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Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns

algodrill.io

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Re: Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns

#21

Post by bko »

dragochat wrote: post #4

...the f?! why are we interviewing ppl for things like this?! you either: (a) want DEEP understanding of math and proofs behind algorithms etc. (b) can get away with very high level understanding, and refer to documentation and/or use LLMs for implementation details help there is no real world use case for a middle-ground (c) where you want someone with algo implementation details rote-memorized in their brain and wi…

Maybe it's just me, but I want people that are reasonably competent and you can work with. Maybe there are some jobs that require deep understanding of maths/proofs etc, but those are what, maybe 1 in 100 engineering jobs?

More often than not a deep interest in a particular technical domain is a liability. It's like that guy that insists on functional programming design patterns that insists on a fold with tail recursion where simple mutation could have easily sufficed. Or endless optimization, abstraction and forced patterns. Bro, you're working on building a crud app, we don't need spacecraft design.

Re: Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns

#22

Post by wodenokoto »

Is it correctly understood that this is Anki for a subset of leetcode problems with study notes?

I bit more info on what NeetCode is, why I should focus on those 150 problems and how the drilling actually work would be helpful. Do I get asked to do the same problems on repeat? Is it the same problems reformulated over and over? Is there actualy any spaced repetition, or am I projecting?

Re: Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns

#23

Post by petesergeant »

dragochat wrote: post #4

...the f?! why are we interviewing ppl for things like this?! you either: (a) want DEEP understanding of math and proofs behind algorithms etc. (b) can get away with very high level understanding, and refer to documentation and/or use LLMs for implementation details help there is no real world use case for a middle-ground (c) where you want someone with algo implementation details rote-memorized in their brain and wi…

> why are we interviewing ppl for things like this?!

Ship has definitely sailed

Re: Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns

#24

Post by only-one1701 »

bko wrote: post #21
dragochat wrote: post #4

...the f?! why are we interviewing ppl for things like this?! you either: (a) want DEEP understanding of math and proofs behind algorithms etc. (b) can get away with very high level understanding, and refer to documentation and/or use LLMs for implementation details help there is no real world use case for a middle-ground (c) where you want someone with algo implementation details rote-memorized in their brain and wi…

Maybe it's just me, but I want people that are reasonably competent and you can work with. Maybe there are some jobs that require deep understanding of maths/proofs etc, but those are what, maybe 1 in 100 engineering jobs? More often than not a deep interest in a particular technical domain is a liability. It's like that guy that insists on functional programming design patterns that insists on a fold with tail recur…

The math puzzles like this are supposed to show deep mastery. I assure you that you don’t need DP in 99.999% if cases as well, but idiots are still asking house robber.

Re: Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns

#25

Post by epolanski »

embedding-shape wrote: post #20
epolanski wrote: post #13

I like the idea, and you've got yourself a customer :) The lifetime membership + launch discount was a good marketing bait I felt for. Not really understanding the negativity here. We know for a fact that most of the people that master intellectual problems do so via pattern recognition, not by reasoning. You show a chess master a position, he/she can instantly tell you what the best moves are without "thinking" or "…

> We know for a fact that most of the people that master intellectual problems do so via pattern recognition, not by reasoning. Where is this fact stated, and who are "we" here? Sounds like an opinion or guess at best. > Not really understanding the negativity here There are two comments that could be read negativily, the rest is neutral or positive. I don't really understand the constant need for people to bring up…

There's lots of psychological and anthropological studies behind the fact that most experts in various fields excel due to pattern recognition not reasoning.

Going back to the chess example, while chess masters are incredible at analyzing complex positions they can recognize as "similar to", their advantage over normal human beings is very small when positions are completely randomized.

"Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise", by Ericsson goes more in depth of the topic, but there's lots of literature on the topic.

