Let me say something that will probably annoy both sides.
Yes, AI can solve most LeetCode problems instantly.
And yes, I’m still practicing them.
Not because I enjoy pain.
Not because I love red/green submission screens.
But because I’m starting to realize something uncomfortable:
We are slowly losing our ability to think without assistance.
And that scares me more than AI ever did.
“Why Are You Still Grinding LeetCode? Just Ask GPT.”
I hear this constantly.
“Bro, interviews are outdated.”
“Bro, real work isn’t binary trees.”
“Bro, just use AI.”
Sure.
AI can give you a perfect DFS in seconds.
It can generate a dynamic programming solution cleaner than yours.
It can explain time complexity better than your college professor.
But here’s the real question:
If the AI disappeared tomorrow…
Would you still know what’s happening?
Or would you just be staring at your own code like it’s written in hieroglyphics?
The Layoffs Changed Everything
Let’s not pretend the last two years didn’t shift the ground under our feet.
Teams were cut.
“High performers” were let go.
Senior engineers were suddenly competing with mid-level devs.
Entry-level roles started asking for 3–5 years of experience.
And in that chaos, one pattern became obvious:
The people who survived weren’t the fastest typers.
They were the ones who could untangle complexity.
The ones who could:
- Debug production issues without panicking
- Reason through messy systems
- Break down vague problems into structured steps
- Think clearly under pressure
That’s algorithmic thinking.
That’s what LeetCode trains.
Not memorization.
Not trivia.
Structured thought.
AI Makes You Faster. It Doesn’t Make You Deeper.
I use AI every single day.
To refactor.
To scaffold.
To debug small issues.
To save time.
If you’re not using AI in 2026, you’re being stubborn.
But here’s the uncomfortable part:
AI makes you faster.
LeetCode makes you deeper.
And speed without depth is fragile.
You can ship features quickly with AI assistance.
But when:
- There’s a race condition
- Memory spikes under load
- A weird edge case breaks production
- The model-generated solution is “almost” correct
Someone still needs to think.
And if you’ve outsourced your thinking for too long, that moment becomes terrifying.
“But I Don’t Use Graphs at Work.”
Correct.
Most of us aren’t implementing Dijkstra on a random Wednesday.
But solving graph problems forces you to:
- Model relationships
- Track state transitions
- Think about complexity
- Visualize flows
And guess what large distributed systems are?
Graphs.
State machines.
Transitions.
Constraints.
LeetCode problems are artificial.
But the mental muscle they build isn’t.
The Real Problem: Comfort Addiction
AI removed friction.
You don’t sit stuck for 45 minutes anymore.
You don’t draw diagrams.
You don’t wrestle with recursion until it finally clicks.
You paste.
You regenerate.
You move on.
Efficient? Absolutely.
But growth rarely happens in comfort.
LeetCode forces friction.
It forces you to sit with not knowing.
And in an era where autocomplete finishes your thoughts, the ability to struggle productively is becoming rare.
The Dangerous Future Nobody Talks About
Imagine a generation of developers who can ship full apps with prompts…
…but freeze when:
- The AI gives a wrong answer
- The bug doesn’t reproduce locally
- The system behaves unpredictably
- The solution requires original reasoning
That’s not a hypothetical.
I’ve seen it already.
Developers who move incredibly fast, until they hit the 10% that requires raw thinking.
Then everything slows down.
Because they never trained that muscle.
So Should You Still Do LeetCode?
If your only goal is to pass interviews with AI assistance?
Maybe not.
If your goal is to become antifragile in a volatile market?
Yes.
Not because companies worship it.
Not because interview culture is perfect.
But because thinking is becoming optional.
And optional skills disappear.
This Isn’t About Nostalgia
I’m not romanticizing “the old days.”
I’m not anti-AI.
I’m not anti-productivity.
I’m not saying grind 500 problems like it’s 2018.
I’m saying this:
Use AI.
But don’t let it atrophy your brain.
Solve problems without help sometimes.
Struggle intentionally.
Build intuition.
Understand why the solution works before you paste it.
Because one day, the tool will fail.
And in that moment, the only thing left is you.
Final Question
If ChatGPT went offline for a week…
Would your coding confidence drop?
Or would it stay the same?
Be honest.
Are you sharpening your thinking?
Or outsourcing it?
Let’s fight in the comments.
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