I used to open Leetcode, scroll for ten minutes, and close it again. Not because I was lazy, but because I had no idea where to start. There were hundreds of problems, and every YouTuber had a “must-solve” list. I felt like everyone else had some secret roadmap, but I didn’t.

When I finally got serious about coding interviews, I built my own cheat sheet, just patterns that kept showing up again and again. Arrays, graphs, sliding windows, binary search, the greatest hits. That simple list ended up getting me through Amazon, Meta, and TikTok interviews.

So if you’re tired of bouncing between random Leetcode problems, here’s what actually works: focus on the handful of patterns that interviewers love. I’ll break down how I studied them, how Interview Coder’s AI Interview Assistant fits into that process, and how you can use it to run focused mock sessions and learn time/space trade-offs without overcomplicating things.

Why I Keep a LeetCode Cheat Sheet Within Arm’s Reach

Scrolling through endless threads or flipping between 10 tabs during interview prep is the productivity tax nobody talks about. Back when I was prepping for Amazon and Meta, I realized half my time wasn’t spent solving problems, it was spent trying to remember which damn pattern applied to what. So I started building a one-page cheat sheet. No clutter. Just the good stuff.

Not Everything Needs to Live in Your Brain

You don’t need to memorize 300 questions. You need a system. My cheat sheet became that system. It lists go-to patterns (sliding window, BFS, DFS, etc.), complexity notes, and a few battle-tested code templates. It was my way of saying Hey, brain, let’s not waste Random Access Memory (RAM) on boilerplate. I’d glance at it the night before interviews, or right before mock sessions. It made picking problems less random. Less guessing, more doing.

I Don’t Like Mental Whiplash

Jumping between a YouTube explainer, a Reddit thread, and a textbook just to remind yourself what “two pointers” means? That’s the stuff that burns you out. A cheat sheet trims the fat. You load it up once with patterns you actually use, and suddenly, things click faster. Less thinking about how to think. More time coding.

Keep It Nearby. Use It Often.

When I was grinding LeetCode every night in college, I didn’t have time to “relearn” the same trick twice. I’d run short 10-minute review sessions using my sheet, just quick reps to keep stuff fresh. That helped me stay sharp under pressure. The less you hesitate in interviews, the more confident you sound, even if you're panicking inside. (Been there.)

The Real Win? Less Panic, More Progress.

The point isn’t perfection, it’s predictability. A good cheat sheet keeps you focused on the 20% of stuff that matters 80% of the time. It gives your prep some structure. Daily skim, weekly mocks, repeat. The calm that comes from knowing you’ve seen this pattern before? That’s what gets you through the whiteboard round without melting down.

My Go-To Cheat Sheet Format (and Why You Need One)

If you’re walking into an interview without a cheat sheet, you’re not brave; you’re just winging it. And that’s fine if you enjoy sweating through a system design question because you forgot how BFS works. Me? I’d rather sweat from the treadmill, not from forgetting where I stashed my sliding window notes.

I keep mine broken into chunks that actually help:

Patterns (sliding window, backtracking, you get it)
Data structures and when to reach for them
Code snippets I’ve reused 50+ times
Common mistakes I’ve made (because trust me, you’ll repeat yours too if you don’t write them down)
A few “don’t be that guy” traps like forgetting to check for nulls or miscounting midpoints in binary search.

Everything is tagged. Difficulty. Frequency. When it last punched me in the face during a mock. I’ve turned my sheet into a personal graveyard of Ls, and that's precisely why it works.

What’s Worth Memorizing? (Hint: Not Everything)

Most engineers waste time polishing the wrong things.

If you’re prepping for interviews, don’t scatter your time across obscure edge cases. Focus on where companies test. You’ll see:

Arrays and strings. Always.
Two pointers, sliding window. Learn the patterns once and keep reusing them.
Hash maps. For counting, grouping, and fast lookups, they’re everywhere.
Binary search. Don’t just know it, know when not to use it.
Graphs. DFS for connectivity. BFS for shortest paths. Know when to reach for each.
Stacks. If you don’t know how to use a stack for a monotonic problem, you will be by your third rejection email.

