“This is what happens if you do very well on coding puzzles,” an acquaintance texted me last year during Advent of Code. I honestly assumed the link included in the text was gonna go to some meme of a skeleton dead in front of their computer.

A meme of a skeleton, dead, in front of their computer.

But nah, he wanted to link me to a Youtube video touting some Leetcode genius who had solved more than 3,000 problems on the site and landed a job at Google. And of course, getting a new job is why most people do Leetcode. As long as technical screens exist (which might not be that much longer, thanks ChatGPT), there will be people trying to prep for them on leetcode and leetcode-like sites.

That said, I have been doing a little leetcode here and there, despite not being on the job market. That sounds a little crazy to say out loud. Why would anyone want to put themselves through this torture?

Women and Gender eXpansive Coders DC has a monthly “Craft n’ Crush Your Coding Interview” event where a few folks get together and solve these toy problems in a supportive environment.

The organizer, Melissa, structures the events so that everyone has 15 minutes to solve the same problem, then we spend 15 minutes discussing our approaches and solutions, and then take a 15-minute crafting/chat break. It’s a really supportive environment. And there’s yarn.

Honestly, for some people the promise of crafts might be enough to get them to come. I’ve really been looking forward to the coding parts, though.

  • The fundamental problems and data structures in a Leetcode easy (the organizer mostly chooses easies) are often things I know about but don’t necessarily work with on a day-to-day basis. Can’t remember the last time I worked with a linked list outside of a Leetcode problem, but it’s probably a good thing to remember that such a structure exists.

  • Since everyone coming to this meetup has different skills and backgrounds, there are as many different solutions as there are people. I’ve often felt pretty proud of a solution of mine until another person comes along with an even better optimization. These are fantastic learning opportunities! Also, everyone uses their language of choice so I often get to go “Oh, Ruby can do that?”

  • I’m also not ashamed to admit I’m a tad bit competitive, so this meetup scratches that itch for me.

  • Plus, I’m making progress on a very cool cowl.

If you’re a woman in tech in the DMV, I hope you’ll check out WGXC DC’s Craft-n-Crush series. And if you’re not in the area, perhaps you would be inspired to start your own Craft n Crush in your region?