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Does Data Structures & Algorithms Actually Matter in Software Engineering?

I learned DSA to get into Amazon, then spent years thinking I did not need it until production problems changed my mind.

7 min readOct 26, 2026

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For years, my relationship with Data Structures & Algorithms (DSA) followed the same cycle. Whenever an interview was approaching, I would reopen my notes and start practising problems, but once the interview was over, most of that knowledge would go back on the shelf.

At IIIT Bangalore, DSA was the subject I took most seriously because I knew it could decide how my placements went. I used to come back after class, work through algorithms with pen and paper, and later practise them on HackerRank and LeetCode. That effort helped me get through an intense on-campus interview process and eventually join Amazon.

From Zero to a FAANG Job

I used to get a lot of questions about how I managed to land a job at Amazon (part of the FAANG acronym) as an SDE-I…

freezefrancis.medium.com

A thoughtful reflection. The distinction between knowing algorithms and knowing how to think like an engineer is an important one, particularly when we consider what technical interviews actually measure.

T3CH

CAREER ADVICE

Does Data Structures & Algorithms Actually Matter in Software Engineering?

I learned DSA to get into Amazon, then spent years thinking I did not need it until production problems changed my mind.

From Zero to a FAANG Job

I used to get a lot of questions about how I managed to land a job at Amazon (part of the FAANG acronym) as an SDE-I…

Written by Freeze Francis

Published in T3CH

Responses (4)

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