I mapped all these to LeetCode problems I actually got in interviews. Time is short. Use yours better.

What I Scan Before Every Interview (15-Minute Mental Warmup)

I don’t cram the night before. I skim my cheat sheet 15 minutes before go time.

Here’s what I look at:

List of patterns. Just the names. It jogs the muscle memory.
Runtime chart. It's not about showing off for picking the right approach under pressure.
Edge cases I’ve missed before: empty input, duplicate values, integer overflows.
A couple of templates. Binary search Breadth-first search (BFS). Two-pointer merge. These are the kind of things I sketch on paper to get my brain moving.

It’s not about memorizing. It’s about showing up to the fight ready to fight.

What’s Always on My Sheet (Non-Negotiables)

I’m not saying copy me, but also don’t copy me. This is what’s helped me prep faster and better:

One-liner Definitions

HashMap? A key-value store with average constant-time ops. Done.

Runtime Cheat

Know what’s fast, what’s slow, and what’s risky if the input’s huge.

1–3 Practice Problems Per Concept

If I can’t connect a topic to a problem I’ve solved, I’m not ready.

Runtime Cheats I Actually Use

Forget memorizing every runtime from every textbook. I keep it simple:

QuickSort avg: O(n log n)
QuickSort worst: O(n²)
Binary search: O(log n)
Hash table insert & lookup: O(1) average
Heap insert: O(log n)

Not for bragging. For picking the right trade-off under pressure, when they ask why I did what I did.

When to Use Which Data Structure (My Cheat List)

You’re not getting points for overengineering. You get points for using the right tool, fast.

Arrays/Strings

Indexing, searching substrings, sorting tricks

Linked Lists

Pointer pain. Reversals, merges, cycle checks

Stacks

Parsing, monotonic stuff, undo logic.

Queues

BFS, round robin

Heaps

When you need the most significant/smallest now

Hash Maps

Membership, frequency, and grouping your best friend

This isn’t theory. This is what they actually ask.

Arrays & Strings: Things You’ll Keep Seeing

The classics:

Sliding window
Two pointers
Prefix sums
Sorting-based tricks

And the pain points:

Off-by-one errors
Forgetting to check for empties
Accidentally nuking performance with conversions or sorts

Linked Lists: You Will Mess These Up Without Practice

Reversal templates (yes, both iterative and recursive because some interviewers are evil)
Fast and slow pointer tricks
Merge two lists? You’d be surprised how often people botch this

I’ve messed all of these up before. That’s how they made the cheat sheet.

Trees and Graphs: Templates You’ll Actually Use

BFS with a queue
DFS with recursion or explicit stack
Notes on how to avoid “null pointer at line 3” when recursing

Add

Adjacency list pattern
Topological sort for DAGs
The trick where you track visited nodes in a set

Hash Maps & Heaps: My Favorite Time-Savers

Counting frequencies
Detecting duplicates fast
LRU cache
Median from stream
Priority queues for Dijkstra-type stuff

I keep the problem links next to each use case. It makes it easier to refresh the mental connection between the concept and real-world use.

Want a PDF version of my personal sheet? Maybe I’ll drop it in the next post.

But honestly, building your own, the hard way, is what makes it stick.

Recursion and Dynamic Programming: Stop Brute Forcing Like It’s 2015

Look, I’ve been there. You're six hours into LeetCode, and you're still brute-forcing Fibonacci like it’s your sworn enemy. Been there. Failed that. Memoization isn’t just some nerdy trick; it’s the difference between “this runs in 9 seconds” and “this gets me the job.”

Once I actually started writing out the state, decision, and base case before touching my keyboard, things got real. Want to build muscle memory? Rotate through:

Fibonacci (but with a twist, try min cost climbs, stairs with restrictions)
Knapsack problems (01, unbounded, bounded, all of them hurt differently)
LCS and edit distance (the pain that keeps on giving)

Here’s The Thing

I built a mini template I can fill in during interviews with one eye closed. Not because I’m a genius, but because I’ve bombed enough phone screens to learn how not to repeat the same mistake twice, finally.

