Build a DSA study plan you can stick to

1. 1

   Foundation · Week 1

   Programming foundations

   7h planned

   Loops, functions, recursion basics, and Big O time and space complexity.

   Practice target: Implement a few small functions, then explain their time and space costs.

2. 2

   Foundation · Week 2

   Arrays

   7h planned

   Traversal, updates, frequency counts, and one- and two-dimensional arrays.

   Practice target: Solve array problems first with a direct approach, then improve the complexity.

3. 3

   Foundation · Week 3

   Strings

   7h planned

   Character counts, palindromes, anagrams, and pattern matching.

   Practice target: Write down edge cases such as empty strings, repeated characters, and case handling.

4. 4

   Problem-solving patterns · Week 4

   Hashing

   7h planned

   Hash maps, sets, frequency tables, and distinct-element questions.

   Practice target: Practice choosing between a map, set, sorting, and a nested loop.

5. 5

   Problem-solving patterns · Week 5

   Two pointers and sliding window

   7h planned

   Pair search, fixed and variable windows, and subarray constraints.

   Practice target: For each problem, state what the window represents and when either pointer moves.

6. 6

   Problem-solving patterns · Week 6

   Prefix sums

   7h planned

   Running totals, range queries, and subarray-sum patterns.

   Practice target: Compare a repeated range scan with a prefix-sum solution and explain the trade-off.

7. 7

   Core data structures · Week 7

   Stacks and queues

   7h planned

   Stack operations, queues, deques, parentheses, and monotonic structures.

   Practice target: Trace the contents of the structure on paper for at least one example.

8. 8

   Core data structures · Week 8

   Linked lists

   7h planned

   Pointers, reversal, cycle detection, merging, and singly or doubly linked lists.

   Practice target: Draw pointer changes before coding reversal, merging, or cycle detection.

9. 9

   Core data structures · Week 9

   Searching and sorting

   7h planned

   Binary search, merge sort, quick sort, and sorting-based approaches.

   Practice target: Write binary search from memory and test boundaries and duplicate values.

10. 10

    Advanced problem-solving · Week 10

    Recursion, backtracking, and greedy

    7h planned

    Recursive state, subsets, permutations, pruning, and local-choice strategies.

    Practice target: Identify the state, choice, base case, and undo step before implementing backtracking.

11. 11

    Advanced problem-solving · Week 11

    Trees and graphs

    7h planned

    Tree traversals, BSTs, BFS, DFS, shortest paths, and cycle detection.

    Practice target: Choose BFS or DFS deliberately and track visited nodes and complexity.

12. 12

    Advanced DSA · Week 12

    Dynamic programming and bit manipulation

    7h planned

    Memoization, tabulation, common DP patterns, and core bit operations.

    Practice target: For DP, define the state and transition before coding; test a small input by hand.

This is a flexible study outline, not a promise of interview results. Adjust the pace to your starting level and revisit topics that need more practice.