29/06/2026
Placement Series | Day 2
Yesterday, we talked about how to start your interview preparation from scratch.
Today, let’s talk about something even more important: How do you actually approach a DSA question?
One mistake I see almost every beginner make is jumping straight into coding or watching the solution after a few minutes.
Instead, follow this approach:
✅ Understand the problem completely.
✅ Think of the brute-force solution first.
✅ Look for patterns instead of memorizing solutions.
✅ Only then, write the optimized solution.
Here’s a simple trick to identify patterns:
Finding pairs in an array? Think HashMap or Two Pointers (Two Sum)
Longest/Shortest Subarray or Substring? Think Sliding Window (Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters)
Sorted array? Think Binary Search (Search Insert Position)
Repeated calculations? Think Prefix Sum or Dynamic Programming (Climbing Stairs)
Tree or Graph? Think DFS/BFS (Maximum Depth of Binary Tree)
Top K elements? Think Heap (Top K Frequent Elements)
Remember, interviews aren’t about memorizing hundreds of solutions. They’re about recognizing patterns and knowing when to apply them.
📌 Save this post so you can revisit these patterns whenever you’re solving DSA.
👇 Which DSA pattern do you find the most difficult? Let me know in the comments.
Tomorrow, we’ll dive into the first DSA pattern that every beginner should master.
{ DSA, Data Structures and Algorithms, Coding Interview, Software Engineer, SDE1, Placement Preparation, Campus Placements, Software Developer, Coding with Yash}