How I Actually Prepped Without Burning Out

You don’t need a Notion doc with 84 tabs. You need a cheat sheet that actually thinks with you.

Mine had prompts like:

“What’s the repeating subproblem here?”
“Am I solving from the top down or building from the bottom?”
“What time complexity are they really expecting?”

I slapped that next to my most common patterns, reviewed with spaced repetition (Anki helped until it didn’t), and kept adding to it after every mock. By the time I got the Meta call, my doc wasn’t a cheat sheet. It was my brain on paper, the stuff I actually remembered and used when pressure hit. No fluff. No random formulas. Just what I needed, when I needed it.

How to Build Your Own Leetcode Cheat Sheet

Build Your Cheat Sheet Like You Actually Want the Job

The first time I failed an interview at Meta, I blamed the interviewer. The second time? I blamed my prep. That’s when I built my own cheat sheet. Not one of those color-coded, 200-page Notion templates. Just the patterns I kept messing up and the ones I knew would come up again.

Here’s how I built it and how you can too.

Pick What Actually Matters

Start With This Question

What type of problems trip me up when I’m on the clock? That’s your north star.

Then zoom out to consider which roles you are targeting, such as backend, frontend, platform, or data? Different roles, different pain.

Build around those.

Your Hit List: Core Problem Buckets

You don’t need to memorize 500 questions. You need reps on the patterns that show up repeatedly.

Here’s what lived in my sheet:

Arrays & Strings

Two pointers, sliding window, prefix sums, binary search on index

Linked Lists

Cycle detection, reverse in-place, splitting, merging

Trees

DFS/BFS, reconstruct from orders, balance checks.

Graphs

Adjacency tricks, DFS/BFS again, shortest paths, topological sort, union-find

Dynamic Programming

Memoization vs tabulation and how to write transitions

Heaps

Top K, streaming median, merging sorted stuff

Hash Maps

counting, grouping, lookups, caching

Stacks & Queues

Matching parentheses, monotonic patterns, and deques

Grids

BFS/DFS in 2D, marking visited, boundary traps

Write Pseudocode That Doesn’t Waste Your Time

Forget full solutions. You want 6–12 lines that you can glance at and recall under pressure.

Sliding Window Max Sum Of Size K

sum = 0

for i in 0 to k-1: sum += arr[i]

best = sum

for i in k to n-1:

sum += arr[i] - arr[i-k]

best = max(best, sum)

return best

Quick reminders:

What if k > n?
All negatives? Zeros?

Two Pointers for Sorted Pair Sum

left = 0; right = n - 1

while left < right:

s = arr[left] + arr[right]

if s == target: return [left, right]

if s < target: left += 1

else: right -= 1

Edge cases? Duplicates. Index vs value return. Know what the interviewer wants.

Build a Trigger: Pattern Map

This was the game-changer for me. I wrote one-liners that helped me spot the right approach fast.

Sliding Window

Need something max/min in a fixed-length subarray?

Use a window.

Ex: Max sum subarray of size k

Two Pointers

Array sorted? Comparing both ends?

Use two pointers.

Ex: Pair Sum, Container With Most Water

Prefix Sum

Lots of range sum queries, or need to count subarrays that add up to something?

Prefix trick.

Ex: Subarray Sum Equals K

Fast/Slow Pointers

Need the middle, cycle, or nth node from the end?

Use fast/slow.

Ex: Linked List Cycle, Middle Node

Monotonic Stack

Looking for the next bigger/smaller element or the sliding max?

Stack it.

Ex: Next Greater Element, Sliding Window Max

Quick Complexity Reminders (aka: what I forget mid-interview)

Let’s be honest, in the middle of a timed LeetCode grind, you’re not scrolling through a CS textbook to remember if your heap is O(n log k) or O(k log n). You need flashcard-style recall. Here’s how I keep it tight:

Two Pointers / Sliding Window

O(n) time, O(1) or O(k) space.

