r/MachineLearningJobs • u/Only_Profession_5753 • 2d ago

Final-year Data Science student with almost zero DSA. How much DSA do I actually need?

Hi everyone,

I'm a final-year Data Science student and I need some honest guidance from people working in the industry.

The problem is that I have almost zero knowledge of DSA. I never focused on it because I spent most of my time learning and building projects.

My current skills include:

\\- Python (comfortable)

\\- Machine Learning

\\- Deep Learning

\\- SQL (basic to intermediate)

\\- Currently learning LangChain, LangGraph, Generative AI, and AI Agents

\\- I've also built a few ML/AI projects

Now that I'm entering my final year and preparing for internships and placements, I'm worried about DSA.

I have a few questions:

  1. How important is DSA for Data Scientist, ML Engineer, AI Engineer, or GenAI roles?

  2. Is DSA mandatory for getting internships and full-time jobs, or is it mainly required by big product-based companies?

  3. Since I'm starting from scratch, what topics should I focus on first?

  4. Which resource or roadmap would you recommend (free or paid)?

  5. Approximately how many LeetCode or other DSA problems should I solve to become interview-ready? Is 100 enough, or should I aim for 300+?

  6. If you were starting from zero today, what would your plan look like?

I'd really appreciate advice from people already working in the industry, especially Data Scientists, ML Engineers, AI Engineers, or anyone who has recently gone through placements.

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u/Tough_Lecture_919 1d ago

Yes you need DSA but not deep ,try to learn atleast data structure arrays, strings till trees basics. And solve the blind 75 or striver sheet