This is a burner account because I don't want to be identified but here is the proof that I have more than 1000 problems solved

A bit about my background:

• Graduated with a US CS Masters
• Started Leetcoding in 2014
• 2016 started job hunting as a new grad (300 LC solved). Got into a ok software company
• 2018 started job hunting again as a junior (600 LC solved). Got offers from Uber, Indeed, Apple.
• 2020 I am currently job hunting again (1100 LC solved) and have Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Amazon onsite coming up.
• Starting this year I can finish all the four contest problems if the fourth isn't freaking hard. I have a global ranking around 5000ish now.

1. What was your discipline/motivation/routine to spend so much time on LeetCode?
Keep a Google sheet and keep track of the problems you do. Revisit the one you are not familiar with until you are super familiar. Some problems are so classic it should actually be memorized.

2. What is your daily work at your job like?
Company has a really good WLB so after I finish my work I can LC.

3. Do you see solution to the problems before solving it yourself?
Depends, in my new grad days I would bang my head on the problem for 30 minutes and give up. Now I can immediately identify if I can
solve the problem after reading the problem description. This is just hard grinding and you'll start and see a pattern.

4. How about hards? Did you solve them all by yourself? If not, how long do you try before giving up?
Depends also. Usually the really hard one I just skip but a lot of hards are actually doable.

5. Do you regularly participate in any programming contests on other sites?
No, just LC.

6. How long have you been coding algorithmic problems (not just on Lc)?
On and off since 2014

7. If not already working at Google or Facebook, would you like to work there? Have you interviewed with them before?
Google yes/Facebook no. Google I was unlucky because the interviewer seemed to be really hostile and didn't even want to clarify my questions but this was 2 years ago. But Hey! Now I have a chance to prove myself that Google was wrong last time. (wink)

8. How did you manage to stick to grinding Lc when various other options were available like open source contributions, promotions at work, learning other tools and technologies?
I do it for fun. After a certain number of LC, you start liking the process but the number varies from people to people. I also have a side project which accumulated more than 800 stars and even got some attentions for FB engineers that wanted to refer me to their teams but I wasn't LC ready that time. Promotion depends on company, I work for 35 hours a week and is still on track for promotion.

9. How do you manage to balance time taking activities like family & friends, trips, parties, movies, netflix and chill, "oh god will i ever use this knowledge about data structures and algorithms in real life work"?
Work hard, play harder. Also during this COVID era, there's not really any parties, trips etc so full mode on LC preparation.

10. What would be your suggestions to the folks in community who are on or wish to travel on the same path?
Just grind. You will be banging your heads in the first few month but power through it and go back to problems that you couldn't master.
It will click eventually but the process is really frustrating but hey...those SWE salaries (blink blink)

11. Given infinite amount of time and asked to solve a problem without referring to other resources, I won't be able to solve some problems. How to deal with those questions in the interviews?
Give your though process to the interviewer and see if he/she bites. Depends a lot on company. For example, FB if you can't solve it on the first beat you are pretty much time, they want speed over anything. Google on the other hand is more forgiving.

12. Any suggestions specific to solving DP problems? No matter how many problems one solves, its always less, especially with the bottom-up approach.
Just go with top down approach. Try dfs brute forcing and get TLE. After that if you are using python just slap @lru_cache(None) on it and it usually passes. After awhile you see the pattern and the subproblem. TBH it wasn't until recently did I actually start solving DP without problem.