3-Month Data Structures & Algorithms

Study Plan (C++/Java)

Overview
Duration: 12 weeks (3 months)​
Focus: Problem-solving oriented approach​
Theory Resource: Algorithms in C++ by Robert Sedgewick​
Practice Platforms: LeetCode, CodeChef, SPOJ

Month 1: Foundation Building

Week 1: Arrays & Basic Math

Sedgewick Chapters: Chapter 1 (Fundamentals), Chapter 2.1-2.2 (Elementary Sorts)

Theory Focus:

●​ Array manipulation techniques

●​ Two-pointer technique
●​ Sliding window
●​ Basic mathematical operations

Problems to Solve: 15-20 problems

LeetCode Problems:

●​ Two Sum - Easy

●​ Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock - Easy
●​ Maximum Subarray - Medium
●​ Product of Array Except Self - Medium
●​ Container With Most Water - Medium
●​ 3Sum - Medium
●​ Rotate Array - Medium
●​ Move Zeroes
●​ Reverse String
●​ Valid Palindrome
CodeChef Problems:

●​ FLOW001 - Add Two Numbers

●​ FLOW002 - Find Remainder
●​ INTEST - Enormous Input Test
●​ FCTRL - Factorial
●​ COINS - Bytelandian gold coins

SPOJ Problems:

●​ PRIME1 - Prime Generator

●​ ADDREV - Adding Reversed Numbers
●​ PALIN - The Next Palindrome

Week 2: Strings & Pattern Matching

Sedgewick Chapters: Chapter 5.1-5.2 (String Sorts, Tries)

Theory Focus:

●​ String manipulation
●​ KMP algorithm basics
●​ Hashing for strings

Problems to Solve: 12-15 problems

LeetCode Problems:

●​ Valid Anagram - Easy

●​ Longest Common Prefix - Easy
●​ Valid Palindrome - Easy
●​ Group Anagrams - Medium
●​ Longest Substring Without Repeating Characters - Medium
●​ Palindromic Substrings - Medium

CodeChef Problems:

●​ LAPIN - Lapindromes
●​ CHEFSQ - Chef and Subsequences

SPOJ Problems:

●​ RPLC - Replace
●​ ANARC05B - The Double HeLiX
Week 3: Recursion & Backtracking

Sedgewick Chapters: Chapter 1.1 (Basic Programming Model - Recursion section)

Theory Focus:

●​ Recursion fundamentals
●​ Backtracking technique
●​ Divide and conquer approach

Problems to Solve: 12-15 problems

LeetCode Problems:

●​ Fibonacci Number - Easy

●​ Power of Two - Easy
●​ Generate Parentheses - Medium
●​ Permutations - Medium
●​ Subsets - Medium
●​ N-Queens - Hard
●​ Sudoku Solver - Hard

CodeChef Problems:

●​ NOKIA - Nokia
●​ MARCHA1 - Marcha1

SPOJ Problems:

●​ PARTY - Party Schedule

●​ QUEEN - Aggressive cows

Week 4: Sorting & Searching

Sedgewick Chapters: Chapter 2.1-2.5 (Elementary Sorts, Mergesort, Quicksort, Priority

Queues, Applications)

Theory Focus:

●​ All sorting algorithms

●​ Binary search and variations
●​ Time complexity analysis

Problems to Solve: 15-18 problems

LeetCode Problems:
 ●​ Binary Search - Easy
●​ First Bad Version - Easy
●​ Search Insert Position - Easy
●​ Find First and Last Position of Element in Sorted Array - Medium
●​ Search in Rotated Sorted Array - Medium
●​ Merge Intervals - Medium
●​ Kth Largest Element in an Array - Medium
●​ Insert Interval
●​ Meeting Rooms II
●​ Non-overlapping Intervals
●​ Task Scheduler
●​ Merge Sorted Array
●​ Sort Colors
●​ First Missing Positive
●​ Kth Largest Element in an Array
●​ Sort List

Searching :

●​ Search in Rotated Sorted Array

●​ Find Peak Element
●​ Search a 2D Matrix
●​ Find Minimum in Rotated Sorted Array
●​ Median of Two Sorted Arrays

CodeChef Problems:

●​ STFOOD - Student Food

●​ CIELAB - Ciel and A-B Problem

SPOJ Problems:

●​ AGGRCOW - Aggressive cows

●​ PRATA - Roti Prata

Month 2: Data Structures Deep Dive

Week 5: Stack & Queue

Sedgewick Chapters: Chapter 1.3 (Bags, Queues, and Stacks)

Theory Focus:

●​ Stack operations and applications

●​ Queue operations and applications
●​ Monotonic stack/queue

Problems to Solve: 12-15 problems

LeetCode Problems:

●​ Valid Parentheses - Easy

●​ Implement Queue using Stacks - Easy
●​ Min Stack - Medium
●​ Daily Temperatures - Medium
●​ Next Greater Element I - Easy
●​ Largest Rectangle in Histogram - Hard
●​ Evaluate Reverse Polish Notation

CodeChef Problems:

●​ MAXDIFF - Maximum Difference

●​ COMPILER - Compiler

SPOJ Problems:

●​ HISTOGRA - Largest Rectangle in Histogram

●​ STPAR - Street Parade

Week 6: Linked Lists

Sedgewick Chapters: Chapter 1.3 (Linked Lists section)

Theory Focus:

