Post Questions About Group Here

[johncfrauen-lc101]

Please post any questions you have about the group here

[chrimcha]

Hello Christian,

For the weekly challenges that we fork and commit to, is it better to only have the solutions to each problem in the file? I write comments for myself when working through a problem and I didn't know if I should keep those separate.

[johncfrauen-lc101]

You should include any comments you want to keep with the solution code.
In the general software engineer interview process they like to see you commenting (or in a live interview, thinking out loud) and seeing how you thought through a problem.

Also, include a link to your LeetCode profile with the solutions if you created one.

[mads-bohn]

Hi Christian!
For the monthly challenges, is there a good place to find people to collaborate with? I'd love to participate, but don't have enough time to do the entire challenge on my own.

[johncfrauen-lc101]

Hey!

I can post an announcement asking if anyone would like to work on projects with others.
We just invited the whole candidate pool, so if you know anyone from your cohort that is also in the apprenticeship candidate pool, you should reach out to them.

If you have to work solo on these:
For the monthly project challenges, just pick the one you're most interested in. You don't have to complete all of them or even fully finish any of the projects individually. The main thing is for everyone to sit down each day and try and code out more of any project they're interested in.

At the end of the month, I'll choose the best of whatever everyone put together, whether they completed all the requirements of that project or not.

P.S.
LOVE your Github activity. Keep it up!!

[ririthewizard]

Hi Christian,
On the weekly challenges are there any good resources to study DSA? I am struggling with even the easy challenges to wrap my head around the solutions and I feel like I am grasping at air trying to come up with my own.

Thank you

[launchcode-alumni-hub]

Absolutely! I am basing the initial Software Developer weekly problem sets on the NeetCode 150 list
Link to NeetCode's video on how to approach LeetCode at first

In my job search prep, I used NeetCode's paid video courses to get that foundational base for DS&A: https://neetcode.io/courses

Unfortunately (for us and not him, he deserves it), his paid membership is now $119 for a year.
You can try one of the videos here: Free NeetCode video

It was worth it for me since interviews in the wider software industry will most likely use these questions in the process. Also, learning these patterns and understanding when to use them does make you a better programmer. But, I totally get for anyone seeing this that $119 for a year is too much. If that's the case, I recommend taking this approach with any leetcode question:

1. Look at the solutions tab first, and choose a top-rated post for the programming language you're using
2. View the solution, and go through it step by step to initially understand it
3. Paste the solution into your Code window and run it. Mess with it and change different pieces of the solution to better understand what each piece of the code is doing.
4. Then, go back to the solution and view the explanation again. See if you can understand it better now.
5. Then, take a 5 minute break. Come back and try to code out a version of that solution you just studied on your own. No worries if the solution code you come up with is exactly the same.
6. After working with the problem for 40min to an hour, move on to a different problem and repeat these steps. Then, the next day, come back to some of the problems you worked on and try to solve them off the top of your head. Then, open the solutions tab, and view the solution you studied as well as other ones. Then try to implement other solutions (if the approach varies a lot between people posting).

Above all, I recommend following the sequence laid out here: https://neetcode.io/roadmap

It chunks the questions into nodes, where each node is a Design Structure or Algorithm approach you should use to solve the questions listed in that node. Also, its structured where learning the DS&A approach of one node prepares you for the next DS&A topic node it links to.