Binary Search/Variants

O(log n) time, O(1) space.

Dfs / Bfs (Graphs Or Trees)

O(V + E) time, O(V) space.

Hash Table Lookups

avg O(1) time, O(n) space.

Heaps (top K problems)

O(n log k) time, O(k) space.

DP 1D

O(n) time, O(n) space (sometimes drops to O(1) if you’re clever).

Build a Visual Layout You Can Glance At

You’ve got 5 seconds between panic and code. If your notes aren’t skimmable, they’re useless. Mine looks like this:

Primary Sheet

Color System

Red = I suck here
Yellow = shaky
Green = chill

Use collapsibles in Notion or nested sheets in Google Sheets if you like nesting. Add initials to each problem B (backend), F (frontend), and S (SRE) so you can sort by relevance. Create one dead-simple "cheat view" with ~10 go-to templates. The goal: fast warm-up. Not aesthetics.

Keep the Sheet Alive: Don’t Let It Rot

If you’re not updating this thing weekly, it’s a graveyard. I treat mine like a debug log.

After every session:

Add pattern used, 1-line reason it worked, what I missed, and link to final code
Prune stuff I never use
Expand patterns that show up again and again
Tag problems that still take me 30+ mins, those are weak spots to circle back on

I track:

How many attempts to AC
How long each attempt took
Whether it was muscle memory or a guess

That tells me if I’m getting better, not vibes, just data.

Tools That Don’t Suck (Pick One and Stick)

No tool is going to make you better magically. Pick one and get organized:

Google Sheets / Excel

Fast filters, quick sort

Notion / Evernote

Nested pages, paste in rich pseudocode.

Markdown Repo

Local lookup + version control

Browser Bookmarks

Keep your most painful problems close.

Use Consistent Tags

Yopic, difficulty, role type, mistake type

Must-Have Sections

No need to get fancy, just cover the basics that actually come up.

Big O (Cheat Table)

Arrays, linked lists, trees, heaps, hash tables
Add amortized costs (e.g., resizing array, heapify, etc.)

Recursion

Spot base cases quickly
Know when to flip recursion into a stack
Avoid common memory pitfalls

DP

Templates: memoization (top down), tabulation (bottom up)
How to define a state
Transition logic
When to trade space for time

Sliding Window: 2 Templates You Actually Use

Fixed-size Window

sum = 0

for i in range(k):

sum += arr[i]

best = sum

for i in range(k, n):

sum += arr[i] - arr[i - k]

best = max(best, sum)

return best

Variable-Size Window (e.g., "at most K distinct")

left = 0

for right in range(n):

add arr[right] to window

while condition is broken:

remove arr[left] from window

left += 1

update answer

Edge Reminders

Expand by moving right
Shrink by moving left
Don’t try to be clever before the loop’s working

Cheat Codes That Actually Help: Patterns, Templates, and My Personal Notes

When I was prepping for my Amazon interview, I didn’t start by grinding 300 LeetCode problems. I built a spreadsheet of patterns. I wrote the dumbest pseudocode possible. And I stopped pretending I’d "just figure it out" in the moment.

This isn’t a library of solutions. It’s the stuff I actually referenced before interviews, patterns I knew cold, problems I tagged, and templates I could write with my eyes half-closed.

No filler. Just the core mechanics.

Two Pointers: The Pair Problem Workhorse

Use this anytime you're working with sorted arrays or need to rearrange elements in place.

Classic Sum Pair (Sorted Array)

left = 0

right = n - 1

while left < right:

s = arr[left] + arr[right]

if s == target:

# found it

left += 1

right -= 1

elif s < target:

left += 1

else:

right -= 1

Partition In Place

i = 0

for j in range(n):

if cond(arr[j]):

arr[i], arr[j] = arr[j], arr[i]

i += 1

Use this mental model for reorder, partition, and Dutch national flag-type problems: two workers sorting boxes on a conveyor belt.

Backtracking: Controlled Brute Force (With Boundaries)

I got serious with backtracking once I realized it wasn’t about being clever, it was about organizing chaos.

