I suck at LC right now, and I'm rusty on some of the foundations, like Tries/Graphs/DFS/Djikstra's, etc. Should I just stick with LC? Or brush over the basics again? I'm suffering from analysis paralysis and can't choose a resource to brush up on the DSA foundations. CTCI, Algorithm Design Manual, Algorithms by Sedgewick Princeton, Grokking Coding interviews, InterviewCake, Algoexpert, bunch of Udemy courses like Python for coding interviews, some Youtube channels? I don't know too many resources. I don't mind paying, I don't mind Youtube channels. Any recommendations? #leetcode #metoo #MeToo #google #facebook #microsoft #uber #lyft #linkedin #amazon
Jeff Erickson - Algorithms
Doing problems is the best way to learn. Use books as a reference when you come across something fundamental you don't have a strong understanding of. Just reading a bunch of stuff without applying it is an inefficient way to learn.
Just pick one resource and stick with it (be sure to implement everything you learn or almost everything) I really enjoyed this one - https://www.coursera.org/specializations/data-structures-algorithms Also found this book useful - https://codeforces.com/blog/entry/50728
I spend some time with algorithm textbooks and it helped me. I picked Goodrich Tamassia because its in python, Skiena is also nice for trees, graphs, backtracking
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I did Elements of Programming Interviews. They have multiple pre-made schedules and problem sets based on your studying timeline. Then some leetcode to reinforce the concepts.
I forgot to mention EPI but I've got that on my list too. I don't think that would be ideal to jump into, without brushing up on basics, no? Also, isn't your recommendation backwards? Usually I read people say EPI is much harder than leetcode.
epi IS brushing up on the basics. they have a crash course section for each chapter that does a brief review of the topic. If that isn’t enough of a refresher, congrats - you just identified a weak point in your knowledge! Now you can go to youtube or MIT OCW or wherever else to review that specific concept in depth. Come back, do the EPI problems bc their solutions are (on average) better than LC solutions. EPI is just like a guided study session with a TA for a DS&A final exam. Conceptual review + guided practice problems. I honestly don’t understand how anyone could think it’s harder than LC.
Try hackerrank.com. It has few interesting questions to regresh basics. This helped me gain confidence after failing to solve a lot of leetcode problems.
For learning to swim, what prep do you expect before getting into the water? Just go all in.
I personally think CTCI is good only for data structures. Need something better for algorithms. I’m also searching for something which is quick to go through to brush up all the algos. The books you mentioned will take time to read