How to learn data structure effectively

Step 1 : Learn the theory and fundamentals

Understand top fundamental topics covered in data structures such as:

• Algorithms, Arrays, Collections, Complexity Analysis, Graphs, Hashtables, Heaps, Linked Lists, Queues, Recursion, Search, Sort, Stacks, Trees

You can checkout these websites to help cover fundamentals:

• www.geeks4geeks.com - explains all the high level fundamentals
• www.beehyve.io/data-structures — student crowdsourced resources and community for any topic in CS including Data Structures
• Time complexity resources
• [BeeHyve]Time Complexity Cheat Sheet
• https://visualgo.net/en - has visualizations of a lot of helpful algorithms

Here are more schools that have DS classes which you may find helpful:

• CS 226 Algorithms and Data Structures
• Brown CS 16 Introduction to Algorithms and Data Structures
• Stanford CS 166 Data Structures
• CMU CSE 15-211 Fundamental Data Structures and Algorithms
• University of Washington at St. Louis CSE 241 Algorithms and Data Structures
• Harvard CSE 22 Data Structures
• Michigan EECS 281 Data Structures and Algorithms
• Cornell CS 2110 OO Programming and Data Structures
• MiT 6.006 Introduction to Algorithms

Step 2: Look at examples, Apply your knowledge

Using the knowledge that you have learned from the sources above, I’d now apply your knowledge through practice. Interview problems are a good way to practice Data Structures & Algorithms. You can check out:

• Programming Interview Questions | CareerCup
• LeetCode
• HackerRank
• Cracking the Coding Interview book

Alternatively, you can implement different algorithms and data structures yourself to get a better understanding of fundamentals.

• [BeeHyve] Implementations of different data structures

Source : https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-learn-data-structures-effectively