Software engineers feel pressure to learn LeetCode

“It seems there is no middle way of learning how to code, you have to learn the entire language. Or for example in React I should focus on precise topics? can you make me an example? thanks. It's difficult to draw the line btw my skills and AI. [re: Best roadmap to get into SaaS in this AI age?]”

“No it isn't. It's just more demanding physically. Anyone can memorize some shit to pass a test. [re: Is it actually true that people are leaving tech on the more senior side?]”

“The good old days were before leetcode and everywhere expected you to be an expert on 100 different frameworks. [re: i miss those old days.]”

“If a company still expects you to write code in an interview, but while on the job they expect you to not write code and instead use AI, then you see how pointless leetcode style interviews are. You're expected to read and reason. If you're able to write, you confirm you're able to do both, in a short amount of time. A better way is to use AI to solve problems and talk about what the code is doing. This proves you can understand the code and WHY it works and WHY it’s a good solution.”

“at least for me, I personally no longer ask leetcode-style questions as interviewer, my focus is more on the system design nowadays and I adjust expectations accordingly (for example, I don't expect new grads to know what is 'Redis' or 'TTL', but I do expect new grads to at least know some flavor of 'perhaps we can optimize this area with some kind of fast retrieval, oh I know, a cache' the idea is I want to give you a taste of what my real work is about, and if you c”

“So you don't do leetcode or DSA interviews anymore? Just AI challenges and behavioral? [re: Devs, if you don’t code aren’t you worried about losing your skills set?]”

“Oh please don't go there. Most of the software any software developer writes is soulless and heartless. We don't want to write it, but we have to put the food on the table. Most of it is plumbing and billing and bullshit. Like every creative that winds up working in marketing, which is quite a lot of them. Live doesn't afford luxuries. [re: I've created Open Source 100% Rust clean-room replacements for 7 of Adobe's apps: Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom, After Effects, InD”

“Nope, being a vibe coder doesn't make you a developer, only thing you know how to do as a vibe coder is prompt a llm and nothing more. You couldn't even tie your shoes without a llm's help, you are not a developer. A vibe coder, did not come from a programming background, they seen the ads online about llms that promised to help them make software with writing a spoken lanaguage into a prompt. You know nothing about being a developer, a coding/programming, about system design, about”

“he's not saying he should write code for the company in his spare time. just to write code which is probably best done for a personal project [re: Junior Developers Can No Longer Write a Working Function Without a Chatbot]”

“math is like lifting weights, nobody starts strong. i used to think same way until i realized it's just practice not some magic talent. you don't need to be genius at it for most dev jobs anyway, just get through the classes [re: What should i do?]”

“Respectfully, if you need to grind , you're doing it wrong. Grinding Leetcode was never a requirement to getting a job, there are many aspects to a job interview beyond the DSA interview. The only thing grinding leads to, is burn out. You want to have a long career in this space? Focus on the non-technical things. Being a good teammate, a good communicator, etc. AI can write the syntax, but it can't navigate team dynamics, understand empathy, or bridge the gap between technical complexit”

“I know Leetcode offers programming questions, but I recently did a test that showed me a simple repo and I bombed it. It was something I was familiar with, but I didn't recall the standard structure quickly enough and was fumbling through my revisions like I didn't even know the framework. It was a Java Springboot repo and when moving between the code for the controller and repository, I quickly ended up not being able to analyze it very effectively. I feel like it would be helpful if I”

“Yes, you're supposed to pretend to invent the solution on the spot. You're expected to grind leetcode AND pretend to be a genius who can invent the solution on the spot. Most leetcode hard problems were a research paper for whoever figured out the algorithm first, and now they're interview questions. For example "does a linked list contain a loop, solve in O(1) space and O(n) time" was an open question in computer science for around 5-10 years between when linked list was i”

“Another hot take: Grinding LeetCode meaninglessly does not mean you have passion for computer science or software engineering. LeetCode is nothing more than just an extremely time-consuming chore and currently the only feasible method for corporate employers to weed out candidates as their way of dealing with going through thousands of different job applicants at once for the same roles. I'd rather build more personal projects I enjoy and talk about them with interviewers than slave myself t”

“People don't practice LeetCode and are salty about it so created this whole thread where they tell themselves literal geniuses can't even solve it. I'm sure if random person #27891 can solve 2 questions in 30 minutes to land their job at Meta then Mr. Djkstra would be able to find his way.”

“Nah they prepped hard. They may not have grinded leetcode, but they did grind dsa into their head at some point. You don’t get amazingly good at this stuff with no practice. The idea of a “natural talent intelligence” where there are just “some people” who are “smart” without putting in hours of work needs to die. It’s a myth that we make up out of insecurity.”

“i am 20m and i just started self learning been learning since couple of months and rn i am learning javascript idk if this is the right sub to post it but this fear and anxiety of not being able to get employed is eating me up whenever i come across the discussion of ai taking over these tech jobs,i dont have problem working hard or smth else its just this fear of not being able to make things work since "someone" is waiting for me to get employed,so we can get together and get married”

“All the leetcode style interviews I've had the interviewers have explicitly said not to worry about syntax. (Also I've interviewed people for a FAANG and that was how they taught us to do the interviews.) But one of my coworkers said, when he's interviewing people he is looking to give them opportunities to impress him. Failing to remember how to initialize a dictionary is not impressive, remembering is. That doesn't mean you fail the interview if you don't remember, but you&”

“That's always kinda been the separation between an inexperienced programmer vs. an experienced one though, hasn't it? Knowing the right tool for the job, or at least being able to figure it out. AI doing the bulk of the implementation doesn't remove the need for the architect to make those decisions. As the saying goes, "You pay me $5 to hammer the nail, and $95 to know where to put the nail in the first place."”

