Member-only story
Stop Using LeetCode for Coding Interviews: Here’s a More Accurate Way to Test Developers
The best programmers aren’t always the best LeetCoders — here’s how to spot the difference.
Tech interviews today feel like a race:
Who can memorize the most LeetCode problems?
Who can solve a graph question under pressure?
Who remembers that one obscure dynamic programming trick?
But here’s the thing: this is not how real developers work.
If I were the interviewer, I wouldn’t use LeetCode at all.
Instead, I’d give candidates a small piece of real code and ask them to read it, understand it, and explain it.
Why? Because that’s what developers do every single day.
Here are five simple reasons why code-reading interviews make more sense than algorithm drills.
1. Developers Spend More Time Reading Code Than Writing It
Think about your daily work as an engineer:
You’re reading old code, debugging issues, reviewing pull requests, trying to understand what someone wrote two years ago at 2 a.m.
