> some people are completing 500-1000 leetcode problems before heading into interviews. Over the course of one year, I completed, classified, commented 200 lee

> some people are completing 500-1000 leetcode problems before heading into interviews. Over the course of one year, I completed, classified, commented 200 leetcode problems. I also taught algorithms to third and fourth year university students not too long ago. I believe I write readable code, I know perfectly the language I'm using (at least for that purpose), I'm totally fine with complexity, and I know most methods involved in these algorithms, including more advanced algorithms such as KMP. Yet... I failed my round of interviews at Google. After this preparation, I'm still not able to solve quickly any leetcode problem in the context of an interview. On a whiteboard, with an interviewer in my back, in a stressful situation. I need to practice more if I want to get consistent results. So I agree with your conclusion. We are competing with a lot of people who train using the same resources. Including young graduates who have a lot of free time on their hand. On a positive side, I'm thankful to Google for giving me a shot. Based on my resume (40+ with little experience in software industry), I'm not sure I would have been interviewed in a more traditional company, let say a bank. To come back to my interviews, system design went very well. Algorithms quite well too but not well enough. Couldn't solve one problem, and a bit slow on an other one. The recruiter first told me I passed, and that they were going to find a team for me and make me an offer. But they finally asked me to re-take the algorithmic interviews a few months later, to "make a stronger point to the hiring committee". Never heard from them since then, about 8 months ago. Recruiter doesn't answer emails. I think she moved to a different position. Not sure what to do now?