Blind 75 vs NeetCode 150 vs Grind 75: Which to Use in 2026

Blind 75, NeetCode 150, and Grind 75 are the three most widely used curated LeetCode lists for coding interview prep. Blind 75 is the original fixed list of about 75 essential problems; NeetCode 150 doubles it to 150 problems organized by pattern with video solutions; and Grind 75 is the original author's updated, schedule-driven successor drawn from a pool of 169 problems. If you have under six weeks, use Grind 75; if you have eight or more weeks and want maximum pattern coverage, use NeetCode 150.

The rest of this guide explains where each list came from, what it covers, and how to schedule it.

Key Takeaways

• Blind 75 is a static list from Yangshun Tay. It is a solid minimum but underweights some patterns that show up regularly in 2026.
• NeetCode 150 contains the Blind 75 plus 75 more problems in 18 categories, with a free video solution for each problem. It offers the broadest coverage of the three.
• Grind 75 is Yangshun Tay's revised list. It adapts to your available weeks and hours and extends to 169 problems.
• Pick by timeline: under four weeks, Grind 75 trimmed to your hours; four to eight weeks, Grind 75 full; eight weeks or more, NeetCode 150.
• All three lists work in 2026 only if you learn the underlying patterns. Memorized answers break on follow-up variants.

What Is Blind 75?

Blind 75 is a curated list of roughly 75 LeetCode problems selected to cover the most important data structures and algorithm patterns for technical interviews. It was compiled by Yangshun Tay, then an engineer at Meta (Facebook at the time), and posted on Blind, the anonymous professional forum for tech workers. The list's name comes from the forum where it first circulated, not from any company.

The list groups problems into ten topics:

• Array
• Binary (bit manipulation)
• Dynamic Programming
• Graph
• Interval
• Linked List
• Matrix
• String
• Tree
• Heap

Classic entries include Two Sum, Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock, 3Sum, Container With Most Water, Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters, Merge Intervals, Course Schedule, Number of Islands, Coin Change, Word Break, Lowest Common Ancestor of a BST, and Merge K Sorted Lists.

Blind 75's strength is efficiency: it was explicitly designed for people who did not have time to grind hundreds of problems. Its weakness is that it is static. It cannot adapt to your timeline, and its topic mix reflects what was common when it was assembled rather than what is common now.

What Is NeetCode 150?

NeetCode 150 is a list of 150 LeetCode problems created by Navdeep Singh, the engineer behind the NeetCode YouTube channel and neetcode.io. It includes every Blind 75 problem plus 75 additional problems chosen to fill gaps, and it reorganizes the whole set by pattern rather than by data structure.

The 18 categories, with approximate problem counts on the current roadmap:

The NeetCode roadmap presents these categories as a dependency tree. You start with Arrays and Hashing, then branch into Two Pointers and Stack, and unlock harder topics like Advanced Graphs and 2-D DP later. Every problem has a free video walkthrough, which is the main reason the list became so popular with self-taught candidates.

The additions matter. Compared with Blind 75, NeetCode 150 adds dedicated Stack problems (including monotonic stack problems such as Daily Temperatures and Largest Rectangle in Histogram), Advanced Graphs (Network Delay Time with Dijkstra, Min Cost to Connect All Points with Prim or Kruskal), more Backtracking (Subsets, Permutations, N-Queens), and a Greedy section.

What Is Grind 75?

Grind 75 is a customizable LeetCode study plan created by Yangshun Tay, the author of the original Blind 75, and hosted on his Tech Interview Handbook site. He built it as an updated replacement for Blind 75 after the original list aged.

Grind 75 differs from the other two lists in one fundamental way: it is a generator, not a fixed list. You set:

• How many weeks you have
• How many hours per week you can study
• Difficulty preferences
• Topic focus

The tool then produces a week-by-week schedule. The default plan contains 75 problems ordered so that earlier weeks build foundations. If you have more time, the pool extends to 169 problems, selected by popularity, frequency, topic coverage, and rating.

Grind 75 also fixes some of Blind 75's ordering problems. Easy problems in each topic come before hard ones, and topics are interleaved so you revisit patterns across weeks instead of finishing one topic and never seeing it again.

How Do Blind 75, NeetCode 150, and Grind 75 Compare?

Two patterns from this table matter most in practice. First, NeetCode 150 is the only list with explicit coverage of advanced graph algorithms, and Dijkstra-style shortest path problems do come up at Google and in senior loops. Second, Grind 75 is the only list that adjusts to your calendar, which matters if your onsite is already scheduled.

Which List Should You Pick?

By timeline

1. Under 3 weeks: Grind 75 configured to your actual weeks and hours. Accept that you will skip some topics and prioritize arrays, strings, hash maps, trees, and graphs.
2. 3 to 6 weeks: Grind 75 default plan. It is designed for this window.
3. 6 to 10 weeks: NeetCode 150, or Grind 75 extended toward 169 problems if you prefer its ordering.
4. 10 weeks or more: NeetCode 150, followed by company-tagged problems for your target companies.

By level

• New grads and interns: NeetCode 150. You need breadth, and the video explanations accelerate learning. See our new grad interview guide for how the rest of the loop works.
• Mid-level engineers refreshing: Grind 75. You likely already know the patterns and need targeted reps.
• Senior and staff engineers: Grind 75 or Blind 75 as a refresher. Your loop will weight system design and behavioral rounds more heavily, so do not overspend time on algorithms.
• Career switchers new to DSA: NeetCode 150, but spend the first two weeks on fundamentals before starting the list.

