Need advice: feeling behind

Could you guys suggest a plan for the next 3-6 months that would really help me level up my skills? Should I just focus on churning out as many projects as I can? I'm already putting in the effort at my internship, but I feel like I need to do more.

Your feelings are totally valid and I hear you! Since you already secured an internship for this year and have some previous experience, a good plan now is to try to secure a job for after graduation. The first step is to select the positions that you're more interested in and feel like you're a good fit, polish your resume to the specific requirements of each and apply as soon as possible. Connect with recruiters, reach out to the your network, etc. I feel like there's a lot of material about job searching on the internet so I won't detail this much here.

I would do projects but thinking about working on more "meaty" ones to add more impact to your resumé. There's a great masterclass by Alex on how to develop your personal projects here: https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/AI4zi759PSGn6RwIFT6f/masterclass-how-to-come-up-with-100k-users-app-ideas-you-can-build-for-free/

Also, should I stick to what I know and double down on frontend skills, or should I try to learn some backend too to keep my job options open post-graduation?

To answer this question you need to ask yourself first what do you want. Do you prefer to be a front-end engineer? If yes then focus on preparing for front-end related interview questions (apart from the general DSA ones). It's certainly helpful for a front-end engineer to know some back-end, but I'd rather focus on what is going to help you pass the interviews and learn back-end on the job.

Now, would you like to try full-stack or something completely back-end? Then yes, studying some back-end would be good.

How much ChatGPT should I use when building my projects? I feel like if I use it too much, I won't develop coding skills as much and also non-technical skills like reading documentation. Opinions?

I use ChatGPT essentially as a search, feedback and productivity tool. It will not code your project for you. It does write some code, yes, but that code still needs to be corrected, debugged, tested, etc. You can get some ideas from it more quickly for sure, but the hard part is still on you. With that said, it's OK to use ChatGPT for finding answers, just don't think that will solve your problem all the time.

Should I also do Leetcode (I am weak at it too)? Or is it just better to focus on one thing at a time? Or something like - 3 months Frontend, 3 months Leetcode?

What kind of companies you want to interview for? Do they use leetcode style interviews? Then yes, doing Leetcode will help you, and in that case I think it's best to focus on what you're less strong on. If you're already comfortable with frontend I'd study Leetcode.

Also, some university recruiting positions don't require domain-specific knowlede (e.g., Front-end) and rather focus on Leetcode. So that's why it's important to learn more about the companies you want to interview for first.

My #1 focus would be making sure you get that return offer. Return offers are not a guarantee in this market especially at startups. And its not your fault. You can do everything right and not get RO. Make sure to apply to new grad postings, have your resume in check and be somewhat interview ready. No need to be full on interview ready but you should be able to ramp up in 2-3 weeks if needed.

During the internship I would focus primarily on getting that RO and networking. If you get an RO then I would relax a bit, take it easy and build some fun projects.

Should you not get an RO I would focus on applying to new grad jobs and practicing DSA/Leetcode

1. How much ChatGPT should I use when building my projects? I feel like if I use it too much, I won't develop coding skills as much and also non-technical skills like reading documentation. Opinions?

It depends, are you building projects to learn a framework/language or to get users? If its the first type then dont use it for everything i.e. dont build a full crud app with 1 chatGPT query if youre trying to learn rust or something. But if youre trying to build cool stuff and not worried about learning then use chatGPT