I've been trying to master algorithms but after solving around 500 questions, I still find it hard to tackle new ones on my own. I want to know what others do to really understand and solve these problems confidently. Any tips would be appreciated!
3 Answers
One thing I’ve learned is that repetition is key. Go through those questions again and again to reinforce your understanding. It might sound tedious, but it does help!
Before jumping into the coding challenges, it's essential to have a solid foundation in the basics. Make sure you're comfortable with data structures like arrays, linked lists, trees, and graphs. Understanding Big O notation for time and space complexity is also crucial. For algorithms, familiarize yourself with sorting and searching techniques. I recommend checking out the book 'Introduction to Algorithms' by Cormen and looking up free tutorials on sites like GeeksforGeeks.
Wait, I’m a bit confused. How did you manage to solve the first 500? Did you have a specific strategy?
I mainly used Leetcode for practice. I attempt the problems first, but when I get stuck, I turn to ChatGPT for help. I try to understand the solutions, but honestly, I rarely solve problems in one go.
I totally get that! I’ve seen programmers come up with their own algorithms and it’s impressive. It makes me wonder how they do that when I struggle with problems I've already seen.