Hey there, here is my journey of the first 30 days in DSA.

How it all Started

I finished my 12th grade in May this year. I had a lot of time on my hands, and I am passionate about coding. So, in May and June, I started learning the basics of C++. After watching 10-15 videos, I started feeling motivated. By mid-June, I had finished many basic concepts.

Getting Started with Programming

I then moved on to more advanced C++ topics, such as Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), pointers, bitwise operators, and so on. I did face some challenges, but not too much, as I had already learned these concepts in Python in my 10th grade. However, I did find pointers to be a bit difficult. I tried to study it twice, but then I got frustrated.

The thing that motivated me to continue at this stage was this quote: “Everyone faces these issues at some point in their coding journey. Some people just give up, but those who try again are the warriors.“

I started again by writing down every note in my notebook. With full concentration, I finished pointers in a few days. Then, I felt very confident and motivated. By the end of June, I had finished practicing and revising everything I had learned by coding it again and again.

Looking for New Challenges – DSA

Now, as my college was to start from September, I had one month left. I started reaching out to seniors of many colleges and some employees using LinkedIn. I also started reaching out to my relatives who are in the tech field and colleges. I also asked my teacher, what is the most important thing in programming?

I was suggested to start with DSA, as many of my relatives who were in colleges told me that DSA is a field where practice is everything and people generally start by the end of second year in college.

I then decided to study DSA so that in 4 years I can master it by solving excessive amounts of questions and participating in hackathons and contests. DSA was also going to help me in college to reduce pressure in the second year.

Ready, Get, Set, Start the DSA

That is why from the first week of August, I started to study DSA for 6-8 hours a day with full concentration.

I also remembered the mistakes I did during C++ preparation in July, that I didn’t make notes at first. But this time in DSA, I was dry running every code and taking proper notes and coded everything I taught.

Before August, I was a guy who would wake up at 10am-11am in the morning. But the whole of August, I woke up at 4am and slept at 10pm at night. I decided to solve 5 questions daily from 4:30am to 6am in the morning and after that, from 6am to 6:30am, I would take a walk to refresh my mind. I maintained my consistency till now also.

By the second week of August, I finished Stacks, Queues, Linked Lists, Arrays, and Matrix. I also practiced in the morning. From the third week, I started recursion. It hit me hard, as it was quite tough for me. The lecture of 3-4 days took me 7-8 days to understand. I felt demotivated, but then I realized that this is a turn that sends back many losers. But I was determined to take this turn and practice recursion harder. By the end of the third week, I finished recursion and trees. The next week, I participated in lots of quizzes and contests, in which I scored very good. By the end of August, I almost finished till Tries. And now, I am good at DSA. I am still learning Graphs and motivated to reach the max of my potential.

Here are my key takeaways from the first 30 days of my DSA journey:

• The first 30 days of your journey will decide whether you are going to make it or leave it. After 30 days of consistency, you will be in a position where you will not be afraid of challenges and hard topics.
• Whenever there is a hard topic for me, I just give it extra time but do not get demotivated.
• Taking the first step is always hard, as till then you have no experience of climbing. But after 30 days, you will automatically get out of procrastination and your routine will work properly. All you need is self-control on yourself for the first step.
• Always remember, whenever you feel a problem, think that the one who is ahead of you also faced this at his/her time of preparation. He just did not give up.

Conclusion:

Never give up on your dreams. If you face challenges, don’t be afraid.