TL;DR
After NeetCode 150, do not start another 150-problem list. You already know the patterns. What you need now is company-specific practice (15-30 tagged problems), mock interviews under time pressure, system design fundamentals, and behavioral prep. The gap between “I can solve LeetCode problems” and “I pass interviews” is performance, not knowledge.
Step 1: Company-Tagged Problems (15-30 Problems)
NeetCode 150 teaches patterns. Company-tagged problems show you how your target company applies those patterns. Every company has topic biases. Amazon tests backtracking at 16x the global average. Google hammers graphs at 7x. Apple obsesses over BSTs at 4.5x.
If you studied NeetCode 150 without checking what your target company actually asks, you likely over-prepared in some areas and under-prepared in others.
What to do: Look up your target company on our company interview questions page. See their topic distribution and difficulty breakdown. Do 15-30 of their most frequently asked problems, focusing on the topics where they have the highest multipliers.
This is not about memorizing specific questions. It is about calibrating your preparation to match what you will actually face. For a full breakdown of how well NeetCode 150 covers each FAANG company, read our Is NeetCode 150 Enough? analysis.
Step 2: Mock Interviews (5-10 Sessions)
This is the most skipped step, and it is the one that matters most. Solving problems alone in your IDE is fundamentally different from solving them while explaining your thought process to another person with a timer running.
In a real interview, you need to:
Read the problem and clarify edge cases out loud
Propose an approach before coding (not just start typing)
Code cleanly while narrating your decisions
Test your solution with examples and catch bugs verbally
Analyze time and space complexity when asked
Handle follow-up questions that change the constraints
None of this is practiced by solving problems on LeetCode alone. You need to practice performing. Try a free AI mock interview to practice with real-time feedback and follow-up questions, or find a study partner who can play the interviewer role.
Aim for 5-10 mock sessions before your real interview. The first 2-3 will feel awkward. By session 5, explaining your approach while coding becomes natural.
Step 3: System Design (2-4 Weeks)
If you are interviewing for mid-level roles or above (L4+ at Google, E4+ at Meta, SDE II+ at Amazon), your loop will include a system design round. NeetCode 150 does not prepare you for this at all.
Start with these 5 classic system design problems:
These five cover the core building blocks: hashing, databases, caching, message queues, load balancing, and API design. Once you understand these patterns, most other system design questions are variations.
Step 4: Behavioral Prep (1-2 Weeks)
Behavioral rounds are pass/fail gates. You can ace every coding round and still get rejected for a weak behavioral. Each company has a different framework:
14 Leadership Principles. Every answer must map to a specific principle.
Move Fast, Be Bold, Focus on Impact. They want evidence of shipping quickly.
Googleyness + Leadership. Collaboration, ambiguity, and intellectual humility.
Passion for product, attention to detail, cross-functional collaboration.
Growth mindset, customer obsession, diverse perspectives.
Prepare 5-7 stories from your work experience using the STAR format (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Good stories can be adapted to answer multiple behavioral questions. Practice telling them out loud until they feel natural, not rehearsed.
Step 5: Drill Your Weak Spots
After completing NeetCode 150, you should know which topics you struggled with. Go back to those topics and do 5-10 additional problems per weak area. Common weak spots:
If you memorized solutions instead of understanding the recurrence relation, DP will fail you in interviews. Redo the 2D DP section without looking at solutions.
Dijkstra, Bellman-Ford, union-find, and topological sort. If you only know basic BFS/DFS, you are exposed at Google and Amazon.
If you cannot write the backtracking template from memory (choose, explore, unchoose), redo Subsets, Permutations, and N-Queens until the pattern is automatic.
What NOT to Do After NeetCode 150
Do not start another massive problem list. NeetCode 250, Striver’s SDE sheet, or LeetCode’s top 300 are not the answer. You already have the patterns. Doing another 150 problems with the same patterns just gives you a false sense of progress. The marginal return on problem #151-300 is far lower than mock interviews and company-specific practice.
Do not keep grinding without a deadline. Set a target interview date and work backward. Open-ended “I will interview when I feel ready” leads to months of over-preparation and anxiety. You will never feel 100% ready. 80% prepared with good interview performance beats 100% prepared with poor communication.
Do not skip mock interviews. This is the number one mistake. Most people who fail FAANG interviews fail on communication and performance, not on problem-solving ability. If you can solve Mediums on LeetCode but cannot explain your approach under time pressure, you are not ready. Practice the performance, not just the problems.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I do NeetCode 250 after NeetCode 150?expand_more
Only if you have significant time before your interview. NeetCode 250 adds 100 more problems, mostly in advanced topics. For most candidates, the better use of that time is company-tagged problems (which target what your specific company asks) and mock interviews (which build performance under pressure). NeetCode 250 is worth it if you have 3+ months and want comprehensive coverage.
How do I know if I'm ready to interview after NeetCode 150?expand_more
You are ready when you can solve a random Medium problem within 25 minutes without hints, explain your approach clearly while coding, and identify the pattern within the first 2 minutes of reading the problem. If you can do this for 80% of Medium problems, you are ready. Mock interviews are the best way to test this under realistic conditions.
What should I study besides coding for FAANG interviews?expand_more
FAANG interview loops typically include 2-3 coding rounds, 1 system design round (for mid-level and above), and 1-2 behavioral rounds. After NeetCode 150, you need system design preparation (start with common patterns like URL shortener, chat system, news feed) and behavioral preparation (Amazon's 14 leadership principles, Meta's core values, Google's Googleyness framework).
How many company-tagged problems should I do?expand_more
15-30 company-tagged problems is enough for most candidates. Focus on the problems tagged for your specific target company, sorted by frequency. The goal is not to memorize answers but to learn the company's preferred problem style, difficulty level, and topic emphasis. Check our company interview questions page for real data from 459+ companies.