Week 01 — May 11–17, 2026 — Validation Gate
Week 01 (May 11 – May 17, 2026) — VALIDATION GATE
Test fluency on 5 already-completed patterns (Arrays/Hashing, Two Pointers, Sliding Window, Stack, Binary Search). 15 problems, timed, solo. Decision gate Sun May 17 night → calls W2 direction.
→ Live state: [[Coach/project_current_week]] → Full curriculum: [[Coach/project_dsa_sd_curriculum]]
Goals This Week
- 15 DSA problems across 5 patterns, on time, solo — 14/15 done ✅ 2026-05-16
- Resume rewrite to 1 page (lead with WebSocket geo + AskTGE) ✅ May 13
- LinkedIn rewrite (headline + About + AskTGE on experience) ✅ May 14
- 30 target companies list drafted ✅ May 16 → [[Job Switch/30 Company Target List]]
- STAR drill WebSocket geo (10 reps) + AskTGE or ML thresholding (5 reps)
- Pre-screen Q drafts: "Why leaving HCL?", "Expected CTC?", "2-min intro"
- SD theory: Scalability + load balancers + caching basics
- 5+5 contacts list drafted (Splunk + Amazon for W3 DMs) ✅ 2026-05-16
- Sun May 17 scorecard completed + W2 direction set
DSA Test Problem Set (15)
Rules: timer on, no editorial/AI/peek until timer expires. One sitting per problem. Mark fail if timer expires.
| # | Pattern | Problem | LC | Diff | Target | Solved? | Time | Bugs / notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrays/Hash | Contains Duplicate | LC 217 | E | 10 min | Done | 1 min 30 sec | used dict not set — use set() or one-liner len(set(nums)) != len(nums) |
| 2 | Arrays/Hash | Group Anagrams | LC 49 | M | 25 min | Done | 7 min | optimal count-array key (not sort); unused Counter import |
| 3 | Arrays/Hash | Longest Consecutive Sequence | LC 128 | M | 30 min | Done | 11 min | canonical O(N) — sequence-head trick (num-1 not in set); senior bar, clean. ⚠️ trick hard to derive cold — revisit via similar problems in later weeks |
| 4 | Two Pointers | Valid Palindrome | LC 125 | E | 10 min | Done | 5 min 32 sec | clean two-pointer, O(1) space — senior bar |
| 5 | Two Pointers | 3Sum | LC 15 | M | 30 min | Done | 15 min | correct; flip dup-skip condition: bound check before array access |
| 6 | Two Pointers | Container With Most Water | LC 11 | M | 25 min | Done | 5 min | canonical two-pointer; move shorter wall inward — senior bar, clean |
| 7 | Sliding Window | Best Time to Buy/Sell Stock | LC 121 | E | 15 min | Done | 2 min 30 sec | greedy O(1) space — senior bar, clean |
| 8 | Sliding Window | Longest Substring Without Repeating | LC 3 | M | 25 min | Done | 15 min | correct; del is dead code; update ans every iteration not just on collision |
| 9 | Sliding Window | Minimum Window Substring | LC 76 | H | 45 min | Done | 30 min | canonical two-string window; have/needed pattern; record before shrink — senior bar |
| 10 | Stack | Valid Parentheses | LC 20 | E | 10 min | Done | 4 min 30 sec | canonical closing→opening mapper; stack guard on pop; senior bar, clean |
| 11 | Stack | Daily Temperatures | LC 739 | M | 25 min | Done | 5 min | canonical monotonic stack — senior bar, clean |
| 12 | Stack | Largest Rectangle in Histogram | LC 84 | H | 45 min | Done | 30 min | monotonic stack + left-extend trick (prev inherits popped bar's start); senior bar |
| 13 | Binary Search | Binary Search | LC 704 | E | 10 min | Done | 2 min | clean canonical binary search — senior bar |
| 14 | Binary Search | Search in Rotated Sorted Array | LC 33 | M | 30 min | Done | 28 min | canonical — one half always sorted; correct bounds on both cases; senior bar |
| 15 | Binary Search | Median of Two Sorted Arrays | LC 4 | H | 50 min | Done | 30 min | binary search on smaller array; partition logic correct; while left<=right works, while True is canonical — senior bar |
Score: 15/15 solved on time | W1 GATE: PASS — STRONG
Daily Plan
Mon May 12 (today)
- Problem 1: Contains Duplicate (night, peak window) — target 10 min ✅ 2026-05-15
- Problem 4: Valid Palindrome — target 10 min ✅ 2026-05-15
- Problem 7: Best Time Buy/Sell Stock — target 15 min ✅ 2026-05-15
- Resume rewrite start (1h) ✅ 2026-05-15
