Back To Back SWE

What the channel is

Back To Back SWE began as a YouTube channel created by Benyam Ephrem after his own frustration with software engineering interviews. The videos work through classic interview problems on a whiteboard, with an emphasis on deriving the approach from the problem rather than presenting a finished answer. Topics include arrays and strings, linked lists, trees, graphs, recursion, backtracking, sorting and searching, and dynamic programming.

The channel's videos are free. The creator also runs a separate paid platform at backtobackswe.com with a structured course and additional video explanations.

Why the pacing is the point

Many solution videos show you the key insight as if it were obvious. That feels good to watch but teaches little about how to find an insight yourself. These videos stay in the reasoning: what the brute force is, why it is slow, what property of the problem can be exploited, and how the final approach follows. That process is exactly what you need to reproduce in an interview.

Where it is strongest

Dynamic programming and recursion. The gap between following a dynamic programming solution and generating one is huge, and the channel's slow, step-by-step approach to defining subproblems and building tables is particularly helpful there.

Where it falls short

• Older content. Many of the most popular videos are several years old. The algorithms have not changed, but upload frequency and topic coverage vary.
• Long videos. The thoroughness that helps with hard topics can feel slow for easy ones. Use playback speed.
• No practice built in. Watching is not solving. You need a separate problem set to practise on.

How to use it well

1. Attempt the problem first, for 20 to 30 minutes, before watching.
2. Pause after the brute force explanation and try to find the optimisation yourself.
3. Re-solve the problem from scratch a day later without the video.
4. Pick videos by topic, especially dynamic programming and backtracking, rather than watching in upload order.

Pair it with

• A problem set organised by pattern, so you can practise the ideas the videos explain
• A spaced repetition tool such as Anki to retain the patterns

Common questions

Is it free? Yes, the YouTube videos are free. The separate platform is paid.

Is it for beginners? It assumes basic programming and some familiarity with data structures. Complete beginners should learn fundamentals first.

Which videos should I start with? Topics you find hardest, most often dynamic programming and recursion.

Best for: visual learners stuck on harder topics, and anyone who understands solutions but cannot produce them unaided.