NeetCode 150 vs Blind 75 vs LeetCode 75

Almost everyone preparing for a coding interview ends up staring at the same three options: the Blind 75, the NeetCode 150, and LeetCode 75. They sound interchangeable. They are not. They come from different places, they are organized differently, and picking the wrong one for your timeline is the most common way people end up under-prepared with a half-finished tracker.

This page compares all three honestly, then gives you a decision rule you can apply in about thirty seconds.

What each list actually is

Blind 75 — the community classic

The Blind 75 started as a post on the Blind forum, written by an engineer trying to answer the question “what is the minimum set of problems that still covers everything?” The answer was 75 problems spanning arrays and hashing, two pointers, sliding window, stacks, binary search, linked lists, trees, tries, heaps, backtracking, graphs, dynamic programming, and intervals.

It is not hosted by any one company. It has been re-published, re-ordered and re-tracked across dozens of sites, which is both its strength (it is everywhere, and there are solutions in every language) and its weakness (versions drift slightly, and nobody maintains a canonical one). Its defining property is density: almost every problem on it earns its place by teaching a distinct pattern rather than a variation. Our full Blind 75 guide lays out the whole list by pattern.

NeetCode 150 — the expanded, taught version

NeetCode 150 grew directly out of the Blind 75. It keeps the same skeleton and expands it to 150 problems, filling in the topics where 75 problems left gaps — more graph work, more dynamic programming, more binary search and heap variants, plus a bit-manipulation and math section.

The bigger difference is presentation. NeetCode groups problems into clearly named topic sections in a fixed recommended order, and each problem has a video walkthrough explaining the intuition rather than just posting code. If you learn better by watching someone reason out loud before you try it yourself, that changes the experience considerably. See our NeetCode 150 roadmap for the topic order and a week-by-week schedule.

LeetCode 75 — the official study plan

LeetCode 75 is LeetCode's own study plan, published and maintained on leetcode.com itself. It is 75 problems arranged into topic sections inside LeetCode's study-plan interface, with built-in progress tracking, so you never leave the site — the editor, the test cases, the editorial and the discussion tab are all right there.

Compared to Blind 75 it skews slightly easier and more instructional, with more genuinely easy problems early on and a gentler ramp. That makes it a much friendlier first list, and a slightly thinner one if you are aiming straight at hard interview loops. Our LeetCode 75 guide covers its sections and a suggested order.

Side-by-side comparison

	Blind 75	NeetCode 150	LeetCode 75
Origin	Community post on the Blind forum	Built on Blind 75, expanded by NeetCode	LeetCode's own official study plan
Problem count	75	150	75
Where it lives	Mirrored across many sites	neetcode.io	leetcode.com
Organization	By pattern, order varies by mirror	Fixed topic order, dependency-aware	Topic sections inside the study plan
Explanations	Whatever mirror you use	Video walkthrough per problem	LeetCode editorials and discussion
Difficulty skew	Mostly medium, a few hard	Mostly medium, more hard than Blind	Easier ramp, fewer hard problems
Coverage depth	One representative per pattern	Two or three per pattern	Broad but shallower on advanced topics
Realistic time	3–4 weeks	6–9 weeks	3–4 weeks
Best for	Efficient prep with a deadline	Thorough prep with runway	Beginners and rust-removal

Time estimates assume roughly one to two hours a day including re-solves, not a single frantic pass. The number that actually matters is not how many problems you touched but how many you can re-solve cleanly a week later.

Strengths and weaknesses

Blind 75

Strengths: the best coverage-per-hour of any list. Nothing is filler. It is short enough that finishing is realistic, and finishing matters more than starting something bigger. Because it is so widely mirrored, you will find a solution or a walkthrough for every problem in whatever language you write.

Weaknesses: it is thin on repetition. Seeing one graph problem does not make graphs stick. It also has no built-in teaching layer, so if you are new to a topic you will be pausing to go learn it elsewhere.

NeetCode 150

Strengths: the extra 75 problems are where patterns move from “I have seen this” to “I can do this cold.” The topic ordering is deliberately dependency-aware, so you rarely hit a problem needing a technique you have not met. The videos remove the failure mode where you read a clever solution and learn nothing from it.

Weaknesses: 150 problems is a real commitment, and it is the list people most often abandon halfway. An abandoned NeetCode 150 usually means you never reached graphs or DP — the exact topics that decide hard interviews.

LeetCode 75

Strengths: zero setup friction, official progress tracking, and a difficulty curve that does not punch beginners in the face on day two. Staying inside one platform is underrated when you are already low on energy.

Weaknesses: lighter on the hard end. If your target is a senior FAANG loop, finishing it leaves you needing another pass on harder DP, graphs, and design-flavored problems.

The decision guide

• You have about two weeks. Blind 75. Do not start 150 problems you cannot finish. If you are rusty rather than new, cut further: do the arrays, two pointers, sliding window, trees, graphs and DP sections and skip the rest.
• You have about two months. NeetCode 150, followed by company-tagged problems in the final week. This is the highest ceiling if you actually have the runway.
• You are targeting FAANG or a senior loop. NeetCode 150, and do not skip the hard problems in graphs, DP, and intervals. Pair it with system design and behavioral prep — the coding round is rarely the only filter.
• You are a beginner or coming back after years away. LeetCode 75 first for the ramp, then Blind 75 for density. Two 75-problem lists in sequence is a better arc than one 150-problem list you dread opening.
• You already finished one list. Do not start another general list. Switch to company-tagged problems and timed mock rounds. Your bottleneck by then is performing under pressure, not coverage.

How to work whichever list you pick

1. Batch by pattern. Solve every sliding-window problem in one sitting. The pattern lands far faster in a batch than scattered across weeks.
2. Time-box to 25–30 minutes. Stuck past that, read the solution, understand it, and re-solve from a blank editor tomorrow.
3. Re-solve, do not re-read. A problem is done when you can write it from scratch a week later, not when it turned green once.
4. Narrate as you go. Say the approach and the Big-O out loud. That is the actual interview skill, and it is how our 15 core patterns guide frames each technique.

FAQ

Is NeetCode 150 just Blind 75 with more problems?

Broadly, yes. NeetCode 150 was built around the Blind 75 and expands it to 150 problems, adding extra questions in the topics where 75 problems left thin coverage - and it groups everything into named topic sections with video walkthroughs. If you finish Blind 75 and then start NeetCode 150, a large share of the early problems will already be familiar.

What is the difference between Blind 75 and LeetCode 75?

Blind 75 is a community list that originated in a post on the Blind forum and lives on across many sites and trackers. LeetCode 75 is LeetCode's own official study plan hosted on leetcode.com, organized into topic sections inside the site's study-plan interface. They overlap on the classics but are not the same list, and LeetCode 75 leans a little easier and more beginner-friendly.

Which list is best if I only have two weeks?

Blind 75, or LeetCode 75 if you are newer to data structures. Two weeks is not enough to finish 150 problems well, and a half-finished NeetCode 150 gives you worse coverage than a completed 75-problem list because you never reach the later topics like graphs and dynamic programming.

Do I need to finish all three lists?

No. They overlap heavily, so doing all three mostly means re-solving the same classics. Pick one as your spine, finish it, then add company-tagged problems for the specific company you are interviewing with rather than starting another general list.

Which list should a complete beginner start with?

LeetCode 75 is the gentlest entry point because it is sequenced inside LeetCode itself with a steadier difficulty ramp, and it keeps you in one interface with the editor, test cases and discussion. Move to Blind 75 or NeetCode 150 once easy and lower-medium problems stop feeling intimidating.