I've solved more than 500 problems on leetcode & more than 500 problems on Geeks for Geeks. And in this video we're going to talk about how you can use leetcode effectively. You might've lots of doubts that what language should you do, how many leet code questions should you do, which topics should be done, if you're doing a topic then how many questions should you do in it? If you're solving by looking at the solution, then is it cheating how to do illusion and such type of doubts will be solved in this video. Along with it, there're 2-3 problems ....there's leetcode premium, how can we bypass it? Along with it, for watching video solutions you go to youtube & there you start watching other videos. A video of Tanmay Bhatt popped out and you started watching it. *Hello!* *Welcome to another episode.* So, stay till the end and do like this video, if you like it then do write on the comment section. The like target of this video is 10k and now let's start this video. The first questions arises that - why to use leetcode? Now leetcode is used because, mostly product based companies conduct DSA rounds leetcode updates every day, new questions are added everyday, you get it along with company tags & its one of the best way for you to practice DSA. Right! Your community becomes strong, you get community support, multiple solutions, you get to see different approaches and there're lot of benefits. And then main thing is if you're going for any interview then DSA will be asked from you & this is the best platform to like practice your DSA skills. So, you've to do leetcode. Now, 2nd question is - which language you should learn? Language is never a barrier, you're solving DSA problems. Any company doesn't prefer any particular language when they're hiring software development engineers. So, whether you know C++ or Python or JavaScript - its not going to be an issue similar is the case if you're giving an interview then, nobody expects interview in a specific language if its not in the job description, if you're giving an interview for a software development engineer, then you'll not asked for a specific language of Java, C++, Python you can code in any language in that interview. So, if you'd the doubt that - should it be good to code in Java or C++, it won't matter. You need to grab a language and learn it properly & you can code in it. Next doubt is - how many questions should be done on Leetcode? Now, questions on leetcode have no limit. How much questions you do, you'll always feel that its less but to learn DSA, to master DSA properly you've to do 300-400 good problems. Now, generally what mistake people do is, they start running towards numbers that I've to 500-600 problems & among them 60-7-% are mostly easy problems. By doing easy problem, you can't clear DSA problems. You need to practice a lot of medium & hard questions. Medium's weightage is mostly 60%, 20-30% hard and 10-15% easy questions. For every individual the number might vary but 200-400, any range is good. If you're experienced then you're good in 200-300 questions. If you're a fresher, it'll take more questions as you're doing DSA for the first time. Also if you want to learn Data structures & algorithm, do check out Algoprep.in there currently elite batch is going on, you can enroll in that. Also, system design prep is live, you can go and enroll in the system design prep. And from there, you can learn for system design interviews - HLD, LLD and yeah - this was a short announcement. Let's get back to the questions. Next question is - how many leetcode questions should I do for a particular topic? You can follow any list, you can follow the lost of top interview questions or list of 151 - in Algoprep that I made in that there're some questions for every topic. With this you'll get the idea that, at what places are you weak & in which topic are you strong. The topics in which you're strong, if you'll do a little less questions then it won't matter much. But places where you're weak, you need to practice more. So, first - take any list consisting of 150-200 questions. Start solving it with that you'll get the idea where you're weak. The places where you're weak, you should do more number of questions there. In a single topic, 15-20 questions is more than enough. If you do 20 good questions then, its fine. Now, you'll say that - Nishant bhaiya, you're repeatedly saying - good questions - they generally mean that mostly hard ones should be there, frequency should be more along with it medium complexity should be minimum. Along with it, hard questions should also be done. For example, if you're doing 20 questions for one data structure - among them only 3-4 should be easy questions where you're learning syntax after that, 10-12 questions should be medium. In which you're actually implementing, you should read & understand the question that why is this data structure being used and how? And finally, you should do some hard questions in which you've to use multiple data structures or you've to derive that how did you exactly reach here. A bonus tip is there - for those who're watching this video properly. That if you're doing leetcode then start figuring out time & space complexity with every question. Because whenever you give interviews, time & space complexity is always asked. If you make a mistake there you make a very bad impression, so start with time & space complexity, learn that properly. In the 3 months roadmap of DSA that I made, I told in the starting that first, study time & space complexity properly I've given the link to that roadmap in the 'i' button, you can follow that. There you'll know that which topics should be done, we've added free resources in it, you can study from those resources & you'll get the idea that where exactly should it be done from & how to do it Next question is - how much time should I give for a single problem. If you're doing a problem then how much time should be given. When you start DSA, then give it time. It doesn't matter how much time you take if it takes a day, two days let it be, but think. Give your mind time to think about those solutions. You'll understand that yes, I'm able to do problems. You did the starting 50-100 questions you know data structures, you've got a little idea after that, start timing yourself now, how much time should be spent is very important. All