Re: Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns

#27

Post by inesranzo »

epolanski wrote: post #13

I like the idea, and you've got yourself a customer :) The lifetime membership + launch discount was a good marketing bait I felt for. Not really understanding the negativity here. We know for a fact that most of the people that master intellectual problems do so via pattern recognition, not by reasoning. You show a chess master a position, he/she can instantly tell you what the best moves are without "thinking" or "…

> Not really understanding the negativity here. We know for a fact that most of the people that master intellectual problems do so via pattern recognition, not by reasoning.

> The lifetime membership + launch discount was a good marketing bait I felt for.

The negativity here with me is because it feels like clickbait and like a scammy ad to manipulate me into purchasing.

It is almost lying. I find it unethical and I don't think there are 17 lifetime access spots, it's just artificial hype that doesn't make sense to me.

Marketing (at least like this) is basically lying.

Re: Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns

#29

Post by henwfan »

wodenokoto wrote: post #22

Is it correctly understood that this is Anki for a subset of leetcode problems with study notes? I bit more info on what NeetCode is, why I should focus on those 150 problems and how the drilling actually work would be helpful. Do I get asked to do the same problems on repeat? Is it the same problems reformulated over and over? Is there actualy any spaced repetition, or am I projecting?

That is a good first approximation, but it is a bit more guided than a plain Anki deck. For each problem there is a structured study page and an interactive practice mode.

NeetCode 150 is a popular curated list of LeetCode problems that covers the core interview patterns people expect nowadays, like sliding window, two pointers, trees, graphs, and dynamic programming. I used that set as the base so you are not guessing which problems to focus on, and more problems and patterns are being added on top of that core set regularly.

On the study side, each problem has a consistent structure with the core idea, why that pattern applies, and a first principles walkthrough of the solution. On the practice side, the solution is broken into small steps. Each step has a clear objective in plain language, and you rebuild the code line by line by filling in the missing pieces. After you answer, you see a short first principles explanation tied to the line you just wrote, so you are actively recalling the logic instead of just reading notes.

You can repeat problems and patterns as much as you want, mark problems as solved or unsolved, and filter by pattern so you can focus on the ones you struggle with most. There is not a full automatic review schedule yet. For now you choose what to review, and the goal is to use that progress data to track weak patterns, guide what you should drill next, and add more types of focused drills over time.

Re: Show HN: AlgoDrill – Interactive drills to stop forgetting LeetCode patterns

#30

Post by komali2 »

dragochat wrote: post #4

...the f?! why are we interviewing ppl for things like this?! you either: (a) want DEEP understanding of math and proofs behind algorithms etc. (b) can get away with very high level understanding, and refer to documentation and/or use LLMs for implementation details help there is no real world use case for a middle-ground (c) where you want someone with algo implementation details rote-memorized in their brain and wi…

> there is no real world use case for a middle-ground (c) where you want someone with algo implementation details rote-memorized in their brain and without the very deep understanding that would make the rote-memorization unnecessary!

I was watching a video recently talking about how Facebook is adding KPIs for its engineers' LLM usage. As in, you will be marked negatively in your performance review if your code is good but you didn't use AI enough.

I think, you and I agree, that's obviously stupid right? I imagined myself as an engineer at Facebook, reading this email come through. I can imagine two paths: I roll my eyes, find a way to auto-prompt an LLM to fulfill my KPI needs, and go back to working with my small working group of "underrecognized folks that are doing actual work that keeps the company's products functioning against all odds." Or, the other path: I put on my happy company stooge hat, install 25 VScode LLM forks, start writing a ton of internal and external posts about how awesome AI is and how much more productive I am with it, and get almost 0 actual work done but score the highest on the AI KPIs.

In the second path, I believe I will be more capitalistically rewarded (promotions, cushy middle/upper management job where I don't have to do any actual work). In the first, I believe I will be more fulfilled.

Now consider the modern interview: the market is flooded with engineers after the AI layoffs. There's a good set of startups out there that will appreciate an excellent, pragmatic engineer with a solid portfolio, but there's the majority of other gigs, for which I need to pass a leetcode interview, and nothing else really matters.

If I can't get into one of the good startups, then, I guess I'm going to put on my dipshit spinny helicopter hat and play the stupid clown game with all the managers so I can have money.

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