Whether to focus on taking Good Courses or doing Leetcode during the Masters?

This is one of the most debatable questions that graduate students have after they have completed their first semester at the University. During the first semester, students are new to the education system, they aren’t that aware of tools that are used in day to day school life like slack, Piazza, Canvas, handshake, etc. Trust me that there is a huge difference between the education standards and quality in the United States and other countries. The education system in the United States is a very practical approach focused with a bit of theoretical learning too; many international students aren’t accustomed to this kind of learning and hence they find this very problematic, as it’s a huge learning curve for them to get accustomed to all these different tools and coursework, but during this time-frame, the amount of learning is incredible and is transformative in terms of a person’s career. Amidst all this, one thought that constantly lingers in the mind of students of the computer science discipline is not finding enough time for doing Leetcode (an online competitive platform), which is required while looking for an internship and full time; as they had spent almost all of the time in their first semester in settling down and doing their coursework.

So now in their upcoming spring semester, most of the students try on compromising with courses that are offered by their department by taking light/ not so useful courses and also some so-called filler courses, so as to ease on their coursework as they want to put all their attention and focus on Leetcode. Now before the semester ends, they practice Leetcode daily, work hard on it, and ultimately are able to get an internship offer.

Now, I will start on what they are losing out by following this approach and how they can effectively tackle this loss. Doing Leetcode will help you get the desired job, but companies here just don’t use Leetcode as their evaluation criteria. These companies are looking for a holistic profile (software engineer) who is well versed with different software engineering tools. Thus, doing Leetcode and cracking interviews and actually being a good software engineer are totally different things. Once you start working, you find a considerable amount of learning curve in terms of code quality, technical understanding and concepts, and how to work in a diverse team and all. Here university’ most of the courses comprise hand-on on new technology, they will have team projects, and professors make sure that you don't team up with students from the same country. This way you will learn to work with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

It's like take light courses and do Leetcode and then struggle on the actual job or take excellent courses and manage Leetcoding and have less struggle on the job. I would recommend people to take good Courses and manage to do Leetcode. Now the question is, how? So one the main thing that people need to understand is if you are a Fall student, you can get an internship till April and even May so don't freak out if you don't have an internship in the Fall semester itself. Trust me, the knowledge gained from university courses will help you throughout your career.

Make a proper timeline, assuming the Fall semester you did not get much time as you are adjusting yourself with USA study culture and all. Now you have a full December break to prepare for Leetcode, utilize this time correctly, and make your Data structure and Algorithm base reliable. Coming January, take good courses, and don't worry, it would not take as much time as it took in the previous semester because you are now familiar with all the necessary tools and know everything about assignments and how professors grade assignments. This is an essential factor to consider. Start applying to companies and manage to do solve Leetcode along with good courses, and importantly always remember people get internship till May also so be calm and focus both on Courses and Leetcode. As you give more and more interviews with companies, you start getting more confident in giving interviews and solving Leetcode, and courses already have involved coding, which makes your coding skills better and of good quality. One more advantage of taking good courses is that you get new cool projects to discuss in the interview and put on a resume and LinkedIn as well.

In a nutshell, do not run for Leetcode and take a light Course. Whether you get an offer letter in October or March does not matter; you all will join almost at the same time. The only difference is the knowledge gained and lastly your performance on the actual job by taking excellent courses and of course, there will a little more struggle, but it will all worth it.

And mark my words, you will not get a chance again to do your masters again; it's a one-time opportunity in life, so grab and make full use of it.

So best of luck and cheers to international students. Feel free to reach out to me for any questions on preparing timeline, how to manage time, how to practice Leetcode etc.