top problem solving websites

The 8 Best Coding Challenge Websites to Help You Level Up Your Skills in 2020

By Daniel Borowski

Despite the lowest unemployment rate in decades, analysts expect technology hiring to continue growing steadily into the 2020s.

That’s great news for recent computer science graduates and developers currently working in the field, but that doesn’t mean ambitious engineers can get complacent.

While there will likely be growth opportunities in the market overall, there are still significant changes happening all the time, and a sense of urgency to keep up with the latest trends.

Today, there are more types of technical roles than ever before, and a continued proliferation of new languages, frameworks, and technologies. Technical employees that want to get ahead should routinely test and refine their skills.

To that end, I’ve put together the following list of platforms where you can level up your skills for any number of roles, from data science to developer operations.

1. freeCodeCamp

Helpful links: Website | Forum | Challenges

Let's begin with freeCodeCamp, which is a great website for beginners who are just getting into coding. They offer all sorts of resources on learning syntax, practicing coding, building projects, and preparing for interviews.

They don’t have as many interactive coding challenges as other sites, but they do offer some fun challenges and interview prep for beginners learning JavaScript.

Novices who are just learning to code for the first time. It’s a great place to learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a fun, interactive way.

Pricing / Premium content

freeCodeCamp is completely free.

2. Coderbyte

Helpful links: Website | Blog | Dev.to | Free Challenges | Premium

My platform, Coderbyte, provides 300+ coding challenges you can solve in an online editor using 10 different programming languages. You can then access official solutions, over 1.5 million user solutions, and read articles on how to efficiently solve the challenges.

Coderbyte is recommended by the top coding bootcamps and companies because of its collection of interview prep challenges.

Coderbyte is perfect for people in the beginner-to-intermediate phase of their careers who are preparing for interviews. There is a library of harder challenges as well for those who like to solve coding problems for fun, but this isn’t primarily a site for competitive programmers.

There are a handful of free challenges on Coderbyte, and then there are hundreds of premium challenges and over 1 million user solutions that are available to members .

3. LeetCode

Helpful links: Website | Discussion | Free Challenges | Premium

LeetCode has a collection of some of the best algorithm challenges online today. The topics they cover require knowledge of data structures such as binary trees, heaps, linked lists, and so on, which is why their challenges are a bit more advanced than some other websites. But the challenges are great if used to prepare for a software engineering interview.

They also have a Mock Interview section that is specifically for job interview preparation. They also host their own coding contests , and they have a great discussion board where people talk about interview questions, jobs, compensation, and other topics related to engineering.

LeetCode is great for intermediate-to-advanced programmers. It might not be the best suited for brand new coders who don’t know how to write basic loops yet, but once you learn the fundamentals this is a great site to practice coding.

There are free challenges available on LeetCode, and they also have a premium subscription which gets you access to more challenges and other features of the platform.

Helpful links: Website | Blog | Challenges

This is the first time Edabit is appearing on our top sites list ( 2018 list , 2017 list )! It has grown in popularity over the last year, and developers seem to really enjoy the challenges. They offer a large collection of over 4,000 challenges that can be solved online in one of several languages.

The site currently only offers online interactive coding challenges — there aren’t any discussion boards, articles, user solutions, or mock interviews like other sites offer, but over time they might be adding some of these.

Edabit is great for beginners looking to practice their coding skills daily by solving bite-sized challenges. Once you reach the intermediate stage, other sites provide harder challenges and more content geared towards competitive programming and job interviews.

All the challenges on Edabit are free, and there is no premium pricing option.

5. Codewars

Helpful links: Website | Blog | Free Challenges | Premium

Codewars provides a large collection of coding challenges submitted and edited by their own community. You can solve the challenges directly online in their editor using 20+ programming languages. You can view a discussion for each challenge as well as user solutions. You can earn points and climb the rankings by solving their challenges.

Codewars is great for people in the beginner-to-intermediate phase. The challenges are created by the community so you get exposed to a lot of different types of coding challenges.

They offer all of their challenges created by the community for free, and their premium subscription gets you access to some cool features on their platform.

6. HackerRank

HackerRank has a large collection of coding challenges tailored towards algorithms and data structures, along with interview prep material, a discussion board for each challenge, and a list of top user solutions. They have challenges for other topics as well like functional programming, AI, Shell, SQL, and more.

