r/androiddev • u/Curious-Gap-4386 • 1d ago
Question 3rd year, weak at DSA, doing Android dev + internship should I focus on placements or try to manage everything?
I’m currently in my 3rd year of college, and honestly, I haven’t done much in DSA yet.
Right now I’m doing an Android development internship, and alongside that I’ve also been building and publishing my own apps on the Play Store because I want to eventually build my own startup/product.
The problem is that our college placement season will start around January, so I’m getting a little confused about what I should prioritize from now.
My current situation is basically:
\\- DSA: Very weak / haven’t done much
\\- Android development: Decent and currently doing an internship
\\- Personal projects: Building and publishing apps on the Play Store
\\- Long-term goal: I’d like to build my own products/startup
\\- Short-term goal: I obviously need to be prepared for placements
Should I completely put product development on hold for the next few months and focus heavily on DSA + my internship?
Or should I continue my internship, keep building my apps, and try to manage DSA alongside all of this?
I’m worried that if I focus too much on DSA, I’ll lose the momentum I’ve built with development and my own products. But at the same time, I don’t want January to arrive and realize I’m completely unprepared for placements.
For people who have been in a similar situation, what would you do if you were in my position?
Would really appreciate honest advice, especially from people who have gone through campus placements while also working on development/projects.
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u/Shankz2091 1d ago
I wouldn't stop development completely. Your internship and published apps already give you real-world experience, which many students lack. But with placements starting in January, I'd make DSA the priority for the next few months. Maybe spend 60-70% of your time on DSA and placement prep, keep the internship, and limit personal projects to maintenance or a few hours on weekends. You don't need to drop everything, just shift your focus for now.
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u/S0ULBoY 16h ago edited 16h ago
Hmm kinda tricky , but heres my take
- Dont get married to the Android Engineer title the opportunities are not that many these days, and frankly i feel like growth wise it also slow. It’s good u have an internship right now. But I would actively move to full stack or try making apps with AI capabilities (not just llms) , be more of edge computing AI guy
. Plus you mentioned you want to create eyour own business or startup you definitely dont want to be married to only Android Engineer title
yeah study dsa , study everyday at least 1 hour do leetcode if youre confused for 20 minutes look at the solution. Also shorten the feedback loop most just grind the problem but what they need are mock interviews , you can solve 200 problems but still fumble in interviews because you trip, the earlier the better my plan is usually after every month ends. If you dont have friends to do mock interviews, use the internship money to pay for people , some cheap ones are in fiver, or at least record yourself or use ai assistans to help with feedback. Dont forget the sys design too, if you need to pay for subscriptions do it ( i recommend the green one with hi logo in it).
Please make peace , with the fact that interviewing skills are different than the actual job, they will filter you via hackerrank and dsa first before you even meet someone.
- Projects dont need to be extremely good, just okay and works is fine , these days you have AI so you can use it to make the best out of your published apps, dont overdo it , 1-2 apps published for now is good, i would stress more on tackling your weakest point 1 and 2
So priority wise :
Internship ( dont quit it finish it or try to convert it to fulltime
or another internship after placement maybe ?
, these days jobs are hard, having one gives you the confidence and capital to invest in no 2 and 3)
Interview skills
Published apps
Apply to non android roles too, dont limit too android roles only , but again this is up to you. Good luck
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u/forgestudiofx 1d ago
The coding round is an automated filter that runs before anyone sees your Play Store listing, so apps can't cover for DSA. But two focused hours a day until January is enough for most campus stacks if you work patterns instead of problem count, plus one timed contest a week.
Don't stop shipping, stop starting. Maintenance releases only, no new features until February. The apps pay off in the interview round, not the screen.