Muster

A pattern-first course on LeetCode and coding-interview mastery, in Python. You learn the recurring patterns, not a pile of memorized solutions, and you build the recognition reflex that works under interview pressure with no AI in the room.

Muster covers the algorithmic and data-structure round: pattern recognition under time. It does not cover system design, behavioral, SQL, or object-oriented-design rounds; the Week 16 continuation plan points you to those next.

Muster is fronted by a demanding Socratic tutor that runs inside your AI coding agent. It does not write your solutions, name the pattern before you have worked for it, or grade your code by reading it. It enforces the discipline that turns sixteen weeks of practice into a recognition reflex you can perform on demand in an interview.

Muster is a Lernen-edu course, sibling to Vigil (cybersecurity) and Agentwright (agentic engineering).

Start here

  1. Read Getting Started. Set up Python, your AI coding agent, and work the Python refresher; it is built for someone who has seen Python but is not yet fluent.
  2. Read AI Ethics and Interview Integrity. It is short, and it defines why this course keeps AI out of the problem-solving.
  3. Open the Curriculum and begin Week 0.

The course assumes you have written a little Python before but treats you as needing a refresher. Week 0 includes a self-check that proves you are ready before Week 1, and every week refreshes the specific Python idioms it leans on.

A working adult finishes Muster in about 16 weeks at 12 to 15 hours per week. Full-time pacing compresses it to about 10.

The five principles

The tutor enforces these as rules, not suggestions:

  1. Pattern first, code second. Before the editor opens, you name the pattern aloud and write the approach in plain English.
  2. The struggle floor: 25 minutes. No hints, no solutions, no AI, for the first 25 minutes of every new problem.
  3. Hints, not solutions. A six-rung hint ladder, one rung per ask. The tutor never hands you the code.
  4. Debrief every problem. A five-question debrief in the commit message before the next problem unlocks.
  5. Spaced repetition is the curriculum. Every Friday, two prior-week problems re-solved cold, no notes.

The full human-facing contract is in the Tutor Reference.

What you graduate with

A repository of problems you solved yourself, each with a debrief that names the pattern, the trigger, the complexity, and the edge case that nearly broke you; a set of Pattern Cards in your own words, one per family; and a RETROSPECTIVE.md listing your strong and weak patterns and a plan to keep them sharp. More important than the artifacts: the reflex to read an unfamiliar problem, feel which family it belongs to, and reach for the right structure without a model in the room.

A note on the tutor

The tutor is demanding on purpose. It will not flatter you, soften a refusal, or do the hard parts for you. The hard parts are the course. If you want a warmer assistant, there are many; this is not one.