Ask HN: Where to Invest My Time?

#1

Post by wilsonpie » Tue, Jul 19, 2022, 12:49 PM UTC

Hi. I've been going through the North American interviews recently and noticed that they ask algorithmic questions and leetcode.

Now I want to invest my time (let's say a year) into gaining some knowledge. I'm thinking what should I chose to stay competitive on the market: a. Doing leetcode; b. Going through some course to gain fundemantal knowledge; c. Something else?

Please share your thoughts and experience.

Ps. I'm a software/web developer without a CS degree.

Re: Ask HN: Where to Invest My Time?

#2

Post by probably_wrong » Tue, Jul 19, 2022, 1:00 PM UTC

You don't mention what your preferred field is, which makes it a bit harder to answer your question.

Having said that, I would personally focus on algorithms first and Leetcode/HackerRank/etc second. Those websites are amazing for putting the theory into practice and for getting used to coding a small problem from scratch, but some problems will go from hard to easy just by virtue of knowing (or not) a single algorithm (yes, Breadth-First Search, I'm talking about you).

Re: Ask HN: Where to Invest My Time?

#3

Post by cheerioty » Tue, Jul 19, 2022, 1:01 PM UTC

> they ask algorithmic questions and leetcode.

What kind of companies have you applied to and which roles?