I Tried Algo Expert for 30 Days: Data Structures And Algorithms..

 

Data structures and algorithms let's be honest something probably all programmers could get better at I've studied this topic in the past but not to the extent to get a job at a big tech company you know what I'm willing to admit I'm an average programmer on all my technical reviews I get meeting Expectations good enough for me but I do realize if I want to take my career to the next level I need to become a DSA prodigy or at least become competent enough in this topic that's why 30 days ago I went to algoexpert.io found a random promo code online typed in my mom's credit card and bought the premium package this is how it went all right so it's been about two weeks since I bought algo expert originally I wanted to record my progress after every week but I got a little busy with the holidays so here's the plan I'm going to attempt to study this program for 30 minutes to one hour every night after every week I'll give my progress to how I'm feeling on the program so how is algo experts so far well before I answer that I just want to say that I am no way affiliated with algo expert I've actually never talked to clement in my life I don't even think he knows I exist so I have no reason to have a biased opinion on algo expert and to be honest I think it's too early to tell um I've been focused on the bread and butter of the of the platform the core features which are the interview Questions there's still a lot of features that I haven't got to yet such as the crash Course and the mock interview feature which is something that I really want to get into which I'll probably dabble into uh near the end of the month so I've made it through all the easy questions on I'll go expert so the way that algo expert is set up is it's split up into four categories for the interview questions which is easy medium hard and very hard so far I've gotten through all the easy questions I'll go expert is a lot like elite code in the way that it's set up but it's a lot more structured and it kind of gives you a clear path that you can follow which is something I do really love about the platform another thing that I really enjoy about I'll go expert is the video explanations geared toward the specific question you're trying to solve I think it's super helpful uh it's definitely guided me a lot along the way learning the easy questions I'll go expert has multi-language support for you to write your answers in my language of choice is Kotlin which they had and I was kind of surprised about that to be honest so that's super dope one thing that I would really like to see on the platform is how my answers uh stack up to others or I guess how optimal my solution is if you submit an answer on algo expert you're not really told how optimal your solution is you're kind of just told that it passed all test cases which it's not a deal breaker but it would be a nice feature to have in my Opinion anyways like I've said I've only spent about eight hours on the platform which I've learned is basically nothing when you're trying to learn data structures and algorithms but with that being said I mean I still have learned a decent amount and I'm starting to kind of hear clement's voice in my sleep teaching me data structures and algorithms which is kind of terrifying anyways my plan for the next week is to crush through some of the medium questions and I want to dive into the data Structures crash course something I initially skipped because I'm already pretty familiar with those concepts but I think it'll be a nice refresher and the Feature I'm the most excited about is the mock interview feature so at the end of the 30 days I want to try to get a mock interview on the schedule through the platform right to test my skills or to test The  knowledge that I've learned so far on algo expert so if you're interested in that stick around to the end of the Video I think it's going to be a lot of fun anyways that pretty much wraps it up for week two I'll see you at the end of week three so it's been 23 days since I started algo expert which is a little over three Weeks last week I mentioned I was able to get through all the easy questions so far this week I've managed to crush through 21 out of the 34 medium questions I also got a mock interview on the schedule for the end of the 30 days basically this will be a roughly two hour coding session between me and another algo expert user where we give each other technical interviews so I started this algo expert journey on November 17^th the mock interview isn't scheduled till December 20th which is technically three days after I planned on ending but it was the only day I could really fit on my schedule anyways this feature is the one I'm the most pumped for I think it's going to be awesome if it works out so if you're interested in seeing the mock interview make sure you stick around for that so how's my experience on ago experts so far well so far it's actually pretty good the questions are definitely getting harder I'm definitely super engaged and I'm learning a lot however I've decided to hold off on giving my full opinion on algo expert until the 30 days is up because at this point I'll have around 50 questions under my belt and I'll have participated in a mock interview so the plan for today until the 30 technically 33 days is up is to grind through the rest of the medium questions and prep for my mock Interview alright so the full 30 days technically 33 days is finally over and I have the mock interview under my belt the mock interview started off with some trouble I was having some issues getting the audio working on my pc but in true developer fashion me and my interview partner came up with a solution over the algo expert text editor and we hopped on a google meet where I was able to use my Laptop to communicate with him hey what's going on man our mock interview started off with me as the interviewee I got asked a pretty easy question working with a raise and I was able to come up with a solution within about 10 to 15 minutes I need to run all three of those and I think that's it and that's it after my interview me and my partner swapped roles when my partner got asked a much harder question and in total it took him a little over an hour to come up with a solution it was interesting being the interviewer being on the other side of the of the interview table and uh working Through the question with someone else so after we both interviewed each other we took a five minute break and then hopped on another mock interview session so in total we did do two mock interviews uh the second interview I got asked a  harder question it was a medium difficulty question and it took me a little over 30 minutes to come up with a Solution after I was done me and my partner swapped roles again where he was also asked a medium difficulty question in total we spent a little over two hours working through both mock interviews after a mock interview was over I had to ask him the million dollar question so I guess before we passed would you hire me at google I was actually really impressed with this feature the online text editor worked great and it was really interesting working Through a technical question you'd be asked during an interview without any worry or anxiety in total I Spent 33 days on the platform completed 47 out of the 110 questions currently on algo expert dived into the data structures crash course and even participated in a mock interview so now it's time to finally answer the question should you buy I'll go expert I'm just going to cut to the chase here I've been really impressed with algo expert and I think if you have the money it's definitely worth the buy now if you don't have the money which I think it comes out to about 89 after you use a promo code you can definitely learn all this stuff online for free but if you choose to buy algo expert I think it could definitely save you a lot of time in the long run I'll go expert does a very phenomenal job of conveniently packing up all the information you would need for coding interviews and they provide you with a very clear path for learning you start off with the easy questions and you slowly ease your way into the harder questions with every question I worked through there is a very helpful video explanation if I got stuck or even if I didn't know how to solve a Problem I would watch the video and it would take me step by step in uh solving that problem I'm more of a visual hands-on learner when I can watch somebody actually uh work through a problem like on a whiteboard or something it helps me understand it a lot better so these videos were incredibly helpful for me and like I already said I was very impressed with the mock interview feature I thought it was super dope to hop on a Mock technical interview with somebody and actually like work through a problem you would be asked during a real interview so yeah I definitely think I'll go expert is worth it if you have the money especially if you're brand new to learning data structures and algorithms Or practicing for technical interviews I think algo expert is a great place to start just because it provides you with that very clear path for learning I'm a sucker for simplicity and I'll go expert makes everything very simple again I just want to reiterate I'm currently not affiliated with algo expert at all I genuinely think clement and his team made a great product with that being said if I prep for a tech interview in the future I'll definitely be using I'll go expert anyways that's gonna wrap up the video I hope you enjoyed it I had a lot of fun working through I'll go expert these Last 30 days if you made it this far I would really appreciate it if you could smash that like button thank you so much and I'll see you in the next one