Tools: 712 Problems Later: What 500+ Days of DSA Really Taught Me

When I started solving DSA problems, I didn’t plan to reach 700+. I just wanted to get better. Today, my stats look like this: 1,030 submissions in the past year But the numbers aren’t the story. The First 100 Problems – Excitement Phase The beginning is fun. You solve Easy array problems.
You feel smart.
You think interviews will be easy. Then Medium problems hit. Sliding window?
Binary search on answer?
Monotonic stack? That’s when confidence drops. But that’s also where real growth starts. 200–400 Problems – Pattern Recognition Begins Somewhere after 200 problems, something changes. You stop seeing random questions. “This is just two pointers.” “This is a variation of prefix sum.” “This smells like a monotonic stack.” You don’t panic anymore. That shift is powerful. 400–600 Problems – Discipline > Motivation This is where most people quit. Not because problems are hard. But because consistency is hard. 325 active days means I showed up almost every day. Not always 5 problems.
Sometimes just 1. College assignments were heavy Projects were pending I didn’t feel like solving anything Streaks build discipline.
Discipline builds skill. That wasn’t about ego. It was about identity. I stopped asking:
“Should I solve today?” It became:
“I solve daily.” Small difference.
Massive impact. The Reality About Hard Problems Only 29 Hard problems solved. Medium builds foundation Hard problems forced me to: Break problems into parts Analyze time complexity carefully What 1,030 Submissions Actually Means DSA isn’t about getting AC in first try. It’s about thinking until something clicks. How This Changed My Backend Thinking When I optimized my /leaderboard API from 200ms to 20ms,
that mindset came from DSA. Because DSA trains you to ask: What’s the time complexity? Can I reduce this from O(n²) to O(n)? Can I remove unnecessary operations? Am I making N+1 calls? That optimization mindset didn’t come from tutorials. It came from solving hundreds of problems. Consistency beats intensity. 712 problems didn’t happen in one summer. They happened because I showed up 325 days. Some days:
1 problem. Some days:
5 problems. But never zero for too long. I still get stuck.
I still struggle with DP.
I still spend 30 minutes staring at problems. But now I don’t doubt myself. Because I’ve built proof. If you’re starting DSA: Don’t aim for 1000 problems. The streak builds.
The patterns form.
The confidence follows. **And one day, you’ll look back and realize— You didn’t just learn DSA. You trained your brain to think differently.** Templates let you quickly answer FAQs or store snippets for re-use. Are you sure you want to hide this comment? It will become hidden in your post, but will still be visible via the comment's permalink. Hide child comments as well For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse