Two weeks in — the first was about starting, the second about discovering how much harder it is to keep going.
Day 14 marks the end of the second week of this journey, and if there is one thing I've learned this week, it's that starting is much easier than staying consistent.
The first half of the week was productive. I was able to sit for longer hours and get a lot of things done. But somewhere in the second half, the pace slowed down. The last couple of days especially made me realize that maintaining momentum is a completely different challenge.
Today was better, though.
I went through a few new coding problems in the morning and covered some of the topics I had been working on. I'm still short of the 50-question target we set for this week by around 20 questions, but I've realized that simply completing 50 questions isn't the goal.
For me, completion means something different.
If I study a topic like Two Sum or Two-Pointer problems, I should be able to recognize the pattern and solve other problems built around the same idea. Copying solutions just to increase the count doesn't really help.
So I'd rather solve fewer questions properly than finish a list without actually learning from it.
On the system-design side, things have gone better. I've covered several topics and also found a useful resource — the System Design Primer on GitHub — which I'm planning to use more extensively in the coming week.
And Week 3 is going to be different.
Until now, I've spent a lot of time learning concepts. Now I want to move towards implementation and practice. I'll start drawing architectures, working through design problems, understanding the components I'm using, and practicing how to communicate my thought process.
The interview pipeline is also moving.
I have an interview scheduled for tomorrow and two more conversations pending. The goal is to get around two to three interviews this week and use them not just as opportunities, but as feedback for the preparation itself.
For DSA, I'm moving into more advanced topics — sliding window, dynamic programming, trees, graphs, and other patterns. The target is again ambitious: around 50 questions, with a stretch goal of going towards 75.
Is that over-commitment?
Maybe.
But I think it's okay to set an ambitious target as long as I understand what I'm actually trying to achieve.
September is also beginning, and I see this month as particularly important. The festival season is approaching, and I want to make as much progress as possible before things slow down.
At the same time, I'm still trying to solve the personal side of this journey — my sleep, my focus, and the internal resistance that has been affecting my productivity.
I'm writing things down, talking to friends and mentors, and trying different approaches instead of simply ignoring the problem.
Because this journey isn't only about preparing for interviews.
It's also about building a version of myself that can stay consistent when the initial motivation disappears.
Two weeks are done.
The first week was about starting.
The second week was about realizing how difficult consistency can be.
Week three is where I will turn that momentum into execution.
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