Thread by @DhawleDhananjay

Reflecting on my DSA journey : How LeetCode enhanced my problem-solving skills and helped
me in interview preparation ? 🚀✨

Thread : 🧵

A. Achievements over the past 1.5 years:

🏆 Ranked 3254 globally out of 402,183 registered users, placing in the top 0.87% 🌍

🇮🇳 All India rank of 380 among 67,161 registered users in India in terms of rating 🚀

🎖️ Participated in 69 live contests and 50 virtual contests! 🎓

📆 Maintained a streak of 404 days and earned all 12 months badges and an annual badge. 🎉

👨‍💻 Became a LeetCode guardian having current contest rating of 2248. 🛡

📈 Improved my rating by 750 points in the last 1.5 years alone. 📈

💪 Solved over 1200 problems, with 3000+ submissions in the past 1.5 years! 💡

🏆 Consistently placed in the top 1000 out of 20,000+ participants 17 times,
and under 500 three times, with my best rank being 210 out of 22,908 in weekly contest 334. 🥇

🎁 Earned a cool LeetCode T-shirt! 😎

B. Motivation to start Leetcoding?

Two years ago, I had almost zero coding achievements. My scores in the data structure course were miserable, and I was probably one of the weakest students in my batch.

One of my mentors had earned the knight badge and had bagged an SDE offer from Amazon. It served as an inspiration for me to start practicing on LeetCode with the sole goal of earning a knight badge.

During that phase, companies started coming on campus for hiring interns. Some of these companies offered a stipend of around 1 lakh per month. I cleared the online assessments of most of these companies, only to fail in the DSA round.

I couldn't secure any internships for almost a year due to my weakness in DSA. There was one company where I performed well in all the rounds, but I struggled to answer a simple BFS question, leading to my rejection. This repeated more often.

All these failures fueled my determination to practice DSA extensively
so that it would never be an obstacle for me.

C. How I maintained a consistency of over a 400-day streak and practiced on LeetCode?

D. How I managed LeetCoding while maintaining my academics, extracurriculars, and personal life ?

E. Challenges I Faced ?

F. Best resources on leetcode ?

G. My Future Goals ?

H. Here are my recent threads about DSA/CP that you can check out 🧵 :

I. Why am I posting all this, just a show-off ?

J. What can you do ?

According to the 21/90 rule, it takes 21 days to form a habit and 90 days to make it a permanent lifestyle change. There's also the 2-day rule, which suggests not missing a habit twice. (

https://twitter.com/SahilBloom/status/1605188800098947072?s=20

)

However, the rule that worked for me was the burning desire rule. The motivation to accomplish my goals pushed me to solve at least one question every day. I started improving my problem-solving skills by actively participating in all LeetCode contests, even during my sem exams.

I would often solve a daily practice problem as the first thing in my day or check LeetCode before going to sleep.

Well, I had my priorities set. To achieve my goal, I had to invest as much time as possible. I would often practice solving problems during boring lectures and solve LeetCode questions before going to sleep.

On good days or weekends, I invested around 5-6 hours daily, aiming to solve at least 3-5 problems. Even on busy days, I committed to solving a minimum of 2 problems, dedicating at least half an hour.

In addition, I held the position of president in the cycling club of NIT Nagpur and was a member of the photography club. Currently, I'm more consistent in playing chess than coding. It has been 3 years now, and I can't recall a day when I didn't play chess.

Although I struggled academically, I was fortunate enough to have the best friends who gladly taught me everything a day before exams, allowing me to perform decently and never worry about failing. I passed out with 7.41 CGPA...

Academics would often become overwhelming with assignments and other responsibilities, but with the support of my friends, I managed to navigate through them. During my internship season, I underwent an appendix surgery, which was one of the toughest periods of my life.

My health issues and the accumulation of failures led to anxiety and self-doubt. Seeing my batchmates secure impressive internship offers while I struggled added to my worries about my future career.

However, during those challenging times, I received unwavering support from my family and friends. Their encouragement and belief in me helped me overcome those obstacles.

It was a turning point in my life, and I made a firm decision to move forward, make necessary changes, and work harder towards achieving my dreams. I completed Naruto during that time, which was surely the biggest inspiration for me...

1. Leetcode rating predictor - lccn.lbao.site

2. Leetcode discuss section study guide - leetcode.com/discuss/study-…

3. Best channel for leetcode - youtube.com/@NeetCode

4. Video to get started on leetcode - ,

5. Some more resources - leetcode.com/discuss/genera…

Crossing the rating of 2500 on LeetCode, aiming to be in the top 0.1% worldwide. Additionally, I aspire to achieve AIR 1 someday. I plan to participate in more contests, consistently practice through upsolving, and share regular updates about my LeetCode journey on Twitter.

1. GFG journey -

https://twitter.com/DhawleDhananjay/status/1661657472380321792?s=20

2. CP community amazing people -

https://twitter.com/DhawleDhananjay/status/1660927130149048320?s=20

3. Resources for CP -

https://twitter.com/DhawleDhananjay/status/1660484657979490304?s=20

4. Achievements over past 2 years -

https://twitter.com/DhawleDhananjay/status/1660142218722811904?s=20

5. AMA -

https://twitter.com/DhawleDhananjay/status/1659448991296393216?s=20

6. Leetcode T shirt -

https://twitter.com/DhawleDhananjay/status/1653362735458177025?s=20

When I had no coding achievements, individuals like Striver, Priyansh, and some of my seniors served as my inspiration. Witnessing their consistency and hard work always motivated me, giving me the belief that I too could achieve what they had accomplished.

I hope that by sharing my journey, it may inspire others who come across this thread, reassuring them that they too can succeed.

From my school days, I have always enjoyed mentoring and guiding others, sharing my experiences along the way. I have often wished for someone to have guided me, as it would have made my journey easier on my mental health.

It was only in the later stages of my college life, around the 5th semester, that I discovered competitive programming (CP). I started taking CP seriously from the 6th semester. It saddens me that my college lacked a CP culture.

Since I have a month before joining my new endeavor, I thought of utilizing this time to share my experiences and help others on this platform. I find Tech Twitter more conducive for such discussions than LinkedIn, hence choosing to do it here...

Thank you for taking the time to read this thread. It took me almost an entire day to write it. You can show your support by liking, sharing, and retweeting it to help reach more people. Your engagement and encouragement will motivate me to write more.

You can also follow me @DhawleDhananjay for more insightful content on DSA, CP, and updates about my life.

If you have any doubts or questions regarding DSA/CP, feel free to ask in the comment section. If I am unable to reply to your DM, it means your doubt is quite common, so it would be beneficial for others if you ask it here instead!