HackerRank is great for intermediate-to-advanced programmers who have already picked up the basics of a language and are ready to solve more complicated problems. The challenges are written with mathematical notation and can sometimes be a little confusing, which is why it might not be so great for beginner developers.

All the challenges on HackerRank are free, and there is no premium pricing option.

7. TopCoder

TopCoder is one of the original platforms for competitive programming online. It provides a list of algorithmic challenges from past competitions that you can complete on your own directly online using their code editor.

Their popular Single Round Matches are offered a few times per month at a specific time where you compete against others to solve challenges. Here are some topics that their challenges may cover.

Aside from solving challenges for fun online, they offer sponsored competitions where you can win prizes for writing the best solution.

TopCoder is better suited for advanced programmers who are comfortable solving algorithm challenges dealing with advanced topics like graph search and number theory.

All the challenges on TopCoder are free, and there is no premium pricing option.

8. Codeforces

Helpful links: Website | Discussion | Challenges

Codeforces is now probably the top competitive programming website (a few years ago TopCoder was where most competitive programmers spent their time).

There are problems that you can solve online to practice, but there’s no online editor. Rather, you write your solution in your own editor and then upload it to their system which then tests your code against a suite of test cases.

They also frequently hold contests where the best competitive programmers take part in.

Advanced and competitive programmers who truly enjoy solving difficult algorithm challenges.

All the challenges on Codeforces are free, there is no premium pricing option.

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Posted on Aug 12, 2021 • Updated on Sep 12, 2021

11 Websites To Practice You Coding And Your Problem Solving Skills

11 websites to practice your coding and problem-solving skills.

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Achieve mastery through challenge

Improve your development skills by training with your peers on code kata that continuously challenge and push your coding practice.

Sharpen your coding skills

Challenge yourself on small coding exercises called "kata". Each kata is crafted by the community to help you strengthen different coding techniques. Master your current language of choice, or quickly pick up any of the 55+ programming languages supported.

Get instant feedback

Solve kata with your coding style right in the browser and use test cases (TDD) to check it as you progress. Retrain with new, creative, and optimized approaches. Find all of the bugs in your programming practice.

Earn ranks and honor

Kata code challenges are ranked from beginner to expert level. As you complete higher-ranked kata, you level up your profile and push your software development skills to your highest potential.

An engaged software development community

Codewars is a collective effort by its users. They are creators—authoring kata to teach various techniques, solving kata with solutions that enlighten others, and commenting with constructive feedback.

Community members added every month

Kata completed every month

Kata created by our community

Tap into the collective wisdom

Compare your solution with others after each kata for greater understanding. Discuss kata, best practices, and innovative techniques with the community. Have your mind blown by how different other solutions can be from your own.

Create your own kata

Author kata that focus on your interests and train specific skill sets. Challenge the community with your insight and code understanding. Create everything from common developer interview questions to challenges that push the limits of your creativity. Gain honor within the coding dojo.

What can I use Codewars for?

From beginner to expert and beyond...

Get new perspectives

Solve challenges then view how others solved the same challenge. Pickup new techniques from some of the most skilled developers in the world.

Learn new languages

Solve challenges in a language you are comfortable with, then do it in a language you want to improve with. Level up across different languages.

Compete with peers

Compete against your friends, colleagues, and the community at large. Allow competition to motivate you  towards mastering your craft.

Extremely well done and an excellent example of mastery learning.

Ahmed Omran

@this_ahmed

Accidentally got addicted to codewars, oops.

Kelly Williams

Build self-confidence

Not sure if you are progressing well as a programmer? Push yourself to your limits and show yourself what you are really made of.

Become a mentor

Lend your expertise to others, either indirectly by contributing great solutions or directly by creating your own kata and reviewing code.

Insights from Codewars staff and community.

Author's Corner, meet geoffp

What's new in Codewars: April highlights

Introducing the EPIC Challenge 2024

Codewars is built on.

The world's most advanced coding assessment platform for organizations looking to scale their hiring, upskilling, and certification programs.

Achieve mastery through challenge.

Top languages

10 websites to practice coding problems: Our picks

Whether you're just starting out as a coder or want to advance your coding skills, tackling programming problems is part of the plan. 

Convenient, free, and even fun, coding problem websites challenge your abilities with individual exercises, friendly challenges, and insightful assessments.

Practicing your coding through these websites may increase your knowledge, build your skills, and prepare you for programming job interviews. 

