Coding interview guide
Blind 75, NeetCode 150 or Grind 75? Pick one by timeline
Blind 75, Grind 75 and NeetCode 150 are the three most common LeetCode study lists, and they overlap more than their names suggest. This Blind 75 vs NeetCode 150 comparison covers where each list came from, what the extra problems add, and which one fits the number of weeks you have.
List sizes and topic counts below come from neetcode.io and techinterviewhandbook.org, checked Nov 14, 2026. Both sites update their lists occasionally, so the live pages are the source of truth.
Where each list came from
Blind 75. Yangshun Tay, a former Meta staff engineer, compiled it during his own job search and shared it on Blind, the anonymous workplace forum. It was reposted to the LeetCode forum and became the default "short list" for coding interviews. It's 75 problems: 19 easy, 49 medium and 7 hard, as NeetCode counts them. Its author's own criticism is that it's static, not personalized, and doesn't say which questions matter most.
Grind 75. Tay's follow-up, hosted on Tech Interview Handbook. He ranked the top LeetCode questions by popularity, frequency, topics and likes, and selected 169 of them. Then he assigned each a priority, and the top 75 became Grind 75. You can set how many hours you have, pick difficulties and topics, and view the list by week. The first 75 contain no premium questions, and each question has a recommended time limit. His FAQ says more than half of the questions are medium, and that going beyond the 169 has diminishing returns.
NeetCode 150. Built by NeetCode, it is "the Blind 75 plus 75 more problems," aimed at people already familiar with basic algorithms and data structures. It has 28 easy, 101 medium and 21 hard problems across 18 topics. NeetCode also offers the NeetCode 250 (the 150 plus 100 more), which it calls its most beginner-friendly list.
Blind 75 vs NeetCode 150: where the extra 75 problems go
Because NeetCode 150 contains all of Blind 75, the useful question is what the second 75 add. Using NeetCode's own topic counts:
| Topic | Blind 75 | NeetCode 150 |
|---|---|---|
| Arrays & hashing | 8 | 9 |
| Two pointers / sliding window | 3 / 4 | 5 / 6 |
| Stack | 1 | 6 |
| Binary search | 2 | 7 |
| Linked list | 6 | 11 |
| Trees / tries | 11 / 3 | 15 / 3 |
| Heap / priority queue | 1 | 7 |
| Backtracking | 2 | 10 |
| Graphs / advanced graphs | 6 / 1 | 13 / 6 |
| 1-D / 2-D dynamic programming | 10 / 2 | 12 / 11 |
| Greedy / intervals | 2 / 5 | 8 / 6 |
| Bit manipulation / math & geometry | 5 / 3 | 7 / 8 |
The pattern is clear. Blind 75 is heavy on arrays, trees and 1-D dynamic programming and light everywhere else. NeetCode 150 adds depth in stacks, binary search, heaps, backtracking, graphs, advanced graphs and 2-D dynamic programming. Those are exactly the topics where one practice problem isn't enough to recognize the pattern under pressure.
Grind 75 sits between the two. Its pool started from Blind 75, Sean Prashad's LeetCode Patterns and Elements of Programming Interviews, so many classics overlap, but it isn't a strict superset of Blind 75. Its default order mixes topics week by week rather than finishing one topic at a time.
Which list to choose by weeks available
| Time before your interview | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1-3 weeks | Grind 75 set to your hours, or Blind 75 | Grind 75 trims and orders the list to fit; Blind 75 is a fixed, well-known minimum |
| 4-7 weeks | Grind 75, extended past 75 if you have time | Prioritized, mixes topics, and grows toward 169 without changing lists |
| 8-12 weeks | NeetCode 150 | Covers the topics Blind 75 skims; about 19 new problems a week over eight weeks |
| New to algorithms | NeetCode 250, or fundamentals first | NeetCode calls it its most beginner-friendly list |
Pick one list and finish it. Switching halfway usually means redoing easy problems and skipping the hard topics at the end.
An eight-week NeetCode 150 plan
This plan groups NeetCode's topics so each week has roughly 15-21 new problems, which works out to two or three a day with time left for re-solves.
- Week 1: Arrays & hashing, two pointers, sliding window (20)
- Week 2: Binary search, linked list (18)
- Week 3: Stack, trees (21)
- Week 4: Tries, heap / priority queue, backtracking (20)
- Week 5: Graphs, advanced graphs (19)
- Week 6: 1-D dynamic programming, intervals (18)
- Week 7: 2-D dynamic programming, greedy (19)
- Week 8: Bit manipulation, math & geometry (15), plus two timed mock sessions and re-solves of your weakest topics
Short on time? Compress the same order into four weeks of Blind 75. Week 1: arrays, two pointers, sliding window, stack, binary search, linked list (24). Week 2: trees, tries, heap, backtracking (17). Week 3: graphs, intervals, greedy, bit manipulation (19). Week 4: dynamic programming and math (15).
How to practice so it sticks
- Time-box every attempt. Grind 75's FAQ notes that interviews usually allow under half an hour per algorithm question. Give yourself 25-30 minutes on a medium. If you're stuck, read the solution, understand it, and close it.
- Re-solve from a blank editor. Re-solve the problem the next day, again after about a week, and again a few weeks later. That spaced repetition is the same principle Grind 75 uses when it revisits topics across weeks. If you can't reproduce the solution, it goes back in the queue.
- Keep an error log by pattern. Note the pattern you missed ("didn't see it was a monotonic stack") rather than the problem name. Patterns transfer to new problems; memorized answers don't.
- Do timed re-solves in a plain editor. Once a week, take two problems you've already done and solve them in 60-70 minutes with no autocomplete. That mirrors online assessment platforms and shows whether the pattern is really learned.
- Explain out loud. State the approach and its time and space complexity before coding, as you would in a live round.
If you use Interview LLM while practicing, keep it in the review step: screenshot a problem you've already attempted, read the worked solution and complexity analysis, then re-solve it yourself later without it. Planning for a specific company? See the Amazon OA guide or Google coding interview guide.
Sources (checked Nov 14, 2026)
- Tech Interview Handbook, About Grind 75: techinterviewhandbook.org/grind75/about
- Tech Interview Handbook, Grind 75 FAQ: techinterviewhandbook.org/grind75/faq
- Tech Interview Handbook, Best practice questions (Blind 75 history): techinterviewhandbook.org/best-practice-questions
- NeetCode, NeetCode 150: neetcode.io/practice/practice/neetcode150
- NeetCode, Blind 75: neetcode.io/practice/practice/blind75
- NeetCode, NeetCode 250: neetcode.io/practice/practice/neetcode250
FAQ
Is NeetCode 150 a superset of Blind 75?
Yes. NeetCode describes the NeetCode 150 as the Blind 75 plus 75 more problems, so finishing it means you've done every Blind 75 problem.
Is Grind 75 the same as Blind 75?
No, but they're related. Both are by Yangshun Tay, and Grind 75's question pool started from Blind 75 plus other pattern lists. Grind 75 is re-ranked by priority, avoids premium questions in its first 75, and can be resized to the hours you have.
Is Blind 75 still enough in 2026?
For a short timeline, it covers the core patterns. Its weak spots are thin coverage of stacks, heaps, backtracking and 2-D dynamic programming, with one or two problems each. With more than a month, NeetCode 150 or the longer Grind list fills those gaps.
How many problems a day should I do?
Divide the list by your days and add time for re-solves. NeetCode 150 over eight weeks is about 19 new problems a week, or roughly three a day, plus reviews. If that's more than you can do well, use a shorter list rather than rushing.