NeetCode started as free tutorial videos made "for the love of the game" after quitting Amazon — roughly 6 years before this interview.
- In the gap year between Amazon and Google, Navi recorded LeetCode explanation videos: "I'm studying this right now… I might as well help some other people"
22:26,22:52 - At the time there were no real tutorials — just forum posts with complex solutions most people memorized at a high level without understanding why they worked
22:52,23:16 - His "deep thinking" trait made him go far deeper than seemed rational: hours per video for ~50 viewers
23:16,23:34 - After about a year of consistent videos he got into Google and backed off, announcing it in a video
23:34,23:55 - Counterintuitively, the channel went exponential after the "I got into Google" video: it was "the best sales pitch in the world" — proof the method worked. It bothers him that the videos didn't change, only the branding did
24:12,24:31 - Next step: a completely free website that was really just a catalog of the videos — it went viral too
24:31 - Shortly after his Google promotion, he realized he could try NeetCode full-time: with algorithms he could go "super deep" in a way Google's business problems never allowed
24:53