Hack to solve coding problems in less than 45 minutes

As a programmer, you are bound to face coding problems on a regular basis. While some may be simple, others may require significant time and effort to solve.

Unfortunately, there are situations where you do not have the luxury of time to tackle these coding problems, and you must come up with a solution in a limited time frame.

This article will discuss a few hacks that can help you solve coding problems in less than 45 minutes.

1. Preparation

The famous proverb “practice makes perfect” implies that preparation is key to success. You should be consistent in your preparation. One should practice coding regularly to be proficient with the concepts.

Especially Data structures and algorithms (DSA) and System design concepts should be regularly revised. You should not revise the theory, the best way of practicing is by solving a problem in LeetCode or GeeksforGeeks.

In my experience, the best free resource to learn data structures and the algorithm is Kunal Kushwaha’s YouTube DSA playlist and for System design, the best resource is the System Design Interview book by Alex Xu.

It will take roughly 6 months to learn DSA and system design if you learn regularly. There is no specific preparation strategy, it varies from individual to individual according to their capability.

2. Time-Bound Approach

The time-bound approach means we set a specific time limit to complete a job. This approach has the ability to boost our efficiency as a by-product.

Every one of us has followed this type of approach in our school, college, or office. For example, the teacher gives us an assignment to complete in one week, but we always do it on the last day.

Likewise, while practicing we should have to follow the time boundaries that we have in our real interviews. You should not take more than 45 minutes to solve a problem.

The secret tip is “practice more medium-level questions in LeetCode which is likely to be asked in interviews”. Don’t waste your time solving more and more easy and hard-level questions.

3. 5-Step Approach

The major problem with most of the people giving interviews are they straight away start to write the code after they say the question which is a wrong approach.

We can divide the 45 minutes given to us in the interview into five steps.

1. For the first 5 minutes, we should spend time understanding the question and clarifying with the interviewer whether we have understood the problem correctly or not.

2. For the next 10 minutes, we should start writing the pseudocode for the problem. Writing pseudocode is very important, we can come to clarity on how are we going to approach a given problem.

3. For the next 5 minutes, we should analyze the time and space complexity of our solution and think about the ways we can improve it.

4. For the next 10 minutes, dry run your code and work on the edge cases. In most interviews, you will be asked to give the edge cases for the written code.

5. Type your code for the last 15 minutes and check for syntax errors. If you have done the above steps correctly, maybe you will get only the syntax errors.

4. Analyze Your Code

Learning from our mistakes is more important than learning new concepts. After you solve every problem in LeetCode or if you are not able to solve any problem, don’t directly see the solution.

Get hints from the discussion section and see how others have approached the same problem. Compare the time and space complexities of your code and their code. Check for how many extra lines of code you have written for the same problem.

Mark the similar kind of patterns that you come across in your learning process. You can revise one problem in each pattern so that you will cover all topics.

5. Revision

Most people underestimate revision. They try to learn more and more topics until their interview and will collapse during the interview.

One good practice is, you can revise the previous day’s concepts for the first 15 minutes before learning new concepts for every day. You can revise all the concepts you have learned on the weekends.

Bookmark the problem you feel to practice more. Revise more often the topics you consider difficult for you.

In conclusion, solving coding problems can be a challenging task, but with the right approach, it can be done efficiently in less than 45 minutes.

The key to success is to break down the problem into smaller, more manageable parts, and to use a systematic approach to identify the best solution.

With practice, these techniques can become second nature, leading to improved productivity and greater success in coding. By implementing these hacks, coders can take their skills to the next level and become more proficient problem solvers.