You read the title, right? You must be thinking why this guy is writing "restarting DSA" He must be good at DSA and he may have left the practice and all the kinds of speculations but wait...just wait there. This is my first blog on any platform and yeah this is not a tech blog so if you are thinking that you will get any kind of knowledge and stuff don't waste your time here. I am writing this to self-introspect and to get an insight about myself only and maybe to motivate myself. You can of course mail me your thoughts. I would love to read it.
Being from a non-cs branch (EE), I have never gotten around DSA during my prime years (YEAH! That's what I call my college years). Due to the financial situation of our home, I was always busy earning money by taking tuition and stuff (I did content writing as well but at the very end of my degree). I did my degree from a very prestigious college in Ahmedabad (I did not know tier 3/2/1 shit). I was not a ranker but I managed to score above 7.5 by the end of my engineering (which I think is okayish). During my college years, I did some Arduino programming which was very very basic (but we were able to manage the motoring functionalities xD) and then suddenly one day it was the 7th semester. And we all know what it is, The placement season. The BIG MNC (Service based) came! I was not even aware that it is THAT great of an opportunity. I was eligible and I sat for it and BOOM! Suddenly I became a computer guy, a software guy WOAH. I was crying like a baby. Why? Why wouldn't I be? It was this BIG MNC that I had never thought that I could be even considered for an interview (I have one extra mark sheet xD). plus, I was offered 4.5 LPA CTC. I am truly grateful for whatever happened from the bottom of my heart.
I joined the company and it was such a fairytale. seeing this 5-digit salary month after month in my account I was very happy. All the problems and hardships disappeared. I bought clothes (which I hardly did during my college years), a phone, gifts for my sisters, and everything I ever dreamt of doing (we get a signing bonus xD). and I enjoy little things you may feel its nothing but for me, it could be everything.
During my college years, I was into hardware building and mostly idea and brainstorming (That was my role in PROJECT also which we were not able to execute due to COVID).
After one and a half years into the job and it hit me in the head that I want to build, I want to create. My work involves Sharepoint migration (and sometimes development), which is mostly not related to programming. I started searching for things like what language was used to build what. How, and where to learn these languages, frameworks, and databases, and as it happens, I got overwhelmed. All these things led me to believe that the one thing any software developer/ web developer must know is Data Structures and Algorithms and OF COURSE why not? This is the building block of the programming world. How would you ask a computer, or a machine to show a list of contacts in 0.02 seconds in your application? Right ? Algorithms are so essential to learn to build or make anything super efficient and super effective. It is nothing but mathematics. AND Everyone loves Mathematics.
I started learning DSA through various free/paid resources and I won't lie I made notes and made significant progress as well but I failed to understand that it is okay to not know solutions to every problem. I failed to understand that for a beginner like me, it is not about the number of problems solved in a day, it is more about sitting in a corner and trying. I failed and I dropped DSA.
But here I am! Picking up AGAIN to learn, unlearn and relearn anything and everything.
at last, YOU must be thinking why there is a man posing like he is in some sort of race?
I feel it is me. I can see myself in a race. I heard Neeraj(Search "ezsnippet" on Instagram, he makes amazing content around js/React) saying that "Life is a race for those who want to win" and I feel it. I feel it's true and I want to win this race. I want to become good at DSA, Problem-solving, and building stuff.
This is my journey, my new beginning, my RESTART to learning.