Sse

Hi Everyone, I’m a Senior Software Engineer with \~5 years of experience at a product-based company, currently preparing for FAANG interviews. I’ve been preparing seriously for around 6 months, but I feel like I’m progressing much slower than expected, and I’m starting to question my approach. LeetCode / DSA: I practice regularly, but DP / Graphs is my biggest struggle. For most DP problems, I need to watch videos first. Sometimes I solve a problem in \~15 minutes, but most of the time I have no clear starting point. When I focus on DP, I start forgetting other patterns. I’m not trying to memorize solutions — I’m trying to understand patterns and derive solutions — but it doesn’t feel efficient or sticky. System Design: I study topics for article and YouTube videos (for example, typeahead search). I understand the concepts while reading, but when I try to recall or explain later, I don’t feel confident enough to design it end-to-end in an interview setting. Overall, I feel like I’m working hard but not working right. I’d really appreciate guidance here who’ve successfully gone through this phase. How did you approach DP so it actually stuck without memorizing solutions? How did you balance revising old patterns while learning new ones? For system design, how did you move from “I understand it while reading” to confidently designing and explaining it in interviews? Also, is this pace normal after several months of prep, or is there something fundamentally wrong with my approach? Any structured advice, checkpoints, or mindset shifts would be extremely helpful.