I leetcode until my eyes bleed and I can't think anymore. I forget almost everything I know about building software and instead focus on memorizing tricks and optimizations and processes for solving leetcode algorithm questions. In my last interview, in an automated screener, they had 7 leetcode easy+mediums in 10 minutes each, with zero partial credit, only final tests passing. That's what companies want now, so that's what I have to deliver - I don't have a fucking choice.

I look over system designs, try to understand what the core aspect is. For the most part I tend to pass those without as much of a problem.

Nothing works best, but doing this has gotten me further than actually practicing and writing code. I have 8 YoE, took a career break on short term disability for burnout/early childhood horrors that I needed to deal with. Its 2 years later, I'm able to code again and am picking up things much faster than ever, but I'm about to lose my apartment and move into a friends basement because a career break is, apparently, career suicide right now, and even contract companies won't even interview me because of the career break. I was getting cold recruited by FAANG before. I just want the opportunity to work so I can have stable housing, and I'm doing everything I can. It gets harder and harder to practice. I consider whether my career was a sham all along often. I don't really care that this is venting, there's nobody to talk to about it.