the coding interviews are 45-60 minutes, not more than that. So, you need to give yourself this much time to solve a DSA question. Often, in interviews they expect 2-3 questions from you so, you've to try that within 45 minutes you're able to solve a minimum of 1 question and you're able to think all the optimised solutions. Next question is - should I look at the solution or not. When I'm doing a problem I get stuck. I don't understand what to do. So, let me tell you its simple structure - how to approach a problem first try if you're able to think or not. If you're not able to assume that what is going to be used here, the try to get a hint. Whenever you're doing leetcode, you get hints, there're multiple hints. Try looking at one hint, two hint - if you get the idea, well & good. From there you can start solving solution. If you don't get the idea then, you should watch video solutions. For Video solutions I got a very good extension by leetcode explained - there you also get a text solution for every question. So, you can use that. With this, distractions won't increase, you need not search for it on youtube and you get multiple solutions for that particular problem. So, you can watch the one you understand. Basically, it shows search results but its easier because it won't show random Tanmay Bhatt videos. *Hello! Welcome to another episode* So, your concentration won't be blocked & you can watch what you want to and move to solve next question. Its called - Leetcode explained. I'll give the link in description and 'i' button, you can check it out. You watched the solution, code yourself, don't copy paste the code. If you'll code yourself then you'll understand more things. And finally, after doing all this you've to go in the community section & read solutions of other people because often some problems have crazy solutions, for example if you look for Buy Sell stocks on leetcode, generally people do it from DP but many people have done it from state machine. We might've learnt state machines in computer science, people solved it from state machines & the solution is really good. The person who thought about it he did right. Many problems deal with it, people apply different approach & then sometimes its much much better than your approach or the standard approach. So, you should study it. You don't know when it would strike in which question. Next question is - I don't understand if I should do Codeforces or Leetcode, I'm getting interviews, I need to prepare for interviews. The most important part is, you need to give contests, as sooon as you do 150 quetsions, as soon as you understand basic data structures, you started practicing, you need to start giving contests because your first round is always your coding test. So, if you can't clear the coding test then you won't reach interviews. So, to clear the coding test - you should start giving leetcode contests. It has very good questions, if you'll solve all 4 questions then you'll start getting interviews, you'll start cracking the online assessments & then it'll be easy. You can do codeforces if you love competitive programming. There're lot of concepts that're not generally used in DSA, segment trees aren't much used. BIT isn't much used. If you learn them, then you can do codeforces as its used very much & lot of maths is used. In general, in coding interviews your data structures are more focused on math isn't that much intensive & some data structures like co-relation, Zeta - such companies ask them not in general product based companies. So, yes leetcode is enough depends, which companies you're targeting if you're targeting these companies, for example, Google, Amazon, Microsoft or the product based companies then leetcode is enough. You don't need to do much after that. One more crazy extension - leetcode forcer - which'll force you to do one DSA question daily. To maintain your consistency - lot of people have the problem that they aren't able to maintain consistency. So, this extension will be in the description as well. If you'll add it then, it'll enforce you to solve a question daily. You can either a random question or a daily challenge of leetcode. When you finally prepare for a company, then its important to watch its previous questions what was asked in the last interviews, you can use Geeks for Geeks for that. And along with it, you can get company tags on leetcode. You can sort according to the frequency and the latest ones. But here, the premium problem comes in between if you don't have premium & you don't want to buy, then there's an extension - leetcode premium bypass with that basically, you'll be able to see questions but not solve it. Right! But with that you'll get the idea, you can search the same question on multiple websites and you can use them. Along with it if you aren't getting company tags, to get them I'll give you a github repo - you get company wise questions if you apply for any company then, with all the frequency you're told that which company asked this question how many times. You can use that company wise preparation. Next question is that - should I memorize solutions or not. Yes, you need to memorize a little but you shouldn't memorize solutions, you've to recognize patterns. You need to understand patterns, that which pattern will be applied which type of pattern uses which type of data structure. You don't need to memorize any particular question you need to understand the pattern & learn to identify it - if you get a new question or if any question is asked in any interview so you should be able to identify that pattern. So, I hope this video clears most of your doubts. I told you about many extensions, github repo, DSA playlist - the compiled link will be given in description. All the links will be there together, you don't need to click on multiple links. You can go check it out. Along with it, do check out Algoprep. There're are multiple courses out there, you can enroll. If you need guide, mentorship guided path then you'll get it here. And people who're teaching have a lot of experience. They've industry experience as well as teaching experience. So, your experience is going to be very good. Also do like this video, the like target is 5k. Thank you so much for watching this video. I hope you liked this video. Let's meet in the next video. Until then - Bye!
