I’ve been reading a lot of LeetCode problem discussion threads this year, and a consistent trend is that that people upvote short solutions. The solution authors aren’t counting each character like they do over on Code Golf Stack Exchange. But they do try to minimize the number of lines, and even advertise their program length in the post title. Is that a bad thing?

Why do programmers pride themselves for writing short, hard-to-read code, especially solutions on LeetCode? (answer)

I’m doing most of my writing on Quora this year. For more information, see A Project for 2020.

I used to think that Quora questions like this one should all be merged into one big question. But as much as that idea might seem to match official Quora policy, it isn’t compatible with how Quora works in practice. So it’s sometimes better just to answer the question:

I am doing competitive programming for 1 year but still a newbie in Codeforces. What should I do? (answer)

I’m doing most of my writing on Quora this year. For more information, see A Project for 2020.

You don’t need to, but….

Do I need to know how to implement various data structures and algorithms from scratch? (answer)

I’m doing most of my writing on Quora this year. For more information, see A Project for 2020.

If people are studying competitive programming to get better at coding interviews, then this is a natural question to ask:

Does competitive programming affect pay scales? (answer)

I’m doing most of my writing on Quora this year. For more information, see A Project for 2020.

LeetCode makes it easy for users to find other people’s solutions to each problem. Is that a good thing?

Why does LeetCode let you see code for actual working solutions to the problems they pose? (answer)

I’m doing most of my writing on Quora this year. For more information, see A Project for 2020.

A perennial question:

Should I practice a lot for ACM? Or it needs only talent to solve problems? (answer)

I’m doing most of my writing on Quora this year. For more information, see A Project for 2020.

When you’re studying a subject, it’s good to be familiar with the syllabus:

What are the most common live-coding interview tasks for a software engineer position? (answer)

I’m doing most of my writing on Quora this year. For more information, see A Project for 2020.

A variation on a popular question:

How many times should I try to solve a problem in online judges? (answer)

I’m doing most of my writing on Quora this year. For more information, see A Project for 2020.

Are books still useful for coding interview preparation?

How can I utilize the Cracking the Coding Interview book effectively? (answer)

I’m doing most of my writing on Quora this year. For more information, see A Project for 2020.

This week, some armchair psychology:

Why do people cheat in competitive programming? (answer)

I’m doing most of my writing on Quora this year. For more information, see A Project for 2020.