Did 217 Leetcode across 1 year - Am I ready for interviews?

Question

I want to know if I'm ready to start interviewing. Here's some additional context: I'm confident with easy and easy-medium questions, 50-50 with normal-mediums, and I'm having tough time with harder-mediums and hards. I can identify and apply most patterns but the topics I struggle with are heaps, bit manipulation (python sucks here), backtracking, and dynamic programming. I'm more confident with System Design than LeetCode due to professional experience. I also studied through 4 use-cases in Grokking the System Design for practice. I've done 217 Leetcode questions total in the span of 1 year. Of those, 100 new questions were done in the past 6 months. I also re-do questions using spaced repetition in a Notion table with ToDo, For recruiter phone-screens I kinda struggle to explain what I do in my role since I do a little bit of everything. I need to work on a concrete explanation.

Accepted Answer

You're ready for phone screens. Onsite could be a problem as you will often get Leetcode hards there. You can start doing phone screens now, and after you pass, schedule the onsite far out. During that gap, study Leetcode hards. It's good to "build the plane as you fly it" for interviews. The problem with interview prep, Leetcode especially, is that there's a "freshness" factor. If you did a bunch of Leetcode problems 1 year+ ago, you won't remember it for interviews now. You will never feel 100% prepared for interviews. Just get to a decent level and start doing it, learning along the way. Interview with less lucrative companies at the beginning to get into the groove.  Related resources:  "How to balance interview prep with a job?" [$$Masterclass$$ How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview - Data Structures And Algorithms](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/V4sTACzfOh22nMVcUV3w/masterclass-how-to-ace-your-big-tech-interview-data-structures-and-algorithms/) [$$Masterclass$$ How To Ace Your Big Tech Interview - System Design](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/J3I9fTW9ulr6T9KjxpqY/masterclass-how-to-ace-your-big-tech-interview-system-design/)

Did 217 Leetcode across 1 year - Am I ready for interviews?

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