By target company

Google and Meta still run classic algorithm rounds, so broader coverage pays off; see the Google interview process guide. Companies like Stripe that use practical, non-LeetCode formats make these lists much less relevant. For a sense of how many problems the different loops actually require, our breakdown of how many LeetCode problems you need before a FAANG interview gives ranges by level and company.

What Does Each List Leave Out?

No curated list is complete. Knowing each list's gaps lets you patch them with a handful of targeted problems instead of switching lists halfway through.

Blind 75 gaps:

• Monotonic stack. Blind 75 has very few stack problems. Add Daily Temperatures (739), Next Greater Element I (496), and Largest Rectangle in Histogram (84).
• Shortest path and minimum spanning tree. Blind 75 has no Dijkstra or MST problems. Add Network Delay Time (743) and Min Cost to Connect All Points (1584).
• Binary search on the answer. Add Koko Eating Bananas (875) and Capacity to Ship Packages Within D Days (1011).
• Backtracking breadth. Add Subsets (78), Permutations (46), and N-Queens (51).

NeetCode 150 gaps:

• Union-find as a standalone pattern. It appears inside graph problems, but add Accounts Merge (721) to practice it directly.
• Prefix sums with hash maps. Add Subarray Sum Equals K (560) and Contiguous Array (525).
• Design problems. LRU Cache is included, but add LFU Cache (460) or Design Hit Counter if your target company favors design-flavored coding.

Grind 75 gaps:

• The default 75 problems compress advanced graphs, greedy, and some DP sub-patterns. If your schedule allows it, extend toward the 169-problem pool rather than adding problems ad hoc.

Every gap above maps to a pattern with its own template. Working through the pattern, not just the extra problem, is what closes the gap.

Do Curated LeetCode Lists Still Work in 2026?

Yes, with caveats. Algorithm rounds remain standard at Google, Meta, Amazon, and many other large employers, and the patterns covered by these lists still make up most of those rounds. Our analysis of whether FAANG companies still ask LeetCode covers the current landscape in more detail.

What has changed is how interviewers use well-known problems. Because these lists are so widely circulated, interviewers often:

• Ask a known problem with a twist, such as Two Sum on a stream, or Course Schedule returning the actual order.
• Add follow-ups on space complexity, input scale, or what changes if data does not fit in memory.
• Ask you to explain why your approach works rather than just whether it passes.
• Choose less famous problems that use the same pattern.

This is why the lists only work if you treat them as a pattern curriculum. Candidates who memorize solutions often stall on the first follow-up. We cover this trade-off in depth in should you memorize LeetCode solutions. The short answer: memorize templates, understand solutions.

A good test of real mastery is this: for any problem on your list, can you name the pattern, explain why it applies, write the solution in under 20 minutes, and state its time and space complexity? If not, revisit it. The coding interview patterns cheat sheet is a useful companion for reviewing each pattern's recognition signals and template.

What Study Schedule Works for Each List?

Blind 75 in 4 weeks (about 8-10 hours per week)

• Week 1: Array, String, and Binary. About 25 problems, mostly easy and medium.
• Week 2: Linked List, Interval, Matrix, and Heap. About 18 problems.
• Week 3: Tree and Graph. About 22 problems. These are the most interview-relevant topics, so do not rush.
• Week 4: Dynamic Programming, plus a review of every problem you could not solve on the first attempt.

NeetCode 150 in 10 weeks (about 12 hours per week)

• Weeks 1-2: Arrays and Hashing, Two Pointers, Sliding Window, Stack.
• Week 3: Binary Search and Linked List.
• Weeks 4-5: Trees, Tries, Heap.
• Week 6: Backtracking.
• Week 7: Graphs and Advanced Graphs.
• Weeks 8-9: 1-D and 2-D Dynamic Programming. Pair this with our guide to dynamic programming patterns.
• Week 10: Greedy, Intervals, Math and Geometry, Bit Manipulation, and timed mock sessions.

Grind 75 in 6 weeks

Use the Grind 75 site and set six weeks with your real weekly hours. Stick to its ordering, because it already interleaves topics. Reserve one session per week for re-solving problems you marked as difficult.

Rules that apply to every list

1. Time-box attempts. Give yourself 20 to 30 minutes on a medium before reading the solution. Struggling longer has diminishing returns.
2. Re-solve from scratch. After reading a solution, close it and write it yourself the next day. Spaced repetition matters more than problem count.
3. Track by pattern, not by problem. Keep a log of which patterns you miss, not just which problems.
4. Talk out loud. Practice narrating your approach, since communication is scored in every real round.
5. Do timed mocks in the final two weeks. Two problems in 45 minutes simulates real phone screen pacing.

For a broader view of total preparation time, see how many hours to prepare for a FAANG interview.

The Bottom Line

None of these lists is universally best. Blind 75 is the fastest path to minimum coverage. NeetCode 150 is the most complete and the most beginner-friendly. Grind 75 is the most practical for people with a fixed date and limited hours. Pick the one that matches your timeline, finish it properly, and spend the time you save on mock interviews and system design.