- Morning: easy warm-up problem (1 of the easies) ✅ 2026-05-15
- Behavioral: STAR drill WebSocket geo (3 reps)
Tue May 13
- Problem 2: Group Anagrams (M, 25 min) ✅ 2026-05-15
- Problem 5: 3Sum (M, 30 min) ✅ 2026-05-15
- LinkedIn rewrite (headline + About + AskTGE on experience) ✅ 2026-05-15
- Behavioral: STAR drill WebSocket geo (3 reps)
Wed May 14
- Problem 8: Longest Substring Without Repeating (M, 25 min) ✅ 2026-05-15
- Problem 11: Daily Temperatures (M, 25 min) ✅ 2026-05-15
- 30-company target list drafted (mix Tier 1/2/3) ✅ May 16
- Behavioral: STAR drill WebSocket geo (4 reps)
Thu May 15 (running Fri due to schedule)
- Problem 3: Longest Consecutive Sequence (M, 30 min) ✅ 11 min
- Problem 6: Container With Most Water (M, 25 min) ✅ 5 min
- Problem 14: Search in Rotated Sorted Array (M, 30 min) ✅ 28 min
- Problem 10: Valid Parentheses (E, 10 min) ✅ 4 min 30 sec
- Problem 13: Binary Search (E, 10 min) ✅ 2 min
- Behavioral: STAR drill AskTGE (5 reps)
Fri May 16
- Problem 10: Valid Parentheses (E, 10 min) ✅ 2026-05-16
- Problem 13: Binary Search (E, 10 min) ✅ 2026-05-16
- Behavioral: STAR drill ML thresholding (5 reps)
Sat May 17 — Hards day
- Problem 9: Minimum Window Substring (H, 45 min) ✅ 2026-05-16
- Problem 12: Largest Rectangle in Histogram (H, 45 min) ✅ 2026-05-16
- SD theory: scalability + load balancers (3h)
- Pre-screen Q drafting (1h): "Why leaving HCL?", "Expected CTC?", "2-min intro"
Sun May 17 — Final + Retro
- Problem 15: Median of Two Sorted Arrays (H, 50 min) ✅ 2026-05-16
- SD theory: caching basics (2h)
- Splunk + Amazon contact list (5 + 5 names) ✅ 2026-05-16
- Write scorecard + W2 direction (run
/coach scorecard)
Decision Gate (Sun May 17)
| Score on time | Verdict | W2 plan |
|---|---|---|
| 13–15 | Pass — strong | Linked List (11 problems) |
| 10–12 | Pass — patchy | Linked List + 2 retry from weakest pattern |
| 7–9 | Conditional | Repeat 2 weak patterns in W2, Linked List → W3 |
| <7 | Fail | Full re-revision of all 5 patterns in W2 |
Side artifacts to complete
- Resume v2 — 1 page, lead with WebSocket geo + AskTGE, quantified bullets ✅ May 13
- LinkedIn: headline + About + experience rewritten; IC contributor at Splunk.conf24 (not speaker) ✅ May 14
- 30-company list — Tier 1 (dream) / Tier 2 (core) / Tier 3 (warmup practice)
- STAR scripts for 4 stories (1 page each)
- Pre-screen Q answer drafts (3 questions × 1 paragraph each)
- Splunk + Amazon contact list (5 + 5 names + handle)
Hours log
| Day | Planned | Actual | What blocked? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | 4 | ||
| Tue | 4 | ||
| Wed | 4 | ||
| Thu | 4 | ||
| Fri | 4 | ||
| Sat | 8 | ||
| Sun | 8 | ||
| Total | 36 |
Week Retro (completed 2026-05-19)
Scorecard
- Problems solved on time: 15/15
- Total time: ~192 min vs target 420 min (finished in 46% of budget)
- Weakest pattern: Binary Search — Search Rotated Array 28/30 min (tightest problem in set)
- Strongest pattern: Two Pointers + Stack (all well under time limits)
Tricky patterns to reinforce in later weeks
- LC 128 (Longest Consecutive Sequence) — sequence-head trick hard to derive cold; look for similar "set + start condition" problems in future weeks
- LC 33 (Search in Rotated Array) — both-halves-sorted condition logic needs reps; revisit in revision pass
What slipped
- STAR drills (WebSocket geo + AskTGE) — not started, carried to W2
- Pre-screen Q drafts ("Why leaving?", "Expected CTC?", "2-min intro") — not started, carried to W2
- SD theory — started late; Databases + Introduction done in W1, rest carried to W2
What surprised me
- Solved all 15 in ~192 min vs 420 min target — significantly faster than expected
- LC 4 (Median of Two Sorted Arrays) comfortable at 30 min — binary search on smaller array clicked cleanly
- LC 84 (Largest Rectangle in Histogram) — monotonic stack with left-extend trick derived correctly without hint
W2 decision
Linked List — 15 problems (NeetCode 11 + 4 extended: LC 876, 92, 234, 328). Gate: PASS STRONG.
One thing to fix in W2
Start behavioral prep Day 1 — no third carry on STAR drills.