[EvanPlaice]

I find that many of the problems require 'guessing the question' rather than just an optimized solution.

The problem will be poorly defined, missing constraints, have useless test cases. Instead the 'secret' to answering many questions requires buying test cases, etc.

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Don't get me wrong, it's fun for some occasional practice.

I just don't see much utility in terms of solving 'real world' problems. Unless a company has a specific need for micro-optimizing their data processing.

In practical terms, it's usually better to use 3rd party tools that are battle tested, stable, well-tested, and highly optimized. The best code, is the code you don't have to write yourself.

Developers who would rather roll their own solution and rely on naive, yet, well known solutions to common CS problems may do more harm than good. Especially, in a time/resource constrained environment.