Template That Actually Works:

def backtrack(path, choices, state):

if goal_reached(state):

results.append(path[:])

return

for choice in available_choices(state):

apply(choice)

backtrack(path + [choice], choices, state)

undo(choice)

Tips that saved me:

Sort choices to prune early.
Precompute stuff if possible.
Use visited arrays.
Don’t overthink, just write the scaffold first.

Pattern-Based LeetCode Tracker: My Table

I used to think I needed to “understand everything deeply.” Now I just remember the category the problem falls into and which tool I’ve used before.

Arrays and Strings

Pair sum (LeetCode 167) → two pointers
Longest substring without repeat (LeetCode 3) → sliding window
Search in rotated array (LeetCode 33) → binary search
Subarray sum equals k (LeetCode 560) → prefix sum

Trees

Inorder traversal (LeetCode 94) → DFS
Level order (LeetCode 102) → BFS
Insert node (LeetCode 701) → BST basics
Build tree (LeetCode 105) → preorder + inorder trick

Hashtables

Two Sum (LeetCode 1) → hash map
Group anagrams (LeetCode 49) → sorted string as key
LRU cache (LeetCode 146) → hashmap + doubly linked list

Graphs

Connected components → DFS
Shortest path (unweighted) → BFS
Course schedule (LeetCode 207) → topo sort
Cycle detection → Union Find

Stacks

Valid parentheses (LeetCode 20)
Next greater element (LeetCode 503)
Infix/postfix evaluation → shunting yard

Queues

Level traversal → standard BFS
Task cooldowns → queue + heap
Sliding window max → deque

Heaps

Kth largest (LeetCode 215)
Merge K lists (LeetCode 23)
Median from stream → two heaps

The 15 Patterns I Actually Use (And Teach My Friends)

No fluff. If I can’t write the template from memory, it’s not in my top 15. This list is how I got consistent. Each one has a WHEN + TEMPLATE + EXAMPLE.

1. Prefix Sum

Subarray sums, range queries

2. Two Pointers

Sorted arrays, partition

3. Sliding Window

Contiguous subarrays

4. Fast/Slow Pointers

Linked list cycle or middle node

5. Reverse Linked List

Full or sublist.

6. Monotonic Stack

Next greater/smaller

7. Top K

Min heap of size K

8. Overlapping Intervals

Merge or conflict detection

9. Modified Binary Search

Weird sorted arrays

10. Tree Traversal

Inorder, preorder, postorder

11. DFS

Connected components, permutations

12. BFS

Level traversal, shortest paths

13. Matrix Traversal

Grids, islands, flood fill

14. Backtracking

Permutations, constraints

15. Dynamic Programming

Overlapping subproblems

My Table Format (Steal This)

Build this in Notion or Google Sheets. Update it after you solve a problem — not before.

Topic

Pattern

Pseudocode

Example Problem

LeetCode Link

Time

Space

Notes

Arrays

Sliding Window

sum first k, slide window

Max Subarray of Size K

[Link]

O(n)

O(1)

Handle negatives, k > n

Graphs

DFS

visit, recurse

Number of Islands

[Link]

O(n)

Use the visited grid

The Checklist That Helped Me Actually Improve

Each day, solve one weak pattern + 1 role-specific problem
After each, update your notes with what tripped you up.
Twice a week, run flash drills from your cheat sheet
Every Sunday, reflect on the top 3 patterns you still hesitate on

Small reps matter more than grinding 8 hours on Sunday. What’s the one pattern you still avoid because it “feels messy”? That’s the one to do tonight.

Want a version of this cheat sheet with my exact notes, links, and mental models? I’ll post it soon, follow for the drop, or try Interview Coder to build your own cheat view from scratch.

Pro Tips to Maximize Leetcode Success

Time Pressure Is a Feature, Not a Bug

Look, no one’s solving Leetcode in a vacuum with unlimited time and lo-fi beats in the background. You’re gonna be stressed. The timer will be real. And your brain will panic unless it’s trained not to.

