[pedrosorio]

> Most Leetcode Mediums (...) there's a "trick" embedded in the problem and if you don't already know the trick, you're never going to figure it out in 30 minutes

I am sorry to say, this is just not true.

> but having a few dozen solutions already memorized should let you do some pattern recognition

Chess opening memorization is pure "remember the moves, play the moves" that's it. No thinking or pattern recognition involved.

If this is about being able to solve problems by generalizing from having seen a few dozen solutions, then I don't think "memorizing" is the appropriate term here, at all.

[postalrat]

Do you have any evidence that isn't true? How often do truly new problems come up? Nearly every problem I see is after someone gets an an algorithm named after them.