Top websites for practicing your coding skills

Should a humanities major learn to code.

Can a humanities student learn coding? Absolutely. Coding is not strictly for STEM students — it can benefit you no matter your degree.

How hard is it to learn coding ? Starting from scratch can be difficult, but coding challenges designed to test and advance your skills may help. We rounded up 10 great websites for coding problems and listed them alphabetically for you. 

Each website offers a collection of resources for learning coding or advancing what you already know. 

1. CodeChef

CodeChef lets you choose among thousands of problems to practice skills like sorting, data structures, and dynamic programming. Problems are sortable by difficulty. Code Chef's practice problems allow you to answer in one of over 50 programming languages as you prepare for its internal or external monthly contests. 

CodeChef offers self-guided learning opportunities and mentoring programs alongside a community of coders, coding bootcamps, and tech certification programs. 

2. Coderbyte

Designed for coding practice and improvement, Coderbyte offers code challenges and courses aimed at helping you prepare for job interviews. 

Coderbyte had over three million solutions with challenges in more than 25 languages. Starter courses in algorithms, JavaScript, Ruby, and Python accompany interview kits and career resources. 

You can sign up for a free challenge and free trial. A monthly subscription to Coderbyte costs $35 and an annual subscription is $150. Both give you access to all of Coderbyte's resources. 

3. Codewars

Launched in 2012, Codewars provides practice kata, or small coding exercises, that you advance through as you build your skills. Codewars' kata are available in nearly 60 programming languages and in levels from beginner to advanced.

You can develop your own kata, engage with the Codewars community, and master one or multiple languages in the process. Feedback and creative learning facilitate creative thinking and innovation among Codewars' users. Codewars offers resources for educators and companies as well. 

4. CodinGame

With more than 25 supported languages, CodinGame provides challenge-based programming training through games, puzzles, and competitions. 

CodinGame's resources let you build your programming abilities, learn new concepts, and interact with fellow coders through easy, medium, hard, and very hard exercises.

CodeinGame's leaderboard and prizes earn you recognition from your peers and track your progress. Free live streams, blogs, and discussion forums for developers accompany sourcing, screening, and retention programs for recruiters. 

5. Geektastic

With human-reviewed technical assessments, Geektastic lets companies customize coding challenges for talent acquisition and engineering team training. If you have coding experience, you can join Geektastic's reviewer community to create and test those challenges — and get paid to review candidates' performance. 

Code challenges are offered in Java, Python, and PHP. Geektastic also offers skills assessments in Java, Javascript, and basic coding. Joining as a developer comes with no cost, while flexible pricing accommodates businesses of any size. 

6. HackerRank

HackerRank serves as a technical interview platform, but also provides coding practice to over 18 million users. Challenges offered by HackerRank cover topics including algorithms, Java, Python, Ruby, and data structures. 

HackerRank's challenges allow you to test your code, debug it, and win one of its sprint, company, language, or timed challenges. You can also earn certifications in specific skills or complete interview preparation kits. Pricing ranges from $25/month for interview content to $819/month team subscriptions.

7. LeetCode

LeetCode provides more than 2,250 practice problems to its programmer community. Individual challenges in topics like algorithms, database structures, and dynamic programming accompany entire study plans. 

LeetCode's programming skills study plan integrates three modules offered at easy, medium, or hard difficulty levels. LeetCode supports 14 programming languages and houses a playground tool to help you test, debug, and write code. 

Sign-up is free. LeetCode Premium offers access to additional tools and premium content for a monthly subscription of $35 or an annual fee of $159. 

8. Project Euler

Named for mathematician Leonhard Euler, Project Euler began in 2001. Recent and archival content is available for registered users at no cost. 

Project Euler offers computational programming problems combining mathematics with computer and programming skills. With 108 programming languages and more than one million users, Project Euler provides problems with varying difficulty.

Sphere Online Judge, or SPOJ , trains users to code and build efficient algorithms through more than 20,000 practice problems. Scoring categories for problems include challenges, tutorials, and riddles. Rankings and a status board accompany running contests that support more than 45 programming languages and compilers. 

SPOJ offers a flexible testing system to automatically assess user-submitted programs. Users can design their own contests or take part in an online course at all programming levels, but it is ideal for students.

