Place components in such a way is often used by me that leads that need to be connected are placed in adjacent holes. It's very easy to create a solder bridge across two pads.

The three common methods of using universal board is using jumper wire, solder bridges, or using leads. Or all three, depending on your needs.

I cannot recommend it because it's very hard to take the parts out later, when something's broken. The holes stick not that good to the board most of the time, so with too much soldering you would get the hole of your board.