My First Real LeetCode Failure — Time Limit Exceeded 😵

Today I attempted the LeetCode problem: “Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock” 📈 And for the first time during my algorithm training… I completely hit a wall. I started with a naive brute-force solution using two loops to test every buy/sell combination. The problem? ⛔ Time Limit Exceeded ⛔ 198 / 212 test cases passed ⛔ 15-minute timer pressure At first I thought about sorting the array to optimize the solution… but then I realized something important: 👉 sorting destroys the temporal order of buying before selling. That completely blocked me mentally and I couldn’t find a better approach fast enough. In this video: ✅ Live coding attempt ✅ Naive O(n²) solution ✅ Real debugging process ✅ First algorithmic failure ✅ Cognitive pressure under timer Honestly, this was one of the most interesting sessions so far because it exposed: * my current limits in optimization * the psychological effect of time pressure * the difference between “working code” and “efficient code” Problem: LeetCode 121 — Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock Language: Python 3 🐍 #leetcode #python #algorithms #coding #programming #developer #codingchallenge #datastructures #100daysofcode #computerscience