Generated by Codex with GPT-5

Software dev job postings are up 15% since mid 2025 (r/programming)

• pydry: It’s still not enough to bring things to pre-covid levels. I keep hearing no one wants to work in tech anymore, but I don’t see any proof of that.
• T-MoneyAllDey: Looks like there was a small spike in Q1 2025, but it was mostly wiped out by the latest quarter. Hiring seems to be on a downward slide again this year.

So… how are we juniors meant to upskill in this new AI market? what is our roadmap (r/cscareerquestions)

• garenbw: Code, with or without AI, as much as you can. You need to write and debug code to get better at it. Something I do myself to upskill is create small projects to use new technologies.
• dontreadthis_toolate: The only real answer is to actually build software that works. People will talk all day about the market but at some point you just have to make things.

Hiring manager perspective: hiring is the most broken I’ve ever seen (r/cscareerquestions)

• Pe4rs: People are basically giving ChatGPT applications to me. There are obvious signs, if you know what to look for.
• Kaze_Senshi: Time to create an open source open role notifier, and fit your resume to each role automatically tool

If you think your SaaS job is safe… you’re lying to yourself (Blind)

• rddcvgjc: irrespective of AI, workday is a company that should die miserable death for their shitty job application software.. ceo and PMs who designed this crap should be made to use it daily 50 times as a punishment
• GtQM82: Why is Workdays UX still so shitty, after all this time? Frankly, they deserve to be disrupted. Their moat (the inherent conservatism of HR departments) can’t (and shouldn’t) protect them from agentic disruption.

Vibe coders are low performers (Blind)

• taxhamster: You sound mad you got pipped by a non tech PM who out performed you
• IXuS40: Keep coping boomer while one junior vibecoder finishes the work you do in a day in an hour and goes out for drinks the same evening

Generated by Codex with GPT-5

A ski partnership stretched across adulthood

Carolyn Highland’s “Ski You Soon” takes a premise that could have been handled as a sentimental reunion story and gives it more texture than that. The article follows Highland and her longtime ski partner Lindsay as they try to make a short spring tour happen after years of life drift: marriages, children, demanding careers and a move from Colorado to opposite ends of the country. What makes the piece work is that Highland does not pretend the old ease still exists. The logistics are harder, the bodies are different and the windows for adventure are narrower. The story’s emotional weight comes from the fact that the friendship has to be maintained deliberately now, with the same kind of patience and improvisation that a backcountry day often demands.

Generated by Codex with GPT-5

Quick facts

• Difficulty: HARD
• Problem: Longest Valid Parentheses
• Main tags: String, Dynamic Programming, Stack

What the problem is really asking

The input is a string made only of ( and ).

The task is not to check whether the whole string is valid. The task is to find the length of the longest contiguous substring that forms a valid parentheses expression.

Generated by Codex with GPT-5

Quick facts

• Difficulty: HARD
• Problem: First Missing Positive
• Main tags: Array, Hash Table

What the problem is really asking

Given an unsorted integer array, return the smallest positive integer that does not appear in the array.

The tricky part is not the definition of the answer. The tricky part is the constraint: the best solution must run in O(n) time and use only O(1) extra space.

Generated by Codex with GPT-5

Quick facts

• Difficulty: MEDIUM
• Problem: Integer to Roman
• Main tags: Hash Table, Math, String

What the problem is really asking

The input is an integer between 1 and 3999, and the output must be its Roman numeral form.

The main challenge is not basic lookup. The hard part is handling the subtractive cases correctly:

Generated by Codex with GPT-5

Quick facts

• Difficulty: MEDIUM
• Problem: Surrounded Regions
• Main tags: Array, Depth-First Search, Breadth-First Search, Union-Find, Matrix

What the problem is really asking

The board contains X and O. The task is to flip only the O cells that belong to regions fully enclosed by X.

The important phrase is “surrounded region.” A region is safe if it can reach the border through adjacent O cells. A region is captured only if there is no such path.

Generated by Codex with GPT-5

Quick facts

• Difficulty: MEDIUM
• Problem: 3Sum Closest
• Main tags: Array, Two Pointers, Sorting

What the problem is really asking

The input is an integer array and a target value. The job is to pick exactly three numbers whose sum is as close to the target as possible.

Generated by Codex with GPT-5

Quick facts

• Difficulty: MEDIUM
• Problem: Second Highest Salary
• Main tags: Database, SQL

What the problem is really asking

There is an Employee table with a salary column. The task is to return the second-highest distinct salary value.

That word “distinct” is the whole trick.

If the largest salary appears many times, it still counts as only one rank. So this is not:

Generated by Codex with GPT-5

Quick facts

• Difficulty: MEDIUM
• Problem: Remove Nth Node From End of List
• Main tags: Linked List, Two Pointers

What the problem is really asking

The input is a singly linked list and a positive integer n.

The task is to delete the node that is n positions from the end and return the new head.

Generated by Codex with GPT-5

A cleaner way to watch a black hole feed

Yvette Cendes builds the article around one of astronomy’s most dramatic scenes: a star wandering too close to a supermassive black hole. Long before the star crosses the event horizon, gravity pulls much harder on the side nearest the hole than on the far side. The star stretches, unravels and gets torn apart in a tidal disruption event. Roughly half of its material is flung outward, while the rest settles into a hot accretion disk that briefly shines across the universe.