DeepSeek-R1: practice your reasoning without borrowing someone else’s

The development

DeepSeek released R1 on January 20, 2025, presenting a reasoning-focused model and accompanying technical work. The release expanded the set of models available for experimenting with difficult questions. Its performance claims were about model evaluations, not candidate performance in interviews. [1]

Keep your own reasoning visible

For technical practice, our takeaway is to use a model after making your own first attempt. Write your assumptions, identify a possible approach, and state what you would test. Then ask the assistant to look for a counterexample. Reading a complete solution first can make the route feel familiar without showing whether you could find it independently.

When you compare approaches, focus on one decision: why a method fits the constraints or why an alternative fails. Explain that decision aloud using an example small enough to inspect. If you cannot reconstruct the explanation without the model’s text, revisit the problem. This turns reasoning assistance into a source of practice questions rather than a script. A correct-looking response still needs independent checking, especially when it includes code, calculations, or assumptions about an unfamiliar system.