What worked for me? Brutal timers. No mercy.

15 min for easy
30 min for medium
60 min for hard

Split the clock into three chunks:

Read and sanity-check. Spot the traps early.

Sketch your move. Pseudocode is your prep zone.

Type. Run. Pray.

When the timer’s up, that’s it. Stop. Don't keep grinding. Write down what broke, check the hints, and actually reflect: Did I get baited by edge cases? Did I wander off chasing an idea that didn’t pan out?

Most people never get faster because they never run headfirst into a wall and ask why.

Mock Interviews That Don’t Suck

Practicing alone is fine. But talking out loud under pressure? Totally different sport. If you freeze the first time someone says, “Tell me how you'd optimize this,” you’re not ready.

Platforms like Pramp or Leetcode Mock Interviews are solid for this. I used them before every FAANG screen. Here’s what I’d do:

Pretend it’s the real thing (camera on, awkward small talk included)
Ask real clarifying questions
Narrate your thoughts even when they’re messy
Sketch on a notepad or text editor
Record yourself. It’s cringe, but it's gold.

Afterward, review:

Did I ramble?
Did I lose them halfway through?
Did I completely forget to mention the runtime?

You won’t improve what you miss.

Use Your Weak Spots Like a Compass

Most people are obsessed with adding more. More problems. More tags. More grind.

But real progress came when I stopped running from what I sucked at.

Go to Leetcode Premium. Sort by topics. Look for the ones where:

You failed 2+ times
You took forever
You guessed your way through

Make those your hit list. Build a set of ~15 questions around them. Mix in old ones too. Then track your re-do times. You’ll know you’ve leveled up when those slow, ugly solves turn clean.

Study Groups: Good Ones Actually Exist

Most study groups suck. Too casual. No structure. Just people vibing on Discord pretending to grind.

The ones that helped me had rules:

One person explains while the other pokes holes
You switch every round
Weekly sessions where you review clean code + common screwups
Pair sessions where you teach a pattern (because teaching exposes gaps)

Accountability is overrated if you’re the only one showing up. Find people who are actually serious, not just saying they are.

Don’t Be a Pattern Collector: Be a Pattern Killer

The biggest mistake I see? People hoard 100 patterns and can’t execute any one of them cleanly when it counts.

Pick the ones that actually come up:

Two pointers
Sliding window
Binary search
DFS/backtracking
BFS
Topo sort
Union find
DP (yes, it sucks, learn it anyway)
Greedy
Trie
Bitmask
Prefix sums
Heap
Graph traversal

For each:

One template
3–5 “gotcha” problems
One note: when to reach for it

Put all of that into a cheat sheet you skim before interviews. No fluff. No quotes. No pretty colors. Just the stuff that saves your butt when the pressure hits.

How I Trained Without Burning Out (or Going in Circles)

Let me keep it real, I used to bomb problems, stare at them for 40 minutes, then click “Run Code” like I was spinning a roulette wheel. Not proud of that phase. But once I stopped treating Leetcode like a slot machine and actually tracked my screw-ups, everything changed.

Keep a Brutally Honest Bug Log

Every time I messed up, I wrote it down. Not just the link, I mean, why I failed, what my original logic was, what was broken, and the tiny test case that would’ve caught it. I had tags like “rushed logic,” “misread prompt,” and “forgot edge case.” After a week, you start to see patterns. That’s when you turn those patterns into flashcards or daily practice goals. My log wasn’t cut; it was just a Google Sheet and a case of brutal honesty.

Don’t Time Yourself Too Early: That’s a Trap

Phase One Of Practice

No timers. Just get the logic right. Write readable code, test edge cases. Pretend you’re explaining it to your future self, who’s had three hours of sleep.

Phase Two

Then add time pressure. But even then, don’t turn into a speed junkie. I’d gladly spend 10 extra seconds writing a guard clause that saved me 20 minutes of debugging. Most of my dumbest bugs came from trying to “go fast.” Going fast without thinking clearly is fake progress.