10. TopCoder

TopCoder's community of designers, developers, data scientists, and competitive programmers build their skills, show their expertise, and earn money as they improve their coding abilities. TopCoder pays individuals for their work, sells it to corporate clients, and hosts competitions designed to highlight top coding talent worldwide.

Customers use TopCoder to hire freelancers on-demand, set challenges for the coding community, and find teams for projects.

This article was reviewed by Monali Mirel Chuatico

In 2019, Monali Mirel Chuatico graduated with her bachelor's in computer science, which gave her the foundation that she needed to excel in roles such as data engineer, front-end developer, UX designer, and computer science instructor.

Monali is currently a data engineer at Mission Lane. As a data analytics captain at a nonprofit called COOP Careers , Monali helps new grads and young professionals overcome underemployment by teaching them data analytics tools and mentoring them on their professional development journey.

Monali is passionate about implementing creative solutions, building community, advocating for mental health, empowering women, and educating youth. Monali's goal is to gain more experience in her field, expand her skill set, and do meaningful work that will positively impact the world.

Monali Mirel Chuatico is a paid member of the Red Ventures Education Integrity Network. 

Last reviewed April 21, 2022.

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The Best Coding Challenges Websites To Practice Problem Solving

There are a plethora of websites where you can practice Data Structures and Algorithms questions. Even though there are a lot of choices, beginners might have a difficult time choosing one.

Why? Because the majority of these websites are tailored to experienced developers. They feel overwhelming, and it feels like there is no support for you.

I used to jump between LeetCode, HackerRank, and other websites, trying to find "the one." Thus, in this article, I want to list the best coding challenges for code newbies. Let us see what these websites are.

Arguably, Exercism is one of the best coding challenges websites for beginners. The main reason is that they provide a mentor for you. That is, each time you submit a challenge, a mentor checks it for you, and it approves it or suggests changes. Only when they approve your solution you can move forward to the next one.

Having a mentor is incredibly valuable, and you progress faster. A mentor can guide you and tell you how and where to improve. It is something that helps you tremendously.

Besides that, another plus is that you code the solution on your laptop. You download a template, solve the problem, and then you upload it using their CLI. Therefore, you feel more comfortable using your favorite IDE and tools.

Lastly, they have 3414 exercises, and you can choose between 51 programming languages. As a result, you have plenty of problems to solve.

In conclusion, Exercism is an excellent platform for beginners for the fact that you have mentors. You are less likely to give up, and you progress faster.

Another website is Coderbyte, which has more than 200 coding challenges. Moreover, you can choose to solve the coding challenges in ten programming languages.

The outstanding feature of this website is that you can see other people's solutions. That means you can compare your answer to others, and hopefully learn something. Besides that, there is also an official solution for almost every challenge. If you get stuck on a problem, you can always inspire from the official answer.

What I liked the most about Coderbyte is that the difficulty level slowly builds up. Unlike other websites, where even the easy questions are difficult. That makes it an excellent choice for beginners because they are slowly building their confidence by solving easier challenges. As a result, they are less likely to give up.

Thus, I highly recommend Coderbyte. When I prepared for my job interviews, I used Coderbyte alongside Exercism. They are a great combo.

Codewars is another platform tailored for beginners to intermediate developers. As with other similar platforms, you solve programming challenges, which they call "katas." You solve the katas in the browser and use TDD test cases to check your solutions.

Each time you complete a kata, you progress through the ranks and get more difficult challenges. Moreover, you can create new coding challenges and submit them to Codewars. That means other people can solve your challenge. In fact, that is how the website works. People create katas, they submit it, and other users solve them.

Besides that, each kata has a discussion area where people can collaborate or discuss the challenge. You can get help or help other people. It is a useful feature when you want to see different solutions or when you get stuck. Therefore, I highly recommend Codewars. It is a fun and engaging platform to test your knowledge.

HackerRank is a popular website, and for a good reason. On HackerRank, you can practice:

• Data Structures
• Linux Shell

Besides that, you can also learn JavaScript, Python, Java, React, Angular, and many more. It feels like it is more than a coding challenge website at this point.

Moreover, many companies use HackerRank for their technical interviews. Thus, familiarizing yourself with the platform can be a big bonus. However, one of the coolest features is that you can apply to jobs by solving challenges from various companies.

Therefore, HackerRank is a great website to practice Data Structures, Algorithms, and much more. You can also get React, Angular, Python, and other certificates, making you stand out from a pool of candidates. Again, once you get more experience, try solving the challenges from the various companies, and you might get lucky!

