{"slug": "why-i-chose-to-build-instead-of-grind-leetcode-and-what-happened", "title": "Why I chose to build instead of grind Leetcode — and what happened", "summary": "An 18-year-old BTech computer science student in India built XEdge, an AI tool discovery platform, entirely solo and with zero budget over four months while attending college. The project has attracted 500 users, curated 160 AI tools, and generated 2,420 LinkedIn impressions on a single post, along with a pitch deck submitted to a venture capital fund. The developer argues that building real products can teach skills like user acquisition, pricing, and content marketing that placement interviews never test.", "body_md": "I'm 18. BTech CS student in India.\n\nEveryone around me is grinding Leetcode, preparing for placement season, optimizing for offer letters.\n\nI made a different choice.\n\nI spent the last 4 months building XEdge — an AI tool discovery platform — completely solo, zero budget, while attending college.\n\nHere's what that choice produced:\n\n500+ users from 0\n\n160+ curated AI tools\n\n15 business execution playbooks\n\n2,420 LinkedIn impressions on a single post\n\nA Gumroad store ready to make first revenue\n\nA pitch deck submitted to a VC fund\n\nA skill set no placement interview ever tested\n\nI'm not saying placement is wrong.\n\nI'm saying it's not the only path and for a lot of people it's not even the best one.\n\nThe skills I learned building XEdge:\n\n— How to validate an idea before building\n\n— How to acquire users with zero budget\n\n— How to price and sell digital products\n\n— How to write content that reaches thousands\n\n— How to build in public and turn struggle into marketing\n\nNone of that was on my syllabus.\n\nIf you're a CS student reading this — you don't have to choose between placement and building. But if you're only doing one of them, make sure it's the one that still matters in 5 years.\n\nxedge.tech — built by a student, for builders.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-i-chose-to-build-instead-of-grind-leetcode-and-what-happened", "canonical_source": "https://dev.to/harsha_kumar/why-i-chose-to-build-instead-of-grind-leetcode-and-what-happened-gmf", "published_at": "2026-06-12 04:36:15+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-12 04:42:05.796633+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-tools", "ai-startups", "ai-products"], "entities": ["XEdge", "Gumroad"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-i-chose-to-build-instead-of-grind-leetcode-and-what-happened", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-i-chose-to-build-instead-of-grind-leetcode-and-what-happened.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-i-chose-to-build-instead-of-grind-leetcode-and-what-happened.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/why-i-chose-to-build-instead-of-grind-leetcode-and-what-happened.jsonld"}}