💬 How do you prep for coding interviews with a full time job?

I've been at an IT services company in Hyderabad for 2 years now. I leave office around 7:30. By the time I reach home in Miyapur it's 8:45 and all I want is dinner and a bed. I told myself I'd do 2 problems every night. I managed that for exactly 4 days. On day 5 I opened the laptop, read one question twice, and woke up at 11 with the screen gone dark. So I tried mornings. Alarm at 5, tea, laptop open by 5:15. The first week felt great. I solved 11 problems in 7 days and told my cousin about it like I'd won a trophy. Week 2 I did 5. In week 3 a project deadline hit and I slept through 3 alarms in a row. Now the alarm is still set for 5 and I switch it off without even opening my eyes. Weekends are no better. Saturday is laundry, groceries and my mother's phone calls about relatives I've never met. Sunday is gone by lunch. A friend who joined a product company last year did 1 hour in his lunch break. I tried that too. Eating a sandwich at my desk while a stranger's tree problem stares at me. It made me hate the sandwich and the problem both, and I still hadn't learned either one. What I want to know is simple. How many hours a week did you give it, and when? Did early mornings work for anyone long term, or does everybody quit around week 3 like me? I'm not in a hurry. I'm looking at 6 months, maybe 8, and I'd like a routine that survives a bad week. If someone has a plan that worked with an office schedule like mine, I'll copy it exactly.

I switched jobs at 31 while working 10 hour days. Mornings failed for me too, I'm no morning person. What worked was 3 evenings a week, 45 minutes each, with my phone in another room.

I'm not in IT, but I studied for an exam while working night shifts for almost a year. What saved me was a fixed 40 minutes, same time every day, even when I was exhausted. A big Sunday session never stuck for me. Small and boring beat big and rare. Try 25 minutes on weekday evenings first, and drop the 5 am plan if you keep switching it off.