Experiment with the websites, and see which one works for you. If you are a code newbie, I would recommend starting with Exercism, then Coderbyte, and other popular websites like HackerRank and LeetCode.

The coding challenge websites are:

• Exercism.io

Share this article on social media and let me know which one you prefer. Make sure to tag me ( @catalinmpit ) or daily.dev (@dailydotdev), so we can reply!

Catalin publishes programming and software development articles on his blog.

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Why These Top-Level Marketers Solve Problems Anonymously

Plus: Replacing Marketers’ AI Skepticism With Confidence, Disney Blacks Out Content Over DirecTV Dispute, X Banned In Brazil As Elon Musk Stands His Ground, New Barbie Campaign Swooshes In

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This is the published version of Forbes' CMO newsletter, which offers the latest news for chief marketing officers and other messaging-focused leaders. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox every Wednesday.

While AI is poised to change the landscape of many jobs, marketers are extremely skeptical—some of them, that is. According to a recent study on AI trends by HubSpot, 48% of marketers are concerned that AI will replace their jobs. And many are learning how to use it; 57% feel pressure to either learn how to use AI or become irrelevant.

However, the study found, actually using AI seems to lead marketers to believe more in the technology. Three-quarters of marketers are using AI to reduce the time they spend on manual tasks. And they’re even using it for creative tasks, with 86% saying they save at least an hour a day through AI’s streamlining . Nearly half of those using AI for content creation (46%) are putting it to work on writing copy, while large percentages are using it to create content outlines, do research and brainstorm.

Obviously, these two ends of the spectrum for AI in marketing are pretty far apart. The question is how to come to a common ground. Generative AI can help make working easier and more enjoyable. A total of 73% of marketers told HubSpot AI helps them focus more on tasks they love, presumably by automating some of the more tedious work of data entry and research. Several analysts and experts have tried to translate the common fears of AI into reassurances for marketers. Greg Kihlstrom, a martech consultant with the Agile Brand, wrote on LinkedIn this summer that marketers should consider AI as a means to achieve their business goals , not as the objective itself. Thinking of AI as “augmented intelligence” frames the technology as a helper, not something that will take over. A study from Asana suggests that executives interested in AI spend some time listening to feedback and concerns from employees who are wary about using it. And HubSpot urges education on AI, as well as giving marketers a chance to see how much it can help in small ways.

Technology is changing marketing, but much of the traditional staffing behind marketing agencies has stayed the same. These issues ultimately led longtime marketers Eric Segal and Brett Banker to start their own unconventional agency, X&O . Their agency works with all-anonymous, all-senior-level and all-freelance professionals to dive deep into a brand’s big issues, and solve them in much shorter time frames. I talked with them about the business, and an excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

RIGHTS + SPONSORSHIP

Disney-owned content was abruptly pulled from DirecTV Sunday night, and its 11 million subscribers suddenly found themselves without access to ABC and ESPN—and the U.S. Open, college football and NFL games . Disney and DirecTV have been unable to come to a new carriage agreement. Disney is looking to increase fees for some of its more popular channels, while DirecTV wants more flexibility in how it can sell those channels in bundles for its linear and streaming TV subscribers. Forbes senior contributor Maury Brown writes that DirecTV has balked at Disney making much of its popular content available exclusively on streaming platforms, essentially forcing consumers to pay more than once for the same programming on multiple platforms. Meanwhile, a statement from Disney places the blame on DirecTV, saying the provider “chose to deny millions of subscribers access to our content.”

Disappearing Disney content is getting to be a Labor Day weekend tradition for linear TV networks . Last year, the same thing happened to nearly 15 million Charter cable subscribers. That dispute lasted 11 days , ending hours before Monday Night Football , which kicks off on Disney’s networks next Monday.

It brings to light a reality that Brown examined in another Forbes piece : Streaming services can make it extremely expensive to watch every game . Calculating the different networks that have rights to stream some games, Brown assumed it could cost more than $1,000 to watch a year of sports.

SOCIAL MEDIA

X owner Elon Musk.

