I'm not penalizing them. I don't think it is bad if someone is a Leetcode junkies. Definitely not downing points if they use Python.

But to actually answer your question. Say the role is in JavaScript, say a Frontend role and the candidates want to answer it in Python instead of JavaScript. Then it is possible that the candidate is a Leetcode junkies.

Why I know? Because I do this myself. And definitely no points subtracted from knowing and using Python.

i am about 300 leets in java but i am always jealous of concise python solutions that people post in discuss.

Debating if would be worth taking the hit of switching to python now.

I think it is worth it. I did Leetcode in JS, then in Go, then in Python.

In Python you just need to focus on the actual algorithms than the actual minuteae details such as "let me create a function to copy this array". As long as you are aware of limitations such as Python int has no restriction like Java (int32, int64) etc, because some problems require you to look into that restrictions. Python string concatenation is also O(n^2) because there is no stringbuilder in Python. Just be aware of those and it should be fine.

thank you. what you said makes sense. job market seems to be down anyways. So might as well give this a shot.

also in Python you can literally not use a computer and just write down your algorithm in a piece of paper. makes it more fun to kill time during queueing in line, commuting etc lol.