# Why I chose to build instead of grind Leetcode — and what happened > Source: > Published: 2026-06-12 04:36:15+00:00 I'm 18. BTech CS student in India. Everyone around me is grinding Leetcode, preparing for placement season, optimizing for offer letters. I made a different choice. I spent the last 4 months building XEdge — an AI tool discovery platform — completely solo, zero budget, while attending college. Here's what that choice produced: 500+ users from 0 160+ curated AI tools 15 business execution playbooks 2,420 LinkedIn impressions on a single post A Gumroad store ready to make first revenue A pitch deck submitted to a VC fund A skill set no placement interview ever tested I'm not saying placement is wrong. I'm saying it's not the only path and for a lot of people it's not even the best one. The skills I learned building XEdge: — How to validate an idea before building — How to acquire users with zero budget — How to price and sell digital products — How to write content that reaches thousands — How to build in public and turn struggle into marketing None of that was on my syllabus. If 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. xedge.tech — built by a student, for builders.