In my experience all the characters are very one dimensional, so you find that dimension and you pander to it and that usually gets you close.

But realistically in a game with a clock if you don't intend to play it multiple times find a spoiler free guide and follow that.

It's more of a thing for New Game + runs, to be honest. You'll probably drive yourself up the wall trying to do it (with or without a guide) on your first playthrough.

It's easier to do the more recent the game is, I think Persona 5 Royal is possible to max everyone without planning on a first playthrough.

General advice:

• Get to the end of a dungeon as soon as possible to maximize your free time before the deadline. It sounds challenging but it's pretty easy. Conserve your SP where you can and stock up on SP restoring items and you can finish most dungeons in one day
• Your character's social stats will roadblock you during social link progression if you they're not high enough level, so make sure not to neglect them
• Pay attention to your choices during dialogue scenes, there's a hidden progression meter for each social link that needs to hit a certain threshold for the next rank to unlock and certain dialogue choices or actions can get you to rank up faster. There's little music notes that appear on screen (I think 3 is the most?) and a sound effect that plays

Alqays have a matching arcana persona, get all answers correct. Look up a guide or save before every SL.

When I played Persona 5 vanilla I easily maxed out every social link I cared about and could have probably maxed out a few other ones too without too much effort if I wanted to, but I instead just did hangouts with already maxed out confidants instead because I couldn't be bothered.

You probably won't do it on your first playthrough, but that's ok. I'm doing a second playthrough of persona 4 myself but here's my general advice.

• Get dungeons done ASAP, do a good bit of training if you can so you can do all you need in one day and just chill.
• Do not skip through the dialogue, the story's pretty good and you want to make sure that you pick the polite option. Especially in persona 3 where the protagonist can sometimes be brutal.
• This includes class as well. There's no shame in looking up the answers and doing well on tests makes you more popular.
• If this is your first playthrough, I'd recommend finding what social links you want to prioritize. In persona 4 it's going to be obvious with the party members.