How to set a good target for your professional growth?

Sept. 1, 2018

Introduction

It is a long weekend in Canada and I like to relax and write a simple and easy blog to share with others. The title is called how to set a good target for your professional growth.

My target is to finish 70 easy level algorithm every month, or 50 medium level or 30 difficult level algorithm on Leetcode.com. I like to finish easy level algorithms first, and then move to medium level. I believe that I should get enough basic training first, and then move on tricky ones. Take it easy and learn very well on those easy level algorithms. They are best friends of programmers.

Why do I set the target?

I set the target based on data, analysis, and also my past experience.

Below 50% average

I like to show the report on interviewing.io I had early this year, 3 interviews as an interviewee. 

I think that it is impossible for a Chinese to perform super good on interview if she has not practiced over 300 algorithms on Leetcode.com.

I think that the evaluation is not biased. Since it matches my performance on Leetcode.com.

Ranking 50000

I did quick study about my Leetcode ranking, I wrote a blog on this. My ranking is around 50000 on Leetcode.com based on my solved algorithm 177/889 up to Sept. 1, 2018.

In order for me to set an ambitious target to stay competitive on job market, I have to work on this ranking first.

My target is to finish all easy level algorithms left on Leetcode.com, in total around 150 algorithms. This is a smart approach, I can quickly build up some good experience and also good habit to write code daily.

Based on this August performance, I finished 34 easy level algorithms, I certainly can keep the same pace, two easy level algorithms a day. Here is the detail in my blog to document my practice.

My target is to move my ranking to 10000 first.

Community builder

It takes a village to raise a child.

The culture is so important for me to work for. I like to journal my practice, and get help and encouragement from others. I need to reach the community and find role models.

It is my good choice. Share my practice on Leetcode discuss for every algorithm I practice. Share more on code review stackexchange.com based on my Leetcode.com practice.

What is my target?

Hackerrank

Here is my hackerrank profile. I have not set any target for my practice on Hackerrank.com. Compared to Leetcode.com, I like to focus on Leetcode.com first, also focus on easy level algorithms first. As long as I continue to work on coding on daily basis, I will figure out ways to improve my performance.

Leetcode submission last 12 months

I like to set a target to make over 1600 submission for next 12 months.

To build a habit to write code every day, it is not easy task. I have not done this last eight years. Now I start to build a habit on this.

Here is my last 12 months submission.

Here is my target future 12 months submission. I find a role model for me to follow.

I like to set my submission target.

Here are some data for me to look into:

Less than 8
Between 8 - 17
Between 17 - 25
Between 25 - 34
More than 34

The role model did have submission more than 20 a day Sept, 2017 two times, 35 submission - Sept. 17, 23 submission - Sept. 19, 2018

Based on my experience, I felt so exhausted after I submitted more than 9 times on one day.

9 submissions a day, here is the algorithms I worked on, array easy level algorithms.

I need to work on endurance training. How to stay focus on after 9 submissions? One tip is to avoid complicated code, change the design to remove unnecessary user cases, cut to minimum of user cases.

I documented my struggle through the blog related to algorithm Leetcode 448. The lesson I learned is to avoid complicated code, or design, or introduction of extra use cases to complicate the solution. -1 as element of the array really exhausted me through over 20 minutes struggle. I decided to give up after 20 minutes.