+ years with experience have struggled to get jobs, they couldn't solve a leetcode problem.

[@anthonygayflor]

And people think that’s okay? Lol

[@bstoynov]

this one gonna be epic

[@el_chivo99]

good discussion of side projects. I’m actually of the opinion the side projects generally are not useful in comparison to work or intern experience, the exception being what they discussed where the project has some traction. the main reason is, employers are looking for people who can take orders and complete assigned tasks. this is fundamentally what a job is about. but, side projects don’t really demonstrate this since you’re creating your own requirements

[@mbe2916]

Bought the course to support neetcode. When he opened up about his personal story one that actually happened to many new devs. If you feel stressed, the higher levels thinking can be reduced. There is evolutionaire reason for it. There is no need to think deeply when predator is around. There many others who had experienced the exact same.

[@jacinyan2348]

Hats off to Neetcode

[@sercantor1]

good video, thanks

[@IsaacJrDevelops]

To add on: write a document that tracks the progress and thinking of development. It’s under-rated, but will take you far

[@phalycexEnima]

The ratio of whiteboard to code in neetcode videos is always perfect, other videos I've seen in the space spend way too much time on writing code, the code in neetcode videos that it shouldn't matter if you're not using python... I think that is an often overlooked detail of the quality of neetcode.

[@Lazlo-os1pu]

6:08 this is such a great point. I find this is exactly the same when sharing personal struggles / mental health issues. We are encouraged nowadays to spill all our personal issues with others, however, I find that even someone that has the best intentions is highly likely to see you in a different (slightly negative) light once you do share. That’s not to say we shouldn’t share, but I think we should be aware of that and the same goes for stuff like employment.

[@abmorphious9543]

I love this guy!

[@isaachome7375]

wait what is John petrucci behind on the wall?

[@Tobsson]

Navi is a beast!

[@weaksauce9999]

hello everyone, let's write some more neetcode today....

[@alexcipriani6003]

I started prepping and doing leetcode 2 days before my interview and realized I sucked so I gosted my Apple recruiter twice 😂 … this was in late 2021 it didn’t seem difficult at all to get the interview maybe the job market was different

[@Parker8752]

Honestly, Stadia seems like a good idea without the infrastructure to back it up. Google management seemed to just assume that private companies would just improve internet infrastructure without a profit motive to do so. That said, the main reason I didn't get stadia was because google has a track record of killing off projects that I really liked (RIP Wave), and there's absolutely no way I'm buying a piece of hardware that will become an expensive paperweight once the management at google decide that it's not making enough money any more.

[@sphesihlemanuel2933]

As part of his setup he always have that MacBook on the floor 😭

[@s8x.]

MY GOAT

[@user-my7eg3dy3f]

Programmers are destined to be milked of their labour in whatever way possible. Because of the competition, doing open-source and everything all in the name of learning itself.

[@ibrahimalshubaily9520]

Bruv the dude flipping burgers at mcdeez for 12 hrs a day is getting milked. Programmer are blessed af

[@tarekahmed8159]

Software engineer at Chegg 😀 it's not cheating, so if somebody goes to stackoverflow and use code from there will you say they cheated? 😀

[@skaylingop9673]

But why is my guy basically sleeping on an at home prison cot

[@queasybeetle]

You should grind projects and build stuff.

[@jeremiedubuis5058]

About engineering skills vs management/marketing skills I think both your positions are a little biased though based on some truth. If you ever worked on large scale products you know some devs have no idea how their work fits in the overall project, many disregard UX or business needs based on the complexity it adds to their own jobs, bad faith takes are pretty common among devs from my experience. What makes ssome of the difference in good lead devs/CTOs is their ability to actually articulate the code with the business requirements and the end product, this is not that common of a skill within devs. So yeah teaching marketing to a dev with good soft skills can be easy, but teaching dev to a marketing person with good technical skills is also easy, both are rare. It seems to me the comparison Lane is making is a little unfair because it's comparing a dev with overlapping skills in marketing with a marketer with no overlapping skills in dev though he is right that the former is probably more common than the latter. I once trained a guy out of business school (one of the best in my country), in under a year he became better than a lot of devs I worked with and he was also great in client meetings and communication, from my experience it often comes down to the raw material your working with. Basically I think the issue here is your are talking about high performers and generalizing to all developers. Yes good developers tend to be jacks of all trades, they learn a ton of skills, communication, management, business... But some devs can just be good technicians and not have any soft skills, some are very technical and can produce very performant and efficient code but mostly unreadable to the rest of us, some can produce highly maintainable code but less performant... Most high performing managers or executives I have met actually do code a little and tend to have a lot of overlapping skills too...

[@abdullahclementabdulshekur6736]

I'm yet to see any developer who builds an entire project using original code. We copy, modify and debug. As long as it works, and it's optimal and safe that's what matters. In real life, you are usually working with tight timeline, so you won't have the time to write everything from scratch. As a result of this I know hiring managers who tests candidates on their ability to use other people's code.

[@Shaojeemy]

Truthfully, you have to no-life for months, ESPECIALLY if you already work to land and pass these interviews. Its so competitive nowadays you have to be practically glued to a chair and slave away just to get a semi-decent job with little to no job security. A perfectionist, a no lifer, a leetcode god, and 5+ YoE. Whats a family? Girls are real? Wait, I have grass in my yard?! Bar is raised way too high, have to sacrifice way too much AND still need luck. All that, just to get hit with “company restructuring” within a year of joining; but hey company stocks shot up 80% YoY 🤦🏻‍♂️ What a clown show its been these last 2 years for SWE

[@trikis4745]

"Easier to take a developer and transform him into a marketer" Yeah sounds good but find me a dev that would be ok to become a marketer at a marketer's salary ? Likewise it's highly likely a PhD in Maths would become a good clerk, but would you pay 10X ? Great conversation, though you lost me at that one bit at the end !

[@anand_dudi]

Navdeep singh those who are searching for his name

[@mavericksingz7313]

I mean if you left your job at google meaning fired or layoff that means your leetcode shit doesn't work and you probably dont work if you're doing leetcode

[@Pat315]

"...as a beginner, how do you know that you're having trouble finding interviews or having trouble passing interviews?" wow what a complex issue to solve. I'd say: If you cannot get an interview = you're having trouble getting interviews. If you're not passing the interview after getting one = you're having trouble passing the interview. Don't quote me on it but that's just a guess

[@wheresecretslie]

i said the same thing when i heard that i was like what? 😂

[@sathish43]

@sathishdeveloper