If you had told me two years ago that I’d wake up excited to wrestle with a graph problem before breakfast, I would have laughed. Back then, data structures and algorithms were just items on an interview checklist. I’d binge-watch a playlist, grind for a weekend, and then forget half of it by Monday. Things only started to click when I stopped chasing the perfect crash course and treated DSA like brushing my teeth—quick, daily, and non-negotiable.
How a Streak Changed Everything
The breakthrough came in the most ordinary way. I was venting to a friend about yet another failed attempt at a “30 days to FAANG” plan. He opened his notebook and showed me a simple log: two problems a day, every day, for eight months. No fireworks, just a neat column of dates and ticks. That quiet streak humbled me more than any viral roadmap.
So I copied his idea, but with a modest target: one problem a day for 30 days. No skipping weekends, no marathon catch-up sessions. I finished the month with 35 logged problems, a handful of messy notes, and a brain that instinctively reached for patterns like sliding window or two pointers. More importantly, the daily win rewired how I approached debugging, scoping complexity, and even design conversations at work.
The Routine That Finally Stuck
I didn’t stumble into consistency; I built guardrails for it.
A Journal That Keeps Me Honest
I keep a tiny “DSA Daily” template in Notion. Each entry records the problem link, how long I wrestled with it, the main idea, and the bug that almost tripped me. I also add a gut-feel confidence score out of five. It takes five minutes, but the act of writing forces me to explain the solution to myself instead of just celebrating the green check.
If you like templates, here’s the one I use:
## Problem
- Link:
- Difficulty:
- Topic:
## Approach
- Why it works:
- Time complexity:
- Space complexity:
## Notes
- Got stuck at:
- Next time I'll:It’s nothing fancy, but the notes have become my own little textbook.
Matching DSA to My Energy Curve
Morning me is curious; evening me just wants dinner. So I guard a 45-minute slot right after coffee for fresh problems. High-energy mornings get medium questions. Sleepy days mean an easier one or a redo of something that beat me last week. If life explodes, I lean on a “micro fallback”: reading an editorial and summarizing it still counts as a rep. That safety net keeps the streak alive without turning the habit into self-punishment.
Giving Each Week a Flavor
To avoid the “random LeetCode roulette,” I pick a topic every Sunday night—arrays, trees, dynamic programming, graphs, whatever needs love. Monday is for refreshing the basics, Tuesday through Thursday are for new twists, Friday is my “debug day,” and Saturday mimics a mock interview. Sunday mornings are for a short retrospective and spaced-repetition reviews. Having a theme keeps me from scattering my attention and gives my brain time to actually live with a pattern.
What a Day Actually Looks Like
Daily DSA isn’t just solving a brand-new problem on a stopwatch. A typical morning might look like this:
- Warm up by reviewing yesterday’s notes.
- Attempt one new problem with a 45-minute timer.
- Talk through the solution out loud as if someone were listening.
- Log the attempt, including the bug that slowed me down.
- Spend five minutes comparing my approach with the editorial to see what I missed.
Some days that’s all I have energy for. Other days I’ll throw in a quick pair session with a friend or re-solve an older problem to beat my previous time. The important part is showing up, not putting on a performance.
Keeping the Habit from Feeling Robotic
I rotate a few extra reps through the week so it doesn’t turn into Groundhog Day:
- Explaining the day’s solution to an imaginary interviewer while pacing around the living room.
- Turning tricky patterns into flashcards so future-me remembers them.
- Reviewing yesterday’s code with fresh eyes and cleaning it up as if it were a production PR.
- Translating editorial solutions into my own code style instead of copy-pasting.
Those small add-ons keep me learning even when the daily problem is an easy one.
How I Use Coding Assistants Without Cheating Myself
I do lean on tools, but only after I’ve given the problem a fair shot. My rule is 20 minutes of solo thinking before I ask for a hint. When I do ask, I request a nudge, not the full answer. After I finish, I’ll paste my code into a chat and ask for edge cases I might have overlooked. Occasionally the assistant suggests a cleaner approach, and I write both versions down to compare. The point is to learn, not to win a speedrun.
The Tiny Scorecard I Watch
Four numbers keep me motivated:
- The streak count (yes, I still love watching it climb).
- Topic coverage, so I don’t hide in array-land forever.
- Average confidence score, which tells me when a pattern needs review.
- An informal “interview readiness” rating from mock sessions once a month.
When my first streak ended at day 94, I was annoyed—but because the routine was simple, I picked it up again the very next day.
Lessons from the Potholes
I’ve hit every pothole on this road:
- Overcooking a single hard problem. Two hours later, I’d be exhausted and tempted to skip the next day. Now I set a 45-minute limit and come back after learning the official approach.
- Grinding random questions without retention. Weekly themes solved that; it feels more like focused practice than rolling dice.
- Solving silently. The first time I tried to explain a solution out loud, I froze. Now I schedule a mock interview (even if it’s just with a friend on Zoom) every Saturday.
- Letting travel or crunch weeks blow up the habit. Micro fallbacks—like summarizing an editorial on my phone—keep the muscle memory alive when my laptop stays shut.
Where It Shows Up at Work
This isn’t just about interviews anymore. Frequent problem solving made me faster at spotting bottlenecks during design reviews. I’m quicker to question a shaky time complexity in code review. When a teammate asks, “Is there a better data structure for this?” I often have an answer ready because I literally practiced that scenario yesterday. And when a bug pops up in a gnarly state machine, I approach it with the same calm curiosity I bring to a puzzle.
My Core Toolkit
I keep my resources unglamorous and reliable:
- LeetCode for playlists that align with interview patterns.
- Codeforces when I want a timer and some adrenaline.
- NeetCode for clear pattern explanations.
- “Grokking Algorithms” when I need a friendly refresher.
- An Anki deck with the handful of patterns I refuse to forget.
- A small Discord study group where we swap war stories once a week.
If You’re Starting Today
Here’s what I wish I’d heard sooner:
- Pick the smallest daily commitment you know you can keep, even on your worst day.
- Write down what happened, especially when it goes sideways.
- Stick with one topic for a whole week before jumping to the next.
- Get another human involved—pair sessions and mock interviews reveal blind spots instantly.
- Celebrate tiny wins. “Accepted in 18 minutes” deserves as much hype as a promotion.
If daily DSA still sounds intimidating, pick an easy problem tonight, solve it, and jot down a single sentence about what you learned. Do it again tomorrow. A month from now you’ll have a streak that tells a story about who you’re becoming, not just how many problems you solved.
I’ll be at my desk tomorrow morning with a cup of coffee and a fresh problem. Feel free to join me.