From “Why DSA?” to “How Do I Approach This Problem?” — My DSA Journey

When I was in my second year of college, my brother told me that I should start learning DSA.

At that time, I honestly didn't understand why I should learn it.

I had seen seniors and some of the toppers in my class talking about DSA, but I didn't even know what DSA stood for. In fact, during my first year, I was still trying to understand the basics of programming that were being taught in college.

So when my brother told me to learn DSA, my first thought was:

"Why should I learn this?"

Why is DSA important?

Before starting, I began watching videos about why DSA is important, especially for placements.

After understanding its importance, I decided to start preparing for DSA during my second year.

Initially, I started solving problems using TakeUForward. I was trying to understand the concepts and practice problems.

But after some time, my friends started telling me:

"Why are you learning DSA when AI can do everything?"

That made me think.

I stopped practicing DSA for about a week.

The conversation that changed my thinking

During that time, my brother again explained to me why DSA is still important even though AI can write code.

He told me that during placements, companies don't only test whether we can write code.

They also want to know:

How do we approach a problem?
Can we understand the problem?
Can we come up with a solution?
Can we think logically?
Can we solve problems on our own?

That made me realize that AI can help me write code, but I still need to develop my own problem-solving ability.

After that, I decided not to listen to all the different opinions around me and started learning DSA again.

This time, I decided to practice every day.

My struggle with Binary Search

One of the things I struggled with was Binary Search.

One day, I tried to solve problems based on the Binary Search pattern, but I couldn't figure them out.

The next day, I tried again.

Instead of immediately looking at the solution, I started understanding how Binary Search actually works. I wrote the logic down on paper and tried to understand the approach step by step.

I kept doing this for almost a week.

It took me a lot of time to understand the pattern.

But eventually, something changed.

I started getting the idea behind the problem.

Once I understood the approach to Binary Search, I solved some more problems based on it. Every problem gave me a little more understanding of problem-solving.

Even now, I still struggle with some problems.

Sometimes I spend an hour on a problem just trying to understand the approach.

I try to write the logic or pseudocode on paper before worrying about the syntax of a particular programming language.

And I think that has helped me.

What I'm learning from DSA

I'm realizing that learning DSA isn't about solving every problem quickly.

It's about understanding how to approach a problem.

Sometimes I can solve a problem in a short time.

Sometimes I can spend an hour and still not solve it.

But I'm slowly getting better at recognizing the approach.

I still have a long way to go, but now I don't feel the same way I did when I started.

My biggest takeaway

Consistency matters more than speed.

You don't need to understand everything on the first day.

You don't need to solve every problem immediately.

Keep trying, understand your mistakes, write down your approach, and try again.

For me, learning DSA is still a struggle.

But now I understand that the struggle itself is part of learning.

I still have a long way to go, but I'm happy that I'm moving forward. I hope to come back to this post someday and see how far I've grown.