Data Structure and Algorithms are Overrated! Focus on these skills instead 🚫🪴

🚫 DSA is OVERRATED!! 🚫

I recently saw some posts on LinkedIn and Twitter about how a 1% decrease in load time increased revenues for a company.

Sure, I agree, we all want fast software. 🚀

Here's the thing though,
One can build fast and robust software without spending 1000 hours on Data Structure and Algorithms. ✨

Believing that crazy DSA skills are needed for optimizing software is just not right, any good developer will look at 20 other things before even thinking about runtime complexity.

Sure the skills you learn from slogging DSA for hundreds of hours will help you write better software, but is spending all of that time really worth it? 🤔

It just doesn't make sense to have your potential teammate spend so much time on something that a $10 Copilot license or a quick Google search can do for you.

These are just some of the skills, I'd prefer to see in someone who's working on my team, over DSA.

• Understanding requirements and priorities clearly
• Doing R&D and finding the best approach
• Writing readable and maintainable code
• Communicating with technical and non technical stakeholders
• Hands on experience with tools and frameworks
• Asking good questions
• Being fun to work with

The only DSA knowledge I have used in the real world are:

• Avoid nested loops
• Hashmaps are fast

Honestly I can't recall anything else. 😕

This post is not about hating on any interview process.

If XYZ company has come up with a secret handshake for their interview process and if you want to work there, by all means, go ahead and learn the handshake.

But do not believe, that it is the primary skill of a software developer.