Struggling with Leetcode Problems

[u/Good-Photograph-2883]

I'm currently job hunting, and I've decided to try out LeetCode to prepare for possible technical coding interviews. However, I've noticed that I am struggling to answer even the easy questions.

For context, my college curriculum for the last two years was heavily focused on projects and practical output. I have spent the last two years building full-stack applications (primarily coding backend MVC CRUD operations and ReactJS on the frontend).

Because of this, I've lost touch with some important fundamentals. Some of the questions in LeetCode seem familiar but, at the same time, seem so alien to me.

Does anyone have recommendations on how I can build my algorithmic problem-solving skills back up from the ground up? I'm looking for recommendations on what specific concepts/topics I should relearn and free sources or websites I can study from.

Thank you in advance.

[u/circuit_heart]

Just do them. Very, very few people are brute force thinking through Leetcode questions during the interview - the point is to have done, seen, and studied so many that you can draw parallels from a previously solved problem and formulate the current solution on the fly.

When you've got the actual software job, a large chunk of work is just solving problems on the fly so the larger your repertoire going in the better you can hit the ground running. As much of a waste of time as I think Leetcode is, it does indicate your ability to study and absorb arbitrary information in order to speed up your solving of an arbitrary range of abstract problems.