People think my 1900+ LeetCode problems are about interview prep. They're wrong.

Well, partly wrong. But the real value of competitive programming for an ML engineer is how it rewires your brain.

After a few hundred problems, you start instinctively thinking about time complexity when designing data pipelines. You see optimization opportunities in feature engineering that you would have missed before. You decompose system design problems more clearly. Edge case thinking becomes automatic — which is critical when debugging production ML.

I'm not saying you need to grind 2000 problems. But consistently solving 200-300 medium-level problems will make you a fundamentally better engineer. Not just at interviews — at the actual job.

My daily routine for the past three years: two problems before work with my morning coffee. Takes about 40 minutes. It's not motivation. It's habit.

The compound effect of small daily practice is staggering. I'm a better ML engineer because of LeetCode, not despite spending time on it.

Start with one problem a day. See where you are in three months.