I've never done any "leetcoding" (whatever that means). Programming for me was love at the first sight when I was a teenager, and still a big lover story for me

I've never done any "leetcoding" (whatever that means). Programming for me was love at the first sight when I was a teenager, and still a big lover story for me to this day. I got good at it by writing hobby code, university projects code, research code, and professional code. The one thing that is clear as the sun to me is that to get better at programming you first write shitty code, then less shitty code, until you know what good code looks like. But don't do it in a vacuum like "leetcode", do it as part of an actual project or an actual job (start with internships). Shipping code feels good and gives you motivation to keep going and learn from the feedback you get. The only warning I'd give is that if you're doing it to get a decent job, and not because you like doing it, then it will be a really hard hill to climb.