Elon Musk is in another fight over X, the social network once known as Twitter , and this is one that everyone can agree he is likely to lose . In April, Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes, who the New York Times reported has been on an aggressive campaign to clean up online posts containing disinformation and hate speech, ordered X to block some accounts. As Musk ordered X to reinstate the accounts, de Moraes called for an investigation into X. The conflict continued to escalate, with Musk announcing the company was closing offices in Brazil and launching personal attacks against de Moraes. Meanwhile, Musk’s satellite internet business Starlink had its Brazilian bank accounts frozen , and a Brazilian Supreme Court panel unanimously upheld the decision to ban X from Brazil.

Brazil is one of X’s largest markets, with tens of millions of users, according to the AP. Not only has Musk lost the exposure and reach he had in South America’s largest country , but it shows a nation going as far as shutting down a popular social network. While it doesn’t appear from the outside that X has done much to negotiate the ban or make changes to comply with the court order, it’s unclear if the platform under Musk has been working on this behind the scenes. Regardless, this sets the stage for future battles between X and worldwide government entities—and could make the network’s standing as an advertising and messaging platform even more precarious.

BRANDS + MESSAGING

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In her 65 years of one of the world’s most iconic playthings, Barbie has showcased girl power time and time again. So it makes sense that Mattel’s new campaign for the doll would be unveiled at an increasingly notable arena for girl power : a WNBA matchup, between the Indiana Fever and the Chicago Sky. The new campaign, titled “Give Limitless Possibilities,” showcases WNBA legend Sue Bird as the 2024 Barbie role model. Forbes senior contributor Joan Verdon writes the unveiling—which featured Barbie giveaways and a lot of pink—is one of the first events in Mattel’s new partnership with sports marketing company AthLife. The first was an August MLB game between the Boston Red Sox and the Houston Astros. Mattel told Verdon Barbie may show up at a variety of pro sporting events this year, including NHL and NFL games.

How A Pair Of Marketing Veterans Line Up The X&Os Of Talent With An Unconventional Agency

X&O Cofounders Eric Segal and Brett Banker.

X&O, which stands for Experts & Officers, is far from the typical marketing agency. Started by marketing veterans Eric Segal and Brett Banker in 2023, the agency has an all-anonymous, all-freelance and all-senior-level roster of marketing talent to help brands work on their projects. Banker says X&O gets around many of the things he sees as broken in the marketing world, where senior talent gets bogged down in bureaucracy and loses the fundamentals that got them into marketing in the first place. There are about 105 top marketers on X&O’s roster today, and brands call them in for quick, high-level work. I talked with Segal and Banker about their business. This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity.

Tell me about how X&O works with clients.

Eric Segal: What we promise our clients is a team that is built for each ask. When you put an RFP out and you award an agency a project, they build a team. It’s made up of folks of all different levels, a lot of hierarchy. And then what happens? You never know. C-suite leadership on the brand side changes. Sales numbers come in, they’re not what they thought. Something happens out in culture that causes brands to pivot in strategy, in tonal approach, in channel strategy. And you look at your team and you just go, even though they’re talented, even though I really like them, are they the right brains that are perfectly suited for the task today?

We say the answer is no, they’re not. We’ve been on the agency side. We wanted to build up the offerings to something completely different to acknowledge the shifting context, to acknowledge the ever-growing remit of a CMO these days. It’s very, very different than it was five years ago. They’re on the hook for much more than advertising campaigns. We know how short the tenure is for CMOs. We’ve read articles on how low the level of trust is between CEOs and CMOs. We’re really trying to arm those folks with a slew of exceptional thinkers. Our offering is incredibly versatile. They’re getting a level of specificity for whatever is sort of keeping them up at night immediately. We can provide an exceptional outsized value to them that their agency partner maybe can’t.

Brett Banker: And what really differentiates that offering is that they’re 100% focused. When you are working with an agency, you go Brett and Eric: the senior leaders, we love them, we want to work with them. Months later, we’re onto the next thing. They’re getting maybe 10% of our time.

[X&O freelancers’] brains [span] across a wide range of disciplines, whatever’s right for the challenge, are 100% focused for a very concentrated period of time. You’re not going to get them for months. You get them for five, seven days, fully focused on a thing. I think that’s appealing to our expert network because that’s fun: to actually focus on one thing at a time. To offer that to a client allows us to sprint, and actually get to solutions in days and weeks.

Why do clients come to you?

Banker: First and foremost is speed. Just to go through the process of getting the right people put on a team through an RFP is laborious. We can assemble very quickly—in days. There are times where we’re the ‘break glass in emergency.’ Someone has tried to crack this problem and they’re not cracking it. I need help and I need it in a week.

