Building Projects vs. LeetCode: Real-World Engineering Skills

Building real projects showcases essential engineering skills that matter more than solving LeetCode problems for job success.

### The Importance of Building Projects Over LeetCode for Career Success
* 💼 Nine months ago, I focused on LeetCode to prepare for a technical interview, believing that **mastering easy and medium problems** would suffice for success.
* 🧩 While solving LeetCode questions demonstrates coding ability, what truly makes a candidate stand out is the ability to **build real-world projects** that showcase **practical skills**.
* 💡 I found that my ability to **discuss my experiences and projects**, such as a Black-Scholes option pricer, significantly contributed to my **success in landing a job**.
* 🔍 Building projects involves taking an idea from inception to production, a skill that is often **overlooked and not taught** through LeetCode practice.
* 🏗 The best engineers are those who can create **efficient, high-quality solutions** that effectively solve customer problems, distinguishing them from those who can only solve **basic algorithmic challenges**.
* 🚀 Real-world engineering skills, demonstrated through project work, are more valuable than LeetCode prowess in the long run, as they **prepare you for the demands of the industry**.
* 📈 Ultimately, aspiring engineers should focus on **creating original and meaningful projects** rather than merely replicating common tutorials, as this will **better prepare them for their careers**.
* 🗣 If you found this perspective helpful, let me know, as I plan to share **more insights like this weekly**.

All right, so there's this video that you've probably seen from Big boxu where he talks about whether you should build projects or grind LeetCode. And I want to kind of offer my unique perspective on this and how I guess this kind of intersects with my

life career. So many months ago, like nine months ago, I was on a small LeetCode grind because I wanted to nail the technical interview I had coming up for the place I currently work at. And I knew that if I could just work a little

little bit on like some LeetCode easy, some LeetCode mediums, I I would be fine, right? I I had a feeling they weren't going to ask anything crazy like like some three-dimensional dynamic programming question or I I don't I don't I don't even know anything about

dynamic programming, but I knew it wasn't going to be anything like that. So I tried, you know, working up on the basics and whatnot. But the thing was, and I think this is going to be true for a lot of people who don't have their first

internship or don't have their foot into industry just yet, is yes, that being able to solve an easy LeetCode question does matter, and it it certainly shows whether you can actually code and whether you can actually think and how you think. But what actually gets you the job and what

actually I guess makes you I would say like a cultural fit is if you're someone who is actually able to show, hey, I can build real-world things. Now, if I maybe I have a copy of my older resume somewhere on Google Drive, but I think what sold me

quite frankly I think he was because I could talk pretty decently about myself, you know, not that I'm like an amazing talker or anything, but I think I could talk decently about myself. But also because I could build real projects and that's what I want to hammer more so in

this video. So because I could build real projects and I, I tried building real projects. I had uh this one like Black-Scholes option pricer, which that was like an idea I thought of on my own after reading something on the Internet. I was like, oh, I could try to integrate that in

my own way and I could look up these libraries on Python and do this thing right. That's actually very similar to what you do in the real world where a client will give you a task. Say, hey, I want you, or a client or manager or someone will come to you say, hey, I want to do

this one very specific thing and you kind of have to research how you want to do this right. Do you want to go this direction, that direction? Do you want to go here, there, where do you want to go, right? Being able to, I guess, kind of take

an idea from, from inception to actually putting it out in production, that is a skill that not a lot of people have and quite frankly, LeetCode will never teach you that skill right. I think LeetCode, and this, this might be a hot take, LeetCode does offer some unique advantages

in an interview because I do, I do think it is a good proxy and I can make a whole separate video for that, why I think it's actually a decent thing. But, but the big thing that is going to get you in the industry because let's be real, a lot of people can

reverse a length list after a certain point, right? If you're assuming you're not a total idiot, you know how to do very basic things, things like traversing an array, traversing a linked list. You know, you can do like basic LeetCode questions. Anyone can do that, right, but

what actually gets you in the industry and what separates you from good from great, or at least what I think separates you from good from great, is the people who are great, they can really, really, really like build awesome things. They know how to build awesome things. They

know how to do it efficiently. They know how to do it in a way where it's the least, there's the least amount of technical debt. There's, it's, it's just a great finished product and it solves the customer's problem, right? Those are the

people that I think make it a lot further than some guy who can just, you know, invert a binary tree, for example. So, end of the day, building projects and the ability, I think building projects really, it's just a proxy for your real-world engineering skills.

Right, your real-world engineering skills will always trump elite code. I don't care what anyone says, right? Sure, there can be that one guy who's just cracked at elite code and has managed to get some internship that pays $110 an hour at like some like hedge fund on Wall

Street, right? Sure, there's people like that, right? But end of the day, like if you want to be a really good engineer, and maybe, maybe, who knows, that guy who started off making $110 at Wall Street, couple years from now, when you're say a

better engineer and you have way more confidence your total compensation could be worth way more dollars per dollar average than that guy who just started off on a high note and maybe if the economy takes a turn his skills and maybe he doesn't have very many real

world skills he'll get laid off but you because you have real skills at least this is where I'm trying to be because I got real skills I'll be solid and I'll even progress so I guess hopefully I wasn't you know ranting too much in this

video but that's kind of like my take on all this building projects is nothing but a great proxy for your real world engineering skills those real world engineering skills end up mattering a lot more than some silly weak good problems so bottom line is if you were

someone who's looking to get your foot in the industry build projects build projects that are cool interesting they're not some stupid like to-do app from YouTube uh they're not like some silly little thing that you just read on some blog post no like make sure it is

something original something unique and something you can talk about yes taking inspiration from something you find online is great but end of the day if you can actually take something that maybe maybe you read maybe you read from one place or another but you actually think through it yourself and you do the

research yourself and build it yourself without following some stupid tutorial that is what matters more so hopefully this video made sense hopefully it wasn't too rambly I'm looking at my time I like I have like eight and a half minutes here I doubt the video is going

to be that long but if you like this video just please let me know cuz I want to try to do this every single week

Grind LeetCode or Build Projects?

MegzMugz

LeetCode vs. Building Projects for Job Interviews

The speaker discusses the debate between focusing on LeetCode or building projects for job interviews.

Personal experience of LeetCode practice for a technical interview.

Solving easy LeetCode problems demonstrates coding ability, but building real-world projects is more impactful.

Real-world project experience, such as a Black-Scholes option pricer, was a key factor in securing a job.

LeetCode's value as a proxy for coding skills in interviews is acknowledged, but building projects is emphasized as more crucial.

The Importance of Real-World Engineering Skills

Basic coding skills are common; building impressive projects differentiates candidates.

Building projects showcases real-world engineering skills, which are more valuable than LeetCode proficiency.

High initial salary doesn't guarantee long-term success without strong real-world skills.

Real-world skills provide job security and career progression.

Focus on building original, interesting projects, not simple tutorials.

Projects should be unique and showcase independent thought and research.

The ability to independently research and build a project is more valuable than following tutorials.