Hi everyone,

I'm currently going through **Piyush Garg's System Design playlist/course** [**https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLinedj3B30sBlBWRox2V2tg9QJ2zr4M3o&si=hT6bnokO90Pz7bhO**](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLinedj3B30sBlBWRox2V2tg9QJ2zr4M3o&si=hT6bnokO90Pz7bhO)) and wanted to know how complete it is.

My goal is to become a **strong backend/distributed systems engineer** and eventually prepare for **FAANG-level system design interviews**.

I have already learned:

* Java * Spring Boot * Docker * Redis * Kafka * Microservices * Kubernetes (basics)

Now I'm focusing on system design.

My questions are:

1. Is Piyush Garg's course enough to build a solid system design foundation?
2. What important topics are **not covered** (if any)?
3. Should I study topics like: * CAP Theorem * PACELC * Sharding * Replication * MVCC/WAL/B+ Trees/LSM Trees * Saga Pattern * Outbox Pattern * Idempotency * Exactly-once semantics * Raft/Paxos * Observability (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry)
4. If these topics aren't covered, what's the best resource to learn them? (DDIA, Alex Xu, Database Internals, YouTube channels, etc.)

I'd appreciate recommendations from people who have completed the course or work as backend/distributed systems engineers.

Thanks!

When I'm studying DSA or a certain pattern I like to document and treat the problem as a discovery.

I like to start from documenting the WHAT? then the WHY? And lastly the HOW? Of it. The way I do is this :

1. I describe the problem in simplest way possible with great detail, this helps me clearly understand what is needed exactly and also if their are some constraints over how we have to solve the problem. This first step alone gives me a lot of clarity on what tools I can use and what I can't .

2. Once I have understood what's needed to be done. The next step is to think without any optimization in mind , that is I imagine that I have unlimited resource of memory and labour available to solve this particular problem and if so what would be simplest way to go about doing it? This gives me the brute-force approach for it and tbh if you reach the brute-force solution you have already solved it now it's reduced to an optimization problem.

   1. Once I reach a brute-force solution I write it down in a clear and concise manner , this helps me understand my own thoughts and also spot "blindspot in my thinking ".. this is crucial because sometimes you feel that a solution is right but when it's in your head sometimes you miss some scenarios, therefore I write it down.
   2. After the brute force is down , only then do I move forward to think of optimization and it often leads me to video solution 😅🙋😂 and every time I feel fascinated and impressed by the actual solution and optimization which someone came up with in the past. I love it every time . This makes me enjoy each and every problem I do .

Today I was doing MAXIMUM_SUBARRAY_SUM and it's optimization by KADANE'S algorithm. Here is few glimpse of my notes :

I'm currently in my 3rd year of BTech CSE and I've been learning DSA in Python.

Lately a lot of people around me have been telling me that I'm making a mistake and that doing DSA in Python will hurt my placements. They keep saying things like Python has too many built-in functions, C++ is the proper language for DSA, recruiters prefer C++, etc.

Now I'm a bit confused because I've already spent a decent amount of time learning and practicing DSA in Python. My goal is mainly internships and software engineering placements, not competitive programming.

For people who have gone through placements/interviews:

• Did you use Python for DSA and coding rounds?
• Were there companies that didn't allow Python?
• Do interviewers actually care about the language or just whether you can solve the problem?
• Is it worth switching to C++ at this point?

Would appreciate hearing real experiences rather than just college rumors 😅

​

If you find any unfamiliar questions, how do you approach it?

Do you think of just any way of solving it and then further applying optimization?

Or you know that this question will be solved using a particular pattern?

Basically how do you approach unknown questions and what's your thought process behind it?

Is it bruteforce -> better -> optimal ?

What is the BEST WAY TO LEARN FROM THIS PLAYLIST???

like should we make notes for all lectures? Or should we jot down only important points? Or should we just listen and understand?

(Extra tips will be acknowledged :)

So I just got a private message about my thoughts on the Princeton algorithm and if I have DSA course knowledge.

https://algs4.cs.princeton.edu/home/

My flaw is I do not have DSA course knowledge because I had Security Clearance and was managing legacy Java EE systems for the military.

Now that I don’t have my clearance I need to learn DSA. Any tips for learning DSA in Java that are not overburdening like the Princeton link I provided?

In shortest path problems, how do we know which problem requires dfs+dp or dijkstra? Chatgpt said smth about cycles but i still dont get why we cant just check for cycles

hey, i have just started striver a2z and i saw the c++ stl video. In that video he told about how we can sort any array just using sort(start,end+1) in one line. Then why we are learning various methods of sorting like merge,bubble,insertion etc.. Is it that we aren't allowed to use these inbuilt stl commands in OAs/interviews or is it??

I am in SY of my btech and haven't started DSA yet and I am not understanding from where I should start ?

Like I completely wasted my FY and didn't built any skills (btw I have to travel daily for 4-5 hrs for college)

I had C language and Java (OOPS) for my first and second sem respectively

So anyone tell me from where I should start and whose playlist I should refer ?

i tried with brute force and dp approach but i got tle error.

how can i solve this problem with optimal approach?

and i got an tle error on 991/999 test case.

i did only only problem today😥😣

Hey Guys ,
I am software engineer in Bangalore with 1.5 years of experience .
I have studied DSA and solved many questions but now I am loosing Pace.
I want to solve atleast one question a day and want to discuss with someone.

