I think that it helps a lot to have a daily practice of using a language for small things.

In much that same way that many people do the daily wordle or crossword, I do the daily leetcode.

I flip a coin and solve it first in either C++ or Python, then re-write my solution in the other one.

Usually it takes me around 20 minutes to solve it in either language, and 5 minutes to re-solve it in either language.

Recently I decided to start learning emacs lisp. This is an imperative lisp dialect that’s pretty different from scheme, but I think that the particular language doesn’t matter much for this process. I could a bit biased because I do have prior experience with SML and scheme.

I started re-solving the problems a third time in emacs lisp. And I’m still learning but I’ve felt my comfort with the language increase over time, and I expect that if I continue doing this then I will eventually reach parity with C++ and Python.

Currently it takes me about 20 minutes to re-solve a problem in emacs lisp, because I usually have to read documentation and/or look up something new.

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meken 4 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Nice to meet someone else that does the daily leetcode!

It is really a nice feature - I wish every online judge website would add it.

Bonus - Racket is an accepted language on leetcode ;-)

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retrac 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> I could a bit biased because I do have prior experience with SML

You're probably under-weighing this factor.

The average programmer looks at SML syntax and cannot make, pardon the expression if you will, heads or tails of it.

Indeed, I'd argue the average programmer still considers recursion an advanced topic.

	▲	hibbelig an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Recursion. Very interesting. My daughter didn’t know much about programming, then started CS. The first semester language was Ocaml and they of course used recursion quite heavily and she’d didn’t know it was supposed to be complicated. The second semester had assembly, C and Java and suddenly it was a problem. I had to remind her that she’s had already done it in the first semester.

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sillysaurusx an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Where do you find a daily leetcode problem? Is there a website somewhere that publishes them?

	▲	meken a few seconds ago \| parent \| next [-]
		They are published on the leetcode website. Here's a screenshot showing where to click [1]. LeetCode does have an "unofficial" API to get the problem of the day. Should work for previous days as well. This code worked last I tried [2]. [1] https://github.com/ebanner/daily-coding-challenges#leetcode [2] https://github.com/ebanner/get-daily-leetcode-problem/blob/m...
	▲	senkora 34 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		It's a feature of the leetcode.com website. I actually can't find a URL that will directly link to the current day's problem, but you can open https://leetcode.com/problemset/ and select the current date in the calendar widget (at the top right on desktop, or by clicking the green calendar floating action button at the bottom right on mobile). You can view the daily problem without logging in or creating an account. Fair warning: today's daily problem is a "hard" difficulty and it is often worth skipping those or peeking at the solution. They can take a while to solve (often at least an hour) and/or rely on unusual tricks or data structures. I haven't solved this one yet so idk exactly what its deal is.

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throwaway27448 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How did you arrive at C++ and Python? Yes I'm aware they have many structural and aesthetic differences, but why would you not choose a language with a different paradigm—functional, logical, even procedural, etc?

	▲	senkora 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Good question. I chose them because they are the languages that I use professionally and would choose for technical interviews. I expect to be asked to solve problems in either language in any given interview. Technical interviews are different enough from day-to-day work that I still find it valuable to practice in them.

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6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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