Shadowing Practice: The unfair way I got good at Leetcode - Learn English Speaking with Video

Lead code is hard, not only because it's hard to be good enough to solve questions, to land a job at high paying companies,

but also because it's hard to know how and exactly where to start when there is so much information available.

When I just got started, I couldn't even solve an easy question well enough to pass an interview.

But I had no choice, so I invested lots of time, I made lots of mistakes, but also learned a lot.

reached out to me on LinkedIn to pass their interviews and receive offers, I realized that back then I wasn't bad.

I was just getting started.

Especially in the beginning, you should put more time into learning solutions rather than solving questions,

so that you start developing intuition within that topic more quickly and then solve questions faster.

So for example, if I'm now starting to learn binary trees, instead of just choosing a list and then trying to solve question by question,

I would make two lists of easy and medium tree questions, starting with the common ones, and then I would separate each list again into two.

and instead of trying to solve the question, I will go to the solution and learn the common solution well.

After doing that, for all of the questions in that list, I will go to the second list and I will start practicing.

When I land on a question that I could not come up with an answer for, it can be a one -off or an outlier,

but when just starting, it usually means that it's a new pattern I was not exposed to, and I will learn that solution and move forward rather than wasting

But give it a try and see

if it also helps you get better at lead code much more efficiently which is what matters

Solving a question during an interview, at least for me, feels more like acting on a stage

and the scene is that you solve a question rather than actually solving a question.

The reason is, is that you don't get to have even 5 minutes to think quietly and sketch some ideas.

You need to entertain the interviewer.

Well, not entertain per se, but you need to keep them engaged.

Share your thought process and walk them through what you're doing.

Your attention is split, which makes it really difficult to think.

When I'm asked in the first few minutes, I either know what the answer is that thanks to something I've solved

that is at least similar or don't and in

that case I just try to get away with asking the interviewer to have time to think

and throw some ideas as they come until I land on something

that might lead to a solution

and usually Interviews will also nudge you towards the right direction

when you voice it So once you have practiced for long enough

so that you're able to solve medium level questions if you stop there need to practice on websites like Pramp,

and start solving these questions when your attention is more split, compared to when you solve questions on your own, and get good at solving technical questions in an interview style.

Although, over time, the more you interview, you will naturally get better at this.

you It's not about quantity alone nor quality alone.

You need both.

Quality means that you follow a roadmap

that exposes you to the most common questions and topics to practice so that you have a sound starting point.

This way you can slowly work your way to expand the spectrum of questions that you can intuitively recognize.

for the types of questions that you will see during the interviews.

For example, I've never been given a question on dynamic programming, whether I interviewed at FANG, a popular startup or a mid -tier paying company.

But I've been given a lot of questions on arrays similar to the common ones but somewhere on trees, backtracking and priority cues.

Something additional I've noticed during the 15 + interviews I've done is

that the more the question you're asked is higher into this pyramid, the more similar it is to common questions in that topic.

So when I was asked the question on trees, it was virtually identical to a common tree question I've thoroughly solved before

which helped me to easily solve the question during the interview.

On the other hand, when the question was seen before.

Even though it was solved using the same pattern from common questions from before, it required more adjustments

which is why sometimes being asked about less common topics can make things easier for you

when you had practiced several such questions.

Make sure that you're not solving questions for the sake of solving questions.

I know it sounds strange but

when I practiced initially I got caught up with all the community trying to learn the best

or fastest solution and so on but I was wasting lots of time.

When you interview, the solution you need is the solution that gets you to pass the interview.

You do it consistently and that's how you land offers.

This rarely means having the shortest solution or an exotic one

than a reasonable common solution that is usually suggested to that question.

When you're interviewing, there will be specific posts and lists, sometimes even for smaller companies, so research and practice these questions that others have posted.

I've seen more than once a question I was asked

which was identical to a question someone else posted on a website like Litcode or Glassdoor.

With some companies, you will have a round with the hiring manager.

That will sometimes be technical but often will also include some of the high -level related does.

When you know you have a round with the hiring manager, do your due diligence about the company and their engineering work,

think about their challenges and things that they had to overcome and weave that in the conversation.

Each time I had a round with the hiring manager, I could see how doing this at some point made me vibe with the hiring manager

and I could see how so long I don't do awfully on the technical questions, I will have the offer.

Finally, get good.

It took me well over a year of practicing each day

with no exceptions to get to a point where I interview pretty well and can pass interviews.

When you start, it's a marathon.

You will most likely also need to practice for a very long time, at least if you're like me, but afterwards, it will be more like a sprint where thanks to all of that practice,

you can recall and can quickly get in an interviewing shape when you need to.

With that said, thank you so much for watching and I hope to see you in the next one.

Bye.

you

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What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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