Is Practicing on LeetCode Necessary for Developers?

I’ve never used LeetCode myself and honestly don’t know any developers who do. Most of the developers I know tend to focus on building projects to sharpen their skills. It really comes down to what you want to excel at – solving puzzles or actually building software.

Honestly, I don’t think it’s necessary. LeetCode can help you get quicker at solving specific problems you might see in interviews, but becoming a good programmer is more about understanding how to solve real-world problems than just practicing those specific skills.

Using LeetCode can definitely help with interview preparation, but I'd caution against it being your only method of learning. Memorizing answers or patterns without understanding won’t make you a great developer. Try working on real projects instead, like building a weather app, which will teach you a lot more.

I support using LeetCode for interviews because I’ve seen a strong correlation between being able to solve those kinds of problems and being a solid software engineer. But I agree – the focus should be on really understanding programming concepts, not just on getting better at LeetCode. Building projects or really digging into libraries can be way more beneficial in the long run.

Practicing on LeetCode can help if you're preparing for tech interviews, but it’s not the only way to improve. Just like practice puzzles won’t make you a better writer, LeetCode alone won’t necessarily make you a better programmer. You might want to solve a variety of problems to prepare for interviews, especially with companies that get heaps of applicants. Knowing the types of problems can make a big difference in interviews, so a little practice with it isn’t a bad idea.