I knew I was going insane when I downloaded LeetCode on my phone.

A seriessssss!!!!!

I was/am terrified of leetcode — if you’d told me last year I’d be voluntarily solving questions I would have laughed. During my 3rd year internship my mentor introduced me to codewars and honestly? I couldn’t solve anything at first. He’d insist I keep trying and I hated it. Then one day an if-condition clicked and I was screaming for joy over something so simple. That’s what obsession feels like — I was solving questions morning, night, every free minute. Picture finally understanding how to beat a level in a game, that feeling. Then my mentor said I’d spent too long there, it had become my comfort zone. That’s when the leetcode fear crept in.

Leetcode was/is one of those things where people say the teachers are mean and no one’s ever gotten an A and suddenly you’re shaking. I was genuinely afraid, one question in 10 months afraid, until a hackathon humbled me. I prepped so hard, barely eating or functioning, only to not make it to pitching. The shame hit different. I decided I needed to actually learn leetcode each step, not just copying Google answers and praying.

I looked for brain-stimulating games, found nothing, and the nerd in me downloaded leetcode "for fun." Coding on my phone is extremely annoying ngl, but here we are. I’m still afraid, but every week I’ll share what I tackled. it might not be 200 OK but I’ll talk about it.

• return 💗;