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A backend developer with 1.5 years of experience shares their journey of dedicating 2 hours daily for 31 days to studying data structures and algorithms (1 hour) and system design (1 hour). The consistent practice transformed their technical understanding, interview performance, and workplace confidence. They progressed from struggling with basic concepts to recognizing DSA patterns and explaining system design topics like message queues, caching, and load balancing. The approach emphasizes discipline over motivation, with a simple routine of solving LeetCode problems and studying one system design concept daily through videos and diagrams.

I Gave 2 Hours Daily to DSA & System Design, Best Decision Ever

Owali Ullah Shawon

I wanna try this out but I’m unsure if LeetCode is my type of thing it’s always extremely frustrating and feel like I’m not really learning other than recognizing problems and then mix them up until I notice patterns.
Is there another way to actually learn DSA? Also the author doesn’t really explain how to pick actually relevant topics to learn SD, can someone suggest some channels?

I like the idea, but getting such results in 4 weeks only? I’m sincerely surprised. I started a similar challenge (at least 2 leetcode problems every morning, oftentimes more than 2 every single morning) about 5 months ago (149 days ago, to be specific).
Yeah, the progress is huge, but it was not even close to what you describe after one month only. It does help a lot, though, I noticed, that my thinking got to a new level when I write code.
I definitely recommend that, but don’t expect huge results in 4 weeks only.

I honestly found leetcode and hackerrank incredibly poor resources for learning the fundamentals, but if that’s what worked for this person, great. I think I got more from going back to my old college text books if I want to review the basics and Udemy, Microsoft Learn and other resources if I want dabble in particular technologies.
Knowing the fundamentals is important. It is key to writing good code and making good design choices. That said, I’ll call you out on a PR if I catch you reinventing the wheel.

Totally agree with the spirit, every software engineer that actually want to upgrade himself and his career should do it. Consistency is the key!

Oh man… You nailed it. I was thinking of starting it next week, and that next week never comes. You are right, we don’t need 10 hours a day, we need consistency, and we have to do the imperfect actions each day.
Improvement is not about doing it all at once; it is about improving 1% each day.