#331 overall
Data Structures and Algorithms Specialization
Coursera
2 recommenders · 2 threads · recommended in 2 years, 2018–2019 · score 1.5
A Coursera specialization covering core data structures and algorithms, with graded programming exercises that use automatic grading. Commenters note that the graded exercises are paid, though a sample is available.
Commenters point to its graded exercises for practicing algorithmic thinking and as a solid base for technical interviews.
Algorithms & Data Structuresintermediatepaidinteractive MOOC#data structures#algorithms#graded exercises#interview prep
Recommendations by year
20062026
I’d recommend trying the graded exercises in https://www.coursera.org/specializations/data-structures-alg... or https://www.edx.org/course/data-structures-an-active-learnin... — unfortunately, for the most benefit (online automatic grading), you’ll have to pay either EdX or Coursera, but EdX offers a small sample of exercises to start, if I recall correctly. And there are a few more courses after those.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll learn better if someone doesn’t ask you to do the impossible, but instead leads you through enough solutions that you can get an immediate confidence boost from the first few easy ones, then the intermediate ones require more thought, and if you really get stuck, there are discussions about how to solve some of the problems. Usually you have to think algorithmically, not just write code, and some problems might just be harder for you to understand because you haven’t done as much work in that area. I won’t say it’s a complete look at algorithms—there’s a whole other course on strings if I recall, but it’s a good start.
Also, here’s my cheat to pass those employer questions — if they let you use JS, do EVERYTHING you can with ES6 Map and Set classes. Folks rarely look at the code and don’t care if you’re using for loops or advanced classes, but it’s way easier to use a Set than to worry about how many times you have to loop over some result to reduce duplication, or sort things, or what have you. If you need a unique sorted set, there are faster algorithms, but a simple (new Set(arr.sort())) gets the job done, because Set is insertion-ordered by default and any native JS function is generally faster than you writing your own code, so it’s impossible to mark this solution as wrong unless you exclude native functions (but who does that?). A bonus tip, if you need to figure out the difference between sets, just get creative with .filter and .map. There’s not much to memorize beyond that because there’s not much advanced functionality, just building blocks flexible enough to do anything, relatively expressively. https://exploringjs.com/impatient-js/ch_sets.html#missing-se...
Best thing you can do is to enhance your skills in data structures and algorithms so you have a strong base in them. The interviews normally start here for most of these companies because their software deals with a large amount of data structures and/or algorithms and is essential to understand to be a productive contributor there.
If your previous work did not actually require you to know them, they probably where not building algorithms from scratch or optimizing parsing/processing of data very much. As without the essential basics of data structures and algorithms it is very hard to build scalable applications that rely on them.
As you grow in your career you will have to learn things outside of your base knowledge as you move up the ranks on the technical skills ladder. This will be standard requirements for senior level positions which you are probably seeing now. At the junior and mid level you are normally not responsible for building the core pieces of data processing software engines or massively scalable applications that run custom in house algorithms.
If you go through some of the below resources they should help fill that skills gap and make you an overall stronger engineer so you can feel confident applying for senior level positions.
I would recommend taking the following course: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/data-structures-alg... https://www.edx.org/course/algorithms-and-data-structures https://in.udacity.com/course/data-structures-and-algorithms...
and reading the following book: https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Press-Thomas-...