“In the age of AI, no. Developer interviews are now much less about writing code, and more about designing systems.”

“The interview is basically testing whether you can think through problems and build things. Building good products still requires strong problem-solving skills, even if the actual work isn't LeetCode.”

“I don't think this contradicts the point of the interview. The goal isn't merely to recall algorithms rather the time constraint is also meant to evaluate how quickly you can understand the problem, formulate an approach, identify trade-offs, and optimise your solution. Whether that is a reasonable screening threshold is a separate question from what the interview is designed to measure.”

“If its a test of problem solving skills only getting 2 right answers (brute force and more efficient big o) to 2 problems in 30 minutes shouldn’t be a requirement to pass the screening”

“I like https://adventofcode.com/ a lot. Fun coding tasks which can overheat your brain lol. And many of concepts they require you to know/learn before solving a task are actually useful in a job”

“It's definately not a waste of time, and I think its a lot more productive than memorizing some courses or tutorials.Will you ever use slow/fast pointers , sliding window or Dijkistra at work? Probably not, but Leetcode will get you to drill in useful coding techniques and mental shortcuts that are very useful when thingking about code. In the age of AI, your skills will atrophy over time, and its good to stay in touch with more low-level problem solving, like writing code, as opposed to hig”

“I know lots of people here don't like to hear it, but leetcode is often more difficult and diverse than most people's day-to-day coding jobs.”

“My take: LeetCode is worth enough practice that you won't be caught off guard, but it shouldn't be your whole prep plan. AI hasn't made these interviews disappear. It has made the format less meaningful when candidates can outsource the puzzle. For a senior full-stack role, I'd ask the recruiter what the technical round covers and prepare for that. There's little point grinding graph problems for a job that mostly calls for sound API and database decisions.”

“I didn't say not knowing, I said memorizing. If I want to for example write a Dictionary in C# but don't remember how to initialize it, I look it up but I understand the core functionality behind it. But with Leetcode style interviews, you are not allowed to look up how to write a Dictionary (I think it's called a hashmap in other languages), you have to remember all from memory.”

“For a senior full-stack role, I’d treat LeetCode as one small signal, not the center of the loop. A short practical exercise or code-review discussion tells me more about API trade-offs, debugging, and whether someone can judge AI output; I’d only keep a small algorithm screen for roles where that work is genuinely relevant.”

26 years in software Wtf is leetecode

“no. If I interview you I can tell how you answer a "hello world" function and then ask you about something like recursion. You can gotcha question leetcode or other questions? So can AI. I want to know if you know how to code on a systematic scale. It was always stupid and did not tell you if the person could program and now unfortunately a lot of folks incorrectly think if they can vibe code they don't need to actually understand the code generated. Just the opposite for me.”

“They are, IDK why that person is beating around the bush with you. They are mostly algorithm and data structure problems, similar to ones you'd see in university/school. They scale on difficulty where some of the hard ones basically amount to an algorithm/data structure that was someone's phd thesis (not a joke here lol). OP is asking this too, you are right.”

“Still alive, still nearly universal at senior level — but at Sr, it's become more of a pass/fail gate than the deciding round. System design + behavioral now carry more weight for hire/level decisions.”

“I'm going to be the other guy. System design and behavioral are more important when you're more experienced and leetcode is really only useful for that first job. I haven't touched leetcode since college. I'll probably bomb most every leetcode medium right now, but it's never held me back from getting a job.”

“I'm currently doing my master's in CS. I received this in my uni email: "This year, Old Mission is moving away from online interviews (for our Software Engineer track only ). All first-round sessions will be conducted fully in-person: a 50-minute proctored paper test on campus. Candidates who successfully complete this stage will be invited to in-person interviews the very next day on campus" "Interviews will take between 2 - 2.5 hours on [date] or [date] and could include”

“Leetcode is slowly going away (finally) It was already stupid 5 years ago, but in 2026? Insanity If as a company you are still asking LC, you need to step up your hiring game”

“I'm following OP's reasoning to it's logical conclusion. If you have x35 productivity that means that you trust the code of the LLM without reading it. Otherwise there's no way 2 engineers could have time for that. Which means that code (a logical problem) is solved. Which means that other white collar jobs are also solved so why not just start a business. Of course code is not a solved problem.”

“Lately, I've felt the desire to share more of what I've learned. And I must say, teaching is a skill that's much harder to develop than I expected... I'm experimenting with this series of C# mini-challenge / mini-courses, trying to create bite-sized capsules based on code review and debugging skills that will teach something about C#. Sometimes serious, sometimes edgy, or even using funny contexts. There is a full playlist of it as I publish a new one every week. Would love to ge”

“There are mid tier companies that all ask leetcode questions too. If we are being honest not everyone can get into FAANG and that’s ok but the next step down and even lower are asking similar leetcode questions”

“Would it be better if standardized leetcode certifications was how that worked? I guess that's just a comp sci degree, but man, I have seen people with that degree who were hopeless in an interview.”

“You're expected to keep up with technical concepts, DSA/system design (nowadays irrespective of role), (...), behavioral interviews But that's not prep, that's engineering knowledge. That's part of the value you bring to the company. projects, resumes That's your history. Nothing to prep there. It's what you learnt, what you did, etc. I expect a senior to have some projects. Not 100% required though, depending on your CV. Anyway, I think I only know a few good seniors wit”

“This is a good post and shows that a lot of roles don't require it, especially once you age-out of being a code-monkey. I've never done LC as well although my role is not specifically SWE, but at my level if I was the roles I'd shoot for likely wouldn't require it.”

“We don't LC and have dropped any coding tests, our interviews are more high-level system design, security and testing focus, etc. Writing manual code is basically dead.”