Learn data structures and algorithms by writing code.

The title may seem obvious but when learning data structures and algorithms, I find it hard to understand most of them just by reading about the characteristics and what they do.

I am currently taking the CS course on Codecademy and when they teach data structures they teach you the Conceptual of it and then how it is implemented in a programming language (in this case python). E.g:

And I know some people may not be able to afford courses which is okay, if you know how to find what you need to learn. So you can use YouTube (or some other free learning resources) to do so.

So if you are learning data structures online I recommend when learning about Linked Lists (or any other structure or algorithm) that you actually implement one in the programming language you want. By doing so it will help you understand them much easier.