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Unpopular opinion: You should solve fewer problems, not more

Abhishek GargAbhishek Garg
10 months ago
264

Everyone flexes their problem count but I think it's misleading. I got into Google solving ~200 problems total.

The key difference: I spent 30-60 minutes understanding each problem deeply. I could explain the intuition, prove the time complexity, and solve variations.

Compare this to someone who solves 500 problems by looking at solutions after 5 minutes. They'll forget everything in a week.

Quality markers:

  • Can you solve it again after 2 weeks without hints?
  • Can you explain the approach to someone else?
  • Can you handle a slight variation?

If yes to all three, move on. If no, you haven't truly solved it.

unpopular-opinionqualitystrategyinterview-prep

Comments (2)

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Komal Joshi
Komal Joshi9 months ago

Interesting perspective, Abhishek! I tend to go for volume and feel a bit burnt out. How do you recommend balancing the depth of understanding vs. the need to cover different types of problems?

James Brown
James Brown9 months ago

I think it depends on the person. Some might need to see a lot of patterns before they click. But yeah, focusing on completely understanding fewer problems does make sense too.