Revisit the Stuff That Breaks You

If a problem crushed me on Monday, I wasn’t done with it. I’d revisit it on Wednesday, again on Saturday, and then the following Friday, with the same idea or maybe a new variation. I’d make flashcards with one core insight or one trick that fooled me. Not for bragging rights, so that it wouldn’t blindside me again. Reps are how memory becomes instinct.

Build a Personal Cheat Sheet: Not Someone Else’s

Forget those 10-page GitHub “Ultimate Cheat Sheets.” You need your own. Mine had like 15 lines of code and a bunch of angry red comments. DFS recursion pattern, binary search bounds, and sliding window edge cases. Stuff I kept screwing up. I looked at it before every mock like a boxer checking tape before a fight.

Steal Ideas from Leetcode Discuss: Then Make Them Yours

I spent more time reading top answers than writing my own code. Not because I was lazy, but because someone already did the math on edge cases I didn’t think of. I’d bookmark the best ones, write my own version, and test it. I also posted my own write-ups. Half the time, someone smarter would reply with “you can do that in one line,” and I’d be like, “Oh.” Humbling? Yes. Helpful? Every time.

Shortcuts for Crunch Time

I had mini-notes taped near my screen:

Array O(n), LinkedList: O(n), Tree: DFS/BFS = O(n), Graph = probably O(V + E)
Use a stack for monotonic, a queue for sliding window, and a hash map for counting.
If it’s about "shortest path," just try BFS first.

Those shortcuts saved me from sitting there thinking “uhhhh” during timed mocks. I didn’t memorize everything, but I remembered where to look.

Practice Schedule That Didn’t Break Me

Here’s what worked:

60–90 minutes a day, 5 days a week
1 mock interview every Saturday
1 review session to fix logs, update flashcards, and yell at past-Roy

That’s it. No all-nighters. No burning out. Just steady, boring progress that eventually made me... kinda dangerous.

Do the Boring Stuff That Actually Works

After you finish a problem, don’t just vibe your way to the next one. Take 5 minutes. First, write a short explanation as if you're talking to someone who understands the basics but missed this one. Keep it tight, no TED Talk.

Then, grab every dumb mistake you made, typos, off-by-one errors, wrong edge cases, and write a test that would’ve caught it. That’s how you stop repeating them like a broken record.

This isn’t some fancy system. It’s the stuff I did on a whiteboard in my dorm room. Boring? Yep. Repetitive? Also yes. But it works. That’s how you actually get better.

Questions That Hurt (But Help)

Which three patterns punched you in the face this month?
Did you go back and actually fix that problem you flunked—or just move on and hope for the best?
Who’s giving you honest feedback this week? Not vague “good job” fluff. I mean, real stuff you can use. And what are you doing with it?

If your answers make you uncomfortable, you’re probably on the right track.

Nail Coding Interviews with our AI Interview Assistant − Get Your Dream Job Today

Back when I was prepping for Amazon, Meta, and TikTok interviews, I hit this dumb loop: solve 300 LeetCode problems, still panic when the question looks even slightly different. Sound familiar? You build up this illusion of progress, but the moment the timer starts and someone’s watching, you forget the first for-loop of your "go-to pattern." Brutal.

That’s why I built Interview Coder not as a “cheat” but as a pressure-tested sidekick. It’s the thing I wish I had back then: a quiet, behind-the-scenes assistant that feeds you patterns, edge cases, and complexity notes, all while you stay in flow. No pausing. No stalling. No awkward “uhh... let me think for a second.”

So What Is Interview Coder?

It’s not another practice site. It doesn’t throw more problems at you. It sits with you during real interviews and helps you think faster. Like a friend who hands you a sticky note mid-interview: “Hey, this one’s a sliding window. You’ve done this before.” That’s it. Simple help, right when you need it.

It Doesn’t Make You Look Weird on Screen

If you're thinking, "won’t they notice?" nah. Interview Coder stays invisible while you screen share. It feeds you compact hints: “Don’t forget the off-by-one,” “Consider negative inputs,” “Here’s the test case they might ask next.” You keep typing. You keep talking. You still sound like you're just a sharper, calmer version.

