Thank you, I'm definitely not giving up on the LC I just need to figure out how to build a solid foundation for it.
As for career, I really enjoy building products. At work I've been the lead on a few end to end full stack projects that I'm very proud of. I like to set up projects and then get a lot of pride feeling knowing that in the future other developers will be extending this base project as it grows.
I am trying really hard to find a job where it involves understanding the customer and business needs (I really like to get on calls with our product manager/designer, and then work together to develop and test the solution), and building the best product. My favorite feeling is shipping something that people find useful, so idk which companies or what roles would really let me shine best there. One of my goals is to get better at networking, to see if I can get some job like a technical co-founder of a startup I think that would be a dream for me.
If you know anything let me know, I'll check it out. Sorry for blurting out a lot of details I guess I'm just feeling defensive still after that mock interview lol. I feel like how can I be a co founder when I cannot even pass a Leetcode?
Working through Skiena's Algorithm Design Manual [0] would be a good start and/or watching his lecture series on Youtube [1].
Other great books include Elements of Programming Interviews [2] which comes in Java, C++, and Python flavors.
It can help to focus on a smaller subset of Leetcode problems to learn the tricks that underlie most of them. Neetcode [3] is a good collection of those problems on which you could focus your time and efforts.
I don't think it's realistic to expect to do well on Leetcode without practicing the above skills to some degree, so I wouldn't be hard on yourself if it's been years since you even looked at the material.
Don’t give up. The parent comment is very much inline with how I feel. I was in your shoes a couple months ago and passed interviews at 3 faangs. Just grind the leetcodes. Course are not the right way imo. Repetition and pattern matching will take you there.
Thank you. Do you have any suggestions? I bought a book that was recommended to me, CLRS intro to algorithms. I've tried going through the book, but maybe I'm too dumb (I didn't go to college for engineering) and I find a lot of the math concepts in there confusing.
I very strongly recommend an actual course. As a senior dev, you should be able to afford a bit of travel, and most universities allow walk-ins at no cost. Georgia Tech also has a critically-acclaimed online MS program, which might be worth looking into.
That said, if you're not wanting to do an actual course, I'd recommend Sedgewick's book. The trick when reading an algorithms book if you're not presently at its mathematical level is to skip all of the math you can't currently understand. You'll eventually pick up on it, but in the meantime, you'll also get a lot from just reimplementing the algorithms from the book in whatever your favorite language is, and doing whatever exercises you're capable of handling with a bit of effort.
As an alternative, you could pick up “Algorithms Illuminated” by Tim Roughgarden. Get the Part 1 book, read it casually a few times to get a sense of what’s in there, then go back to the beginning and start slogging through the exercises. Don’t hesitate to look for stuff on Google and YouTube when you’re stuck, but keep reviewing as much as necessary until you’ve legit learned the material.
This is the approach I’m taking. Too soon to say if it’s working out yet. I’m thinking long term rather than getting a job offer at X company in Y months. There might be other books that work better for you than the one I recommended. I’m also in my 30s and have a job I’m more or less satisfied with currently.
I have this book. I found it to be very unnecessary in my leetcode journey. What worked for me is repetition. It’s mostly just pattern matching. I got into three faangs recently so my strategy worked for me.
CLRS is definitely not a good self study book. it is a great textbook if you have a professor teaching from it, because it is pretty thorough and covers a lot, but I would not feel bad if you couldn't reach yourself algorithms from it.
As for career, I really enjoy building products. At work I've been the lead on a few end to end full stack projects that I'm very proud of. I like to set up projects and then get a lot of pride feeling knowing that in the future other developers will be extending this base project as it grows.
I am trying really hard to find a job where it involves understanding the customer and business needs (I really like to get on calls with our product manager/designer, and then work together to develop and test the solution), and building the best product. My favorite feeling is shipping something that people find useful, so idk which companies or what roles would really let me shine best there. One of my goals is to get better at networking, to see if I can get some job like a technical co-founder of a startup I think that would be a dream for me.
If you know anything let me know, I'll check it out. Sorry for blurting out a lot of details I guess I'm just feeling defensive still after that mock interview lol. I feel like how can I be a co founder when I cannot even pass a Leetcode?