Why the roadmap order matters
The NeetCode 150 is not just a bigger Blind 75; the thing that makes it a roadmap is the sequence. The patterns are taught in an order where each one quietly prepares you for the next. Arrays and hashing teach you to trade space for constant-time lookups, a habit you reuse everywhere. Two pointers and sliding window build the instinct for walking indices over a structure instead of nesting loops. By the time you reach trees, recursion already feels natural from the linked-list section; by the time you reach graphs, traversal feels natural from trees; and by the time you reach dynamic programming, defining a state and a transition is far less intimidating because the earlier sections trained the underlying thinking. Doing the 150 in roadmap order is the difference between a curriculum and a pile of problems.
The grouping on this page mirrors that roadmap exactly, foundations first and math and bit manipulation last. Each pattern section also shows a one-line summary of when to reach for it and the typical complexity it unlocks, so as you work down the page you are building a mental index: not "I have solved problem 200" but "islands and connectivity are a graph traversal, and I reach for BFS or union-find." That index is what you actually use in an interview, where you never see a labelled problem - you see a story and have to recognise the pattern underneath it within a minute.
The 150, pattern by pattern
Here is the full pattern breakdown so you can see the shape of the roadmap before you start and pick where to focus. The counts are how many problems each pattern contributes; the technique is the one-line idea that pattern teaches.
| Pattern | Problems | The core idea |
|---|---|---|
| Arrays & Hashing | 9 | Lookups, counting, and de-duplication where order does not matter. |
| Two Pointers | 5 | Sorted arrays, palindromes, and pair-finding without nested loops. |
| Sliding Window | 6 | Longest/shortest contiguous subarray or substring that meets a condition. |
| Stack | 7 | Matching, nesting, and 'next greater element' problems. |
| Binary Search | 7 | Sorted input, or any monotonic answer space you can binary-search over. |
| Linked List | 11 | Reversal, cycle detection, and merging without extra arrays. |
| Trees | 15 | Traversal, depth, and structural comparison of binary trees. |
| Tries | 3 | Prefix search and autocomplete over a dictionary of words. |
| Heap / Priority Queue | 7 | Top-k, streaming medians, and repeatedly pulling the min or max. |
| Backtracking | 9 | Permutations, combinations, subsets, and constraint puzzles. |
| Graphs | 13 | Connectivity, islands, and shortest unweighted paths. |
| Advanced Graphs | 6 | Weighted shortest paths, MST, and topological ordering. |
| 1-D Dynamic Programming | 12 | Sequences where each state depends on a few earlier states. |
| 2-D Dynamic Programming | 11 | Grids, two-string alignment, and knapsack-style choices. |
| Greedy | 8 | Locally optimal choices that provably reach a global optimum. |
| Intervals | 6 | Merging, scheduling, and overlap detection over ranges. |
| Math & Geometry | 8 | Matrix manipulation and number-theory tricks. |
| Bit Manipulation | 7 | XOR tricks, counting set bits, and integer arithmetic without operators. |
NeetCode 150 vs Blind 75
The two lists answer different questions. The Blind 75 answers "what is the minimum I can do and still be ready?" The NeetCode 150 answers "what gives me confident, full coverage of every pattern?" Because the 150 contains all 75, the practical decision is about time, not about which list is better. If your interview is three or four weeks out, do the Blind 75 subset and stop there - the tracker on this page tags exactly which of the 150 are Blind 75 problems if you filter for them. If you have two months or more, or if a particular pattern keeps catching you out, do the full 150; the extra 75 problems are mostly mediums that drill the patterns the Blind 75 only samples, such as additional graph, heap, and two-dimensional dynamic-programming problems.
A common and effective approach is to do both in sequence: clear the Blind 75 first as a fast confidence pass, then return for the remaining NeetCode problems to deepen the weak spots that pass exposed. Because both pages here share the same per-problem progress, a problem you ticked on the Blind 75 page is recognised as the same problem here - you only have 75 more to go, not 150 from scratch.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the NeetCode 150?
- The NeetCode 150 is a curated set of 150 LeetCode problems organised into a study roadmap of around 18 patterns, from arrays and hashing through to advanced graphs and two-dimensional dynamic programming. It grew out of the Blind 75 and is a strict superset of it: every Blind 75 problem is in the NeetCode 150, plus 75 more that give each pattern fuller coverage. The defining feature is the ordering - the problems are sequenced so each pattern builds on the last, which is why people treat it as a roadmap rather than just a list.
- What order should I do the NeetCode 150 in?
- Follow the roadmap order, which is exactly how the problems are grouped on this page: arrays and hashing first, then two pointers, sliding window, stack, binary search, linked lists, trees, tries, heaps, backtracking, graphs, advanced graphs, one-dimensional then two-dimensional dynamic programming, greedy, intervals, math and geometry, and bit manipulation last. The sequence is deliberate - later sections assume the habits the earlier ones build, so doing it in order is meaningfully more efficient than jumping around by difficulty or topic.
- How long does the NeetCode 150 take?
- Plan for roughly eight to twelve weeks at a steady pace, longer than the Blind 75 because it is twice the size and goes deeper into each pattern. At two to three problems a day with a weekly review session, most people finish in two to three months. If you are interviewing soon and short on time, do the Blind 75 subset first - the tracker shows you exactly which problems those are - then come back for the remaining problems if your timeline allows.
- Is the NeetCode 150 enough to pass FAANG interviews?
- For the coding rounds, it is a strong and usually sufficient foundation - it covers the patterns that drive almost every algorithmic question at large tech companies. But a full loop is more than coding. Senior and staff candidates face system design, which the 150 does not address, and every level faces behavioural rounds. Use the NeetCode 150 to make the coding rounds a non-issue, then invest the time it frees up into system design and rehearsed behavioural stories, which is where strong coders most often lose offers.
- Should I watch the solution videos or solve cold first?
- Always attempt the problem cold first, for at least 20 to 30 minutes, even if you do not finish. The struggle is what builds pattern recognition; watching a walkthrough before trying robs you of it. If you are stuck after a genuine attempt, read or watch the optimal approach, understand the key insight, then close everything and re-solve from scratch. The goal of every problem is to be able to reproduce the solution unaided a few days later, not to have seen it once.