It’s Like a Smart LeetCode Sheet That Reads the Room

Imagine having all your best notes, array patterns, DP edge cases, and graph templates, but with none of the scrolling or clicking. Interview Coder organizes it all into instant, just-in-time nudges. The stuff you try to cram the night before? This time, it actually sticks.

It’s Invisible. And That’s the Point.

You don’t need someone talking in your ear. You need a confidence boost that doesn’t interrupt your flow. Interview Coder works quietly. Your code still looks like your code. Your thinking still sounds like your thinking. You just skip the part where you freeze on a dumb base case.

87,000+ Developers Already Use It. That’s Not Hype. That’s Survival.

FAANG, Big Tech, startups, the people using Interview Coder aren’t lazy. They’re smart enough to prep better. They want every edge, but they don’t want to sound robotic. This tool helps you prep smarter, present better, and actually land the thing you’ve been chasing.

How I Suggest You Start (Without Turning into a Tool Zombie)

Install it. Play with the pattern library. Use it in mocks. Let it help you learn, not just survive. If you only lean on it during the interview, you’re missing the point. Think of it like a training partner, one that doesn’t yell, just hands you what you need when it matters.

Why I Keep a LeetCode Cheat Sheet Within Arm’s Reach

Not Everything Needs to Live in Your Brain

I Don’t Like Mental Whiplash

Keep It Nearby. Use It Often.

The Real Win? Less Panic, More Progress.

My Go-To Cheat Sheet Format (and Why You Need One)

What’s Worth Memorizing? (Hint: Not Everything)

What I Scan Before Every Interview (15-Minute Mental Warmup)

What’s Always on My Sheet (Non-Negotiables)

One-liner Definitions

Runtime Cheat

1–3 Practice Problems Per Concept

Runtime Cheats I Actually Use

When to Use Which Data Structure (My Cheat List)

Arrays/Strings

Linked Lists

Stacks

Queues

Heaps

Hash Maps

Arrays & Strings: Things You’ll Keep Seeing

Linked Lists: You Will Mess These Up Without Practice

Trees and Graphs: Templates You’ll Actually Use

Add

Hash Maps & Heaps: My Favorite Time-Savers

Recursion and Dynamic Programming: Stop Brute Forcing Like It’s 2015

Here’s The Thing

How I Actually Prepped Without Burning Out

Related Reading

How to Build Your Own Leetcode Cheat Sheet

Build Your Cheat Sheet Like You Actually Want the Job

Pick What Actually Matters

Start With This Question

Your Hit List: Core Problem Buckets

Arrays & Strings

Linked Lists

Trees

Graphs

Dynamic Programming

Heaps

Hash Maps

Stacks & Queues

Grids

Write Pseudocode That Doesn’t Waste Your Time

Sliding Window Max Sum Of Size K

Two Pointers for Sorted Pair Sum

Build a Trigger: Pattern Map

Sliding Window

Two Pointers

Prefix Sum

Fast/Slow Pointers

Monotonic Stack

Quick Complexity Reminders (aka: what I forget mid-interview)

Two Pointers / Sliding Window

Binary Search/Variants

Dfs / Bfs (Graphs Or Trees)

Hash Table Lookups

Heaps (top K problems)

DP 1D

Build a Visual Layout You Can Glance At

Primary Sheet

Color System

Keep the Sheet Alive: Don’t Let It Rot

Tools That Don’t Suck (Pick One and Stick)

Google Sheets / Excel

Notion / Evernote

Markdown Repo

Browser Bookmarks

Use Consistent Tags

Must-Have Sections

Big O (Cheat Table)

Recursion

DP

Sliding Window: 2 Templates You Actually Use

Fixed-size Window

Variable-Size Window (e.g., "at most K distinct")

Edge Reminders

Cheat Codes That Actually Help: Patterns, Templates, and My Personal Notes

Two Pointers: The Pair Problem Workhorse

Classic Sum Pair (Sorted Array)