They’re also coming because of the access to that senior leadership. If you go to any agency, [people say] I start at the top, but the team at meetings four, five and six is a mid-level team, and I wish I had that senior experience group driving it end-to-end. There’s that sense that I’m going to get that senior-level leadership that I just don’t think I’ll have consistent access to.

And it’s really concentrated. When someone says to you, ‘I can deliver to you what an agency delivers in three months, in three weeks, and this is the talent you’re going to get across these disciplines to solve it, and Eric and I are going to be tethered to it from front-to-back,’ that’s a pretty appealing proposition.

What kind of client reaction have you received?

Segal: I think we’ve lived up to our promise of immediate and outsize value. When someone has a massive opportunity staring them in the face or a gnarly problem keeping them up, we solve it really quickly. I think there’s a lot of peace of mind there. There’s a lot of value. By no means are we inexpensive, but when you compare what we do in three weeks to what you’re paying a big agency for three months at work, there’s savings there.

We don’t have retained clients, but we do have repeat clients. I think that is the greatest compliment we can receive—or validation, rather than compliment—to know that they feel like they’re going to keep coming back to us.

We’ve had clients come to us and say, ‘This was amazing. I wish you guys did X.’ We do! We do all of it, not as a one-stop shop, but we have people in our network who are truly experts in that area that you were just thinking about.

I also think, honestly, there is a real appreciation for the lack of bullshit in terms of the way we operate. We’re really looking for folks with a sense of real conviction, a sense of agency to be able to raise their hand and push back and go, I don’t know if that’s the right problem. We get into it, and we’re very direct and honest with our clients. Then also a real sort of appreciation on all sides for a lack of meetings, bureaucracy and preciousness. Traditional agencies are quite precious, and they have to be because there’s a self-serving aspect to it. When you hand off a brief and it goes down the hierarchical ladder, there isn’t necessarily the appreciation for the real business task at hand. When you can staff a team like we have that has really been around, understands the commerce side of it, the business side of it, I think we strip away a lot of the pageantry and preciousness that is often in the agency relationship.

Banker: There’s nothing on the other end for us, other than business success. We’re not trying to sell an idea so we can go make that idea, which is what agencies are doing. We’re just trying to hand over the best answer. The success metric for us is not just repeat business, but, ‘Wow, that worked.’

FACTS + COMMENTS

CNN’s interview last week with Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz—their first as the official Democratic ticket for president and VP— gave the network its best ratings since the June debate between Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.

6.3 million: Viewers who tuned into the CNN interview

2: Overall ranking of the interview in terms of audience size last Thursday night. The most-watched broadcast was college football on ESPN

2.65 million: Viewers on Fox News at the same time

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Study shows cognitive behavioral therapy can lead to brain changes in depression patients

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Cognitive behavioral therapy, one of the most common treatments for depression, can teach skills for coping with everyday troubles, reinforce healthy behaviors and counter negative thoughts. But can altering thoughts and behaviors lead to lasting changes in the brain?

New research led by Stanford Medicine has found that it can -; if a therapy is matched with the right patients. In a study of adults with both depression and obesity -; a difficult-to-treat combination -; cognitive behavioral therapy that focused on problem solving reduced depression in a third of patients. These patients also showed adaptative changes in their brain circuitry.

Moreover, these neural adaptations were apparent after just two months of therapy and could predict which patients would benefit from long-term therapy.

The findings add to evidence that choosing treatments based on the neurological underpinnings of a patient's depression -; which vary among people -; increases the odds of success. 

The same concept is already standard practice in other medical specialties.

"If you had chest pain, your physician would suggest some tests -; an electrocardiogram, a heart scan, maybe a blood test -; to work out the cause and which treatments to consider," said Leanne Williams, PhD, the Vincent V.C. Woo Professor, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and the director of Stanford Medicine's Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness.

"Yet in depression, we have no tests being used. You have this broad sense of emotional pain, but it's a trial-and-error process to choose a treatment, because we have no tests for what is going on in the brain."

Williams and Jun Ma, MD, PhD, professor of academic medicine and geriatrics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, are co-senior authors of the study published Sept. 4 in  Science Translational Medicine.  The work is part of a larger clinical trial called RAINBOW (Research Aimed at Improving Both Mood and Weight).

