Career Choices of the Blind 75 Author as a Software Engineer

If you've been practicing LeetCode as a software engineer, you’re probably familiar with the Blind 75 list. This list was originally compiled by a senior engineer at Meta and has since become one of the most recommended lists for practicing LeetCode problems because it comprehensively covers the types of questions often asked by major tech companies.

Note: There’s a 20% discount code for GreatFrontend at the end of the article, so make sure to read through 😀

Recently, the ExplainThis team had the chance to have dinner with the Blind 75 author and hear him share his experience of leaving Meta to start his own business.

We were curious about his reason for leaving. After all, being an E6-level senior engineer at Meta, from a salary and benefits perspective, there didn't seem to be much to complain about. So, we especially wanted to know—if there wasn’t a push, what was the other more attractive factor that made him decide to leave and pursue something else?

This decision may have been a long time in the making. After graduating from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a degree in Computer Science, he, like many graduates, joined a major tech company. However, unlike most graduates, he had a strong passion for sharing.

In addition to compiling the iconic Blind 75 list, the open-source resources he created have accumulated over 200,000 stars on GitHub (yes, you read that right—200,000 stars, not 20,000).

We first secured our jobs at major tech companies by using the open-source resources he curated, which is also how we started following his work.

Besides his love for sharing, he also has a deep passion for frontend development. While he began his career, like many computer science students, as a software engineer doing both frontend and backend work, over time, the charm of frontend development drew him to dedicate more of his time to it.

Leaving Meta to start his own business full-time was driven by his desire to focus more on the frontend development space. Specifically, he founded GreatFrontend, a company that currently has two main offerings:

• A platform to help frontend engineers prepare for interviews
• A project-based learning system to help engineers enhance their skills

In its next phase, GreatFrontend will also be developing tools to help frontend engineers work more efficiently.

Just like how years ago we landed jobs at major tech companies thanks to his open-source resources, a member of the ExplainThis team recently landed a senior engineering position, with their preparation largely supported by GreatFrontend’s system design interview content.

In addition to system design, GreatFrontend also offers hundreds of frontend coding questions, allowing you to practice popular problems such as debounce, curry, and UI challenges in an online editor—much like practicing LeetCode. For problems you find difficult, there are detailed explanations curated for reference.

As for his career choice, leaving a high-paying job at a major company was driven by his passion for sharing, helping others grow, and his love for frontend development. After hearing his story, we were filled with excitement. While we may not yet have the courage to leave our jobs, we hope to continue contributing more to the community by sharing and helping others grow 😊

Note: Below is the author’s personal GitHub page—just look at those packed commit logs. All we can say is, impressive!