
Ask HN: Is anyone using spaced repetition with LeetCode? - imedadel
I started using LeetCode a couple of months ago to prepare for my upcoming university internships and I found myself using Trello or similar apps in order to organize my learning.<p>Eventually, I made a chrome extension for reviewing old LeetCode questions using spaced repetition. The goal is, of course, not memorizing the question but rather making sure that the question&#x27;s pattern &quot;sticks&quot; in my memory.<p>So I&#x27;m wondering if any of you have used this method while preparing for interviews and whether you found it helpful or not.
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muzani
I tried before, but it was quite demotivating to go back to the same questions
and still not remember the answer. I'd rather just go and do new questions
instead of repeatedly failing at an old one. It's probably not a good approach
but better than nothing.

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otras
I did this with Anki when preparing for my last round of interviews.

After completing a question (working through on a whiteboard while imitating a
coding interview session), I would make a card for it. General pattern and
general algorithm to use to solve, then review it whenever Anki told me to. I
found that it was better to focus on higher level concepts than worrying about
exact algo implementations (though I did the exact implementations when first
working through a problem).

I think this worked well, but I also probably have confirmation bias.

I’ve also used this technique for math/CS problems, and it has seemed to work
well.

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imedadel
I did use Anki for scheduling my math problems' reviews and the results were
pretty satisfactory.

Do you think I should publish the chrome extension that I made for LeetCode or
does Anki do the job?

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otras
I think you should do it to learn and try something new (publishing a Chrome
extension). I’m sure you could also write an interesting blog post about how
you chose and implemented the spaced repetition.

Worst case scenario no one download it, but it’s like most side projects,
where doing it for your own growth is the important part.

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imedadel
Well, I published it :D

[https://spacedleet.imedadel.me](https://spacedleet.imedadel.me)

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stuqqq
Leetcode is a disease. I know many people memories answers and test cases.

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segmondy
Why would you do that? It's not about memorization. It's about understanding
the problem so if you saw it reshaped differently, you can still come up with
a valid solution.

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tracer4201
It’s not about memorizing a particular solution, but the specific solution is
only one piece. You should be able to look at the same or similar problem and
identify the particular pattern. If you don’t remember the pattern, you’re
doing a disservice to yourself by memorizing the solution. It means you need
to rework that problem and work on other problems that rely on a similar
problem solving approach. The goal is mastery of that specific pattern so it’s
readily available in your toolkit.

