Best way to learn data structures and algorithms reddit

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r/learnprogramming

Out of personal interest, I'd really like to learn about Algorithms and Data structures, however, I don't want it to be dead, abstract 'learning-about-algorithms,' as opposed to living, applied 'learning-algorithms.' So projects and problem sets rather than lectures.

What are the consensus best sources to learn algorithms and data structures in this manner?

level 1

Leetcode and hackerrank are good practical websites to learn.

Search Google for Nakov, I think it is Svetlin Nakov.he has published a book regarding DS&A which provides quite some theoretical knowledgeable and actionable exercises for those subjects

level 1

Find a college course from a top university. Do the homeworks. Fair warning, a big part of DS&A is writing proofs and you shouldn't dismiss this as unimportant.

level 1

Leetcode premium. Just do their classes.

level 2

I genuinely don't know about it. how's it worth the price?

level 1

I personally never did leetcode, it always seemed more like a puzzle and less like programming to me. I learned algorithms and data structures by profiling my code, finding the slow parts, and researching what data structures are used in that scenario. My first opengl project had hundreds of sprites colliding and iterated through a list to do it, terrible idea, but researching fixes for that slow down led me to quad trees, uniform grids, hash sets. Even using those I had to profile to fix bugs. In real world work this is what you will use algos and data structures for, it will translate to work much better. But it won't prepare you for a faang interview.

I'de say the crux of it is understanding time and space complexity, and collecting a bunch of tools that allow you to make stuff more performant.

I can sum up data structures and algs pretty shortly.

All programming has to do with data. transforming data, collecting data, storing data, simulating complex systems with data, making the data dance across the screen.... etc.

Even something like a video game. It's all sprites attached to coordinates with event triggers. The event triggers are attached to invisible bounding boxes that are attached to the sprites, usually by way of some game object which is a data structure itself albiet a larger one. Hell, even the cartesion grid the sprites dance across is a a matrix structure.

All programming problems can be solved in two steps. You store the data in some structure. you make the data move around or do stuff with some algorithm.

Interestingly... There is a relationship between the time and space complexity needed to solve programming problems. Most problems could in theory be solved with tiny algorithms and large data structures, or can be solved with tiny data structures and large algorithms.

Here's an example. Throw a thousand name tags in a big bag. This is a very simple data structure. A large algorithm is needed to find all of the tags with "john" on it in the bad. Or, you could put all the identical names in a seperate stacks, now it requires a smaller algorithm and a more complex data structure.

By the time you get to a full blown application there are actually millions of these compromises being made. If you learn a lot of the famous DS and ALG's it's kind of like adding some new tools to your tool box. Some of the famous DS and ALG's are so fundamental is kind of like putting a plain hammer in your tool box. Programmers really aught to know some of them.

Hey r/learnprogramming!

Some background, I am a junior at a 4-year uni that doesn't have any sort of Data Structures course(I know, ridiculous). I am currently interning at a fortune 500 company, and am planning on pursuing BigN companies next fall.

For me to succeed in this, I understand that I am going to need to learn data structures and algorithms to pass BigN tech interviews. I already own the CTCI book, but have not gone through it extensively due to my lack of knowledge in data structures.

I have heard a broad range of advice from fellow colleagues. Some say just stick to something like leetcode, some say to go through the CLRS book, and some say to go through an entire intensive study guide like this.

I would really appreciate some tips on what I should do moving forward.

Thank you!

Edit: So after doing some research online, and with your guys help along with some other subreddits(like r/cscareerquestions), I decided that I'm going to go through this book, along with CTCI and leetcode. I like the book a lot because it's not too theory based like CLRS, and it is also interactive as it comes with several programming exercises. I'm also a big fan of Python. Let me know what you guys think!

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