Need Help with Data Structures and Algorithms Course

Hi everyone! I'm really struggling with my data structures and algorithms course at university, and I'm reaching out for some guidance. No matter how many lectures or tutorials I watch, I just feel stuck and overwhelmed. I even considered hiring a tutor. I want to grasp this material, but I feel like I'm in a confusing loop.

My high school math skills are a bit rusty too, which doesn't help. I can usually wrap my head around pseudocode or a solution at a glance, but when it comes time to solve a problem myself, I completely blank on how to start coming up with an algorithm. It feels like there's a huge gap between recognizing a solution and knowing how to create one.

I understand the end algorithm but feel lost on the thought process that gets you there. What are the mental steps I should focus on practicing?

Here are the main areas I'm struggling with:
- Foundational Math (like Floor/Ceiling, Powers, Logarithms); I know what a logarithm is, but understanding its application in binary search is challenging.
- Algorithm Principles & Efficiency (Time/Space Complexity, Big-O Notation); is Big O notation some kind of fixed formula?
- Arrays (Operations, Insertion/Deletion);
- Searching Algorithms (Linear and Binary Search);
- Basic Algorithms (like Merging Arrays).

If you have recommendations for excellent YouTube channels or websites that make learning the problem-solving process easier—especially those that explain the why before the how—I'd be super grateful! Also, I'm curious about how you all learned to think algorithmically. Were there specific methods or practices (like using pseudocode in a certain way or sketching diagrams) that really helped you?