Problem solving

The form of cognitive behavioral therapy used in the trial, known as problem-solving therapy, is designed to improve cognitive skills used in planning, troubleshooting and tuning out irrelevant information. A therapist guides patients in identifying real-life problems -; a conflict with a roommate, say -; brainstorming solutions and choosing the best one.

These cognitive skills depend on a particular set of neurons that function together, known as the cognitive control circuit.

Previous work from Williams' lab, which identified six biotypes of depression based on patterns of brain activity, estimated that a quarter of people with depression have dysfunction with their cognitive control circuits -; either too much or too little activity.

The participants in the new study were adults diagnosed with both major depression and obesity, a confluence of symptoms that often indicates problems with the cognitive control circuit. Patients with this profile generally do poorly on antidepressants: They have a dismal response rate of 17%.

Of the 108 participants, 59 underwent a year-long program of problem-solving therapy in addition to their usual care, such as medications and visits to a primary care physician. The other 49 received only usual care.

They were given fMRI brain scans at the beginning of the study, then after two months, six months, 12 months and 24 months. During the brain scans, the participants completed a test that involves pressing or not pressing a button according to text on a screen -; a task known to engage the cognitive control circuit. The test allowed the researchers to gauge changes in the activity of that circuit throughout the study.

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"We wanted to see whether this problem-solving therapy in particular could modulate the cognitive control circuit," said Xue Zhang, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in psychiatry who is the lead author of the study.

With each brain scan, participants also filled out standard questionnaires that assessed their problem-solving ability and depression symptoms. 

Working smarter

As with any other depression treatment, problem-solving therapy didn't work for everyone. But 32% of participants responded to the therapy, meaning their symptom severity decreased by half or more.

"That's a huge improvement over the 17% response rate for antidepressants," Zhang said.

When researchers examined the brain scans, they found that in the group receiving only usual care, a cognitive control circuit that became less active over the course of the study correlated with worsening problem-solving ability.

But in the group receiving therapy, the pattern was reversed: Decreased activity correlated with enhanced problem-solving ability. The researchers think this may be due to their brains learning, through the therapy, to process information more efficiently.

"We believe they have more efficient cognitive processing, meaning now they need fewer resources in the cognitive control circuit to do the same behavior," Zhang said.

Before the therapy, their brains had been working harder; now, they were working smarter.

Both groups, on average, improved in their overall depression severity. But when Zhang dug deeper into the 20-item depression assessment, she found that the depression symptom most relevant to cognitive control -; "feeling everything is an effort" -; benefited from the more efficient cognitive processing gained from the therapy.

"We're seeing that we can pinpoint the improvement specific to the cognitive aspect of depression, which is what drives disability because it has the biggest impact on real-world functioning," Williams said.

Indeed, some participants reported that problem-solving therapy helped them think more clearly, allowing them to return to work, resume hobbies and manage social interactions.

Fast track to recovery

Just two months into the study, brain scans showed changes in cognitive control circuit activity in the therapy group.

"That's important, because it tells us that there is an actual brain change going on early, and it's in the time frame that you'd expect brain plasticity," Williams said. "Real-world problem solving is literally changing the brain in a couple of months."

The idea that thoughts and behaviors can modify brain circuits is not so different from how exercise -; a behavior -; strengthens muscles, she added.

The researchers found that these early changes signaled which patients were responding to the therapy and would likely improve on problem-solving skills and depression symptoms at six months, 12 months and even one year after the therapy ended, at 24 months. That means a brain scan could be used to predict which patients are the best candidates for problem-solving therapy.

It's a step toward Williams' vision of precision psychiatry -; using brain activity to match patients with the therapies most likely to help them, fast-tracking them to recovery.

"It's definitely advancing the science," Zhang said. "But it's also going to transform a lot of people's lives."

Researchers from University of Washington, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and The Ohio State University also contributed to the work.

The study received funding from the National Institutes of Health (grants UH2 HL132368, UH3 HL132368 and R01 HL119453).

Stanford Medicine

Posted in: Medical Research News | Medical Condition News

Tags: Blood , Blood Test , Brain , Chest Pain , Clinical Trial , Cognitive Behavioral Therapy , Depression , Disability , Exercise , Geriatrics , Heart , Medicine , Mental Health , Neurons , Neuroscience , Obesity , Pain , Primary Care , Psychiatry , Research

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