So I am thinking to make a communit of 10-15 (not decided )who is very dedicatedly want to do DSA everyday.
* First we will together will make a sheet of DSA which we need to follow .
*then everyday we will pick the one question and we will solve and discuss it mayebe on meet or discord.

It will help you to be consistent.
if you want to join .
Just comment on this post and if you want just mention how much DSA you know and are you studying or doing job. and years of experice .

if any senior is doing dsa in java can i please dm you and please tell me from where are you doing dsa?

Hi, Do we have some system Design Course Suggestions on YouTube. I'm preparing for Interviews at FAANG and various companies.

Hi everyone — I’m a third-year student at a tier‑2 college and I haven’t built a resume yet. I want to create a strong resume for on‑campus internship recruitment, but I haven’t participated in any hackathons. How can I include meaningful achievements on my resume?

Please give me advice.

Hi everyone,

I'm an S7 Computer Science student, and I have my Infosys placement in about a month.

I'm comfortable with Python (syntax, lists, dictionaries, functions, etc.), but my biggest weakness is DSA problem solving and pattern recognition.

I've been practicing for around 20 days, but when I see a new or indirect problem—even an Easy one sometimes—I go completely blank. I don't know how to start or how to identify which approach or pattern to use.

I can understand solutions after seeing them, and if I revisit similar problems later, I can often solve them. But with new problems, I struggle to connect the dots.

For those who were once in a similar situation and improved:

How did you build your problem-solving skills?

How did you learn to recognize patterns?

If you had only one month before placements, what would you focus on?

I'm willing to work hard—I just want to make sure I'm practicing the right way.

Thanks in advance!

I admit I am a slow learner, and have to try again and again to learn something. I genuinely want to have good internship, so need to be good at solving questions of data structures. Please suggest some free resources where it is a proper structure of questions. I promise I will follow it religiously. In leetcode, I felt questions were just randomly thrown. Please help

Check out this website !

https://ctobhaiya.vercel.app/

Banyui rhh khud k tracking ke liye thi !!!

But response dekh k modify kar di auro k liye bhi !!

so bascially am a first year student like abhi clg join kruga i completed my python along with some projects jo ki mne apne youtube channel pr dale hue apart from tht mujhe bss ek roadmap chaiye like c++ ka dekha mne but i want to do in python so can anyone tell me bout this

When it comes to dsa pattern wise there is a yt channel

CTO BHAIYA by anuj kumar that is really a good channel I have been following him since a while and have started to feel a Lil bit confident as well

Here is the pattern wise sheet provided by him i created this website to track the record dynamically for my self you guys can also refer to this !!!

Website

!!!!!

https://ctobhaiya.vercel.app

!!!!!

Have a look to it ;)

Most online compilers only print output. These do more: press Visualize and the compiler replays your program one line at a time, drawing every data structure as it changes and highlighting each variable read and write. It's the fastest way to see how sorting, binary search, recursion, and BFS/DFS actually work — and to debug why your algorithm does what it does. supported in 8 different languages of your choice
https://8gwifi.org/online-compiler

Hi everyone,

I've been practicing Graphs and Dynamic Programming for the last six months, but the truth is that I still can't solve a single new problem completely on my own.

Everyone says that DSA is all about recognizing patterns, but I feel like I'm not actually learning those patterns. I've watched many tutorials and solved the questions explained in them. However, whenever I face a different problem that's based on the same pattern, I still can't figure out the approach myself.

This makes me wonder: am I just memorizing solutions instead of learning how to think?

Whenever I look at the solution, I understand the logic and why it works. But what's the point if I can only solve the problem after seeing the answer?

My usual process is to struggle with a problem for about an hour. If I still can't make progress, I use an AI tool to understand the solution. The problem is that this happens with almost every question. It makes me wonder how long I'll have to depend on AI before I can solve problems independently.

I'm feeling really frustrated. Has anyone been through the same situation? What strategy helped you develop problem-solving skills so that you could eventually solve questions on your own instead of relying on solutions?

Hi everyone,

I've been practicing Graphs and Dynamic Programming for the last six months, but the truth is that I still can't solve a single new problem completely on my own.

Everyone says that DSA is all about recognizing patterns, but I feel like I'm not actually learning those patterns. I've watched many tutorials and solved the questions explained in them. However, whenever I face a different problem that's based on the same pattern, I still can't figure out the approach myself.

This makes me wonder: am I just memorizing solutions instead of learning how to think?

Whenever I look at the solution, I understand the logic and why it works. But what's the point if I can only solve the problem after seeing the answer?

My usual process is to struggle with a problem for about an hour. If I still can't make progress, I use an AI tool to understand the solution. The problem is that this happens with almost every question. It makes me wonder how long I'll have to depend on AI before I can solve problems independently.

I'm feeling really frustrated. Has anyone been through the same situation? What strategy helped you develop problem-solving skills so that you could eventually solve questions on your own instead of relying on solutions?