Ask HN: LeetCode Just for Fun? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: LeetCode Just for Fun?

17 pointslegrande17 comments

Would you complete a LeetCode course just for the lolz and not use the knowledge you gained from it just for getting hired? What's wrong with knowing various coding tricks for the sheer fun of the challenge rather than chasing a job?

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I like programming puzzles, I have done a lot of leetcode for fun. I can do any of them correctly given a few hours and a cup of tea to think it over.

I still failed an interview for a FAANG because of the coding test. Even though I've been doing this job successfully for decades.

HN comments tend to have an anti-leetcode tone, but that’s rooted in resentment at the reliance on those types of problems in the hiring process. The problems themselves are benign - fun, even! The contention is that your livelihood often depends on your skill in solving them.

Not Leetcode, but I did do Codewars for quite a while just for fun. This was after I'd switched tracks away from development to design, and, for the first time in about 12 years, was not burned out on programming, and wanted to just do more of it in my spare time. I didn't have a side project to work on at the time, just wanted to scratch an itch.

I learned a lot, and found it really enjoyable. Don't know why I eventually stopped; just kinda wandered away and did something else.

> What's wrong with knowing various coding tricks for the sheer fun of the challenge rather than chasing a job?

Nothing, it's just I can spend my time making cool shit instead.

Nothing wrong with it, keeps you sharp. I haven't done any LeetCode challenges myself but I had a lot of fun with Project Euler (https://projecteuler.net) back in the day.

I had a good time using Project Euler puzzles as a way to gain familiarity with new programming languages or getting the hang of using Vim for the first time!

There's nothing wrong with it. I occasionally get bored and have a few minutes to kill, and pick random LeetCode problems to solve. I view them the same way some people view crosswords or sudokus - an entertaining problem solving puzzle.

No, I'd rather make a side project.

This, more challenging, practical and maybe profitable.

Wrote my own programming language to solve leetcode problems. Harder problems demanded new features, and pumping up the language was enjoyable. The leetcode was not enjoyable. It got me through the grind75, or blind75, whatever you wanna call it.

Yes, These forums were famous in ~2012 in China, Russia and Eastern Europe.

1. CodeChef 2. USACO 3. Every competitive programming club in top universities 4. CodeForces

The moment I saw guys at CodeForces, my whole dream came crashing down. That one felt as intimidating as much as every other website combined in the world. I was crying curled in bed for ~1.5 days in my dorm room of university. I gave up CP in 2015 and aimed myself for EU for jobs.

You give me a topic, I will give you a community mad about it. That humbled me a lot.

It’s a good way to learn Haskell and Prolog —- so many of the problems lend themselves to combinatorial or recursive solutions.

There's nothing wrong with it, imho. I love solving puzzles of this kind.

Introducing your brain to new patterns of thinking is one of the best things you can do in the long term regardless of your immediate goals. Likely for the same reasons multilinguals tend to have better outcomes with respect to brain health as they age.

There are platforms similar to LeetCode but funnier, the one I often waste my spare time on is CodinGame.com, I started studying game theory solely because my motivation received boost while writing bots on codingame.

I think that was the original purpose of Leetcode and similar. Who knew something spelled "leet" would become such a corporate name?

I enjoy doing advent of code every year.

I like it from time to time.

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