●​ Singly and doubly linked lists

●​ Fast and slow pointer technique
●​ List manipulation

Problems to Solve: 12-15 problems

LeetCode Problems:

●​ Reverse Linked List - Easy

●​ Merge Two Sorted Lists - Easy
●​ Linked List Cycle - Easy
●​ Remove Nth Node From End of List - Medium
 ●​ Add Two Numbers - Medium
●​ Copy List with Random Pointer - Medium
●​ Palindrome Linked List

CodeChef Problems:

●​ LEVY - Levy's Conjecture

SPOJ Problems:

●​ CLLIST - Circular List

Week 7: Trees (Binary Trees)

Sedgewick Chapters: Chapter 3.2 (Binary Search Trees)

Theory Focus:

●​ Binary tree traversals

●​ Binary search trees
●​ Tree construction and manipulation

Problems to Solve: 15-18 problems

LeetCode Problems:

●​ Binary Tree Inorder Traversal - Easy

●​ Maximum Depth of Binary Tree - Easy
●​ Same Tree - Easy
●​ Validate Binary Search Tree - Medium
●​ Binary Tree Level Order Traversal - Medium
●​ Construct Binary Tree from Preorder and Inorder Traversal - Medium
●​ Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree - Medium
●​ Invert Binary Tree
●​ Maximum Depth of Binary Tree
●​ Validate Binary Search Tree
●​ Binary Tree Level Order Traversal

CodeChef Problems:

●​ TREEROOT - Tree Root

SPOJ Problems:

●​ PT07Y - Is it a tree
●​ BTCODE - Binary Tree Codes

Week 8: Heaps & Hash Tables

Sedgewick Chapters: Chapter 2.4 (Priority Queues), Chapter 3.4 (Hash Tables)

Theory Focus:

●​ Heap operations (min/max heap)

●​ Hash table implementations
●​ Collision resolution techniques

Problems to Solve: 12-15 problems

LeetCode Problems:

●​ Kth Largest Element in an Array - Medium

●​ Top K Frequent Elements - Medium
●​ Find Median from Data Stream - Hard
●​ Two Sum - Easy (Hash table approach)
●​ 4Sum II - Medium

CodeChef Problems:

●​ CHEFHEAP - Chef and Heap

●​ KQUERY - K-query

SPOJ Problems:

●​ KQUERYO - K-query Online

Month 3: Advanced Topics & Graph Algorithms

Week 9: Graph Fundamentals (BFS/DFS)

Sedgewick Chapters: Chapter 4.1-4.2 (Undirected Graphs, Directed Graphs)

Theory Focus:

●​ Graph representations
●​ BFS and DFS traversals
 ●​ Connected components
●​ Topological sorting

Problems to Solve: 15-18 problems

LeetCode Problems:

●​ Number of Islands - Medium

●​ Clone Graph - Medium
●​ Course Schedule - Medium
●​ Pacific Atlantic Water Flow - Medium
●​ Word Ladder - Hard
●​ Alien Dictionary - Hard (Premium)

CodeChef Problems:

●​ FIRESC - Fire Escape Routes

●​ ABCPATH - ABC Path

SPOJ Problems:

●​ BUGLIFE - A Bug's Life

●​ PATHC - Count on a path
●​ TOPOSORT - Topological Sorting

Week 10: Advanced Graph Algorithms

Sedgewick Chapters: Chapter 4.4 (Shortest Paths)

Theory Focus:

●​ Dijkstra's algorithm
●​ Bellman-Ford algorithm
●​ Floyd-Warshall algorithm
●​ MST (Kruskal's and Prim's)

Problems to Solve: 12-15 problems

LeetCode Problems:

●​ Network Delay Time - Medium

●​ Cheapest Flights Within K Stops - Medium
●​ Min Cost to Connect All Points - Medium
●​ Path with Maximum Probability - Medium

CodeChef Problems:
 ●​ DISJOINT - Disjoint Set Union

SPOJ Problems:

●​ SHPATH - The Shortest Path

●​ MST - Minimum Spanning Tree
●​ HIGHWAYS - Highways

Week 11: Dynamic Programming Fundamentals

Sedgewick Chapters: Chapter 6 (Context - though Sedgewick has limited DP coverage)

Theory Focus:

●​ Memoization vs tabulation
●​ 1D and 2D DP problems
●​ Classic DP patterns

Problems to Solve: 15-20 problems

LeetCode Problems:

●​ Climbing Stairs - Easy

●​ House Robber - Medium
●​ Coin Change - Medium
●​ Longest Increasing Subsequence - Medium
●​ Unique Paths - Medium
●​ Edit Distance - Hard
●​ Maximum Product Subarray - Medium
●​ Word Break
●​ Knapsack Problem
●​ Matrix Chain Multiplication
●​ Longest Common Subsequence

CodeChef Problems:

●​ MIXTURES - Mixtures
●​ COINS - Bytelandian gold coins
●​ PARTY - Party Schedule

SPOJ Problems:

●​ ACODE - Alphacode
●​ COINS - Bytelandian gold coins
 ●​ LIS - Longest Increasing Subsequence

Week 12: Advanced DP & Review

Theory Focus:

●​ Advanced DP patterns
●​ State machine DP
●​ Bitmask DP basics
●​ Review weak areas

Problems to Solve: 12-15 problems + Review

LeetCode Problems:

●​ Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock with Transaction Fee - Medium
●​ Palindromic Substrings - Medium
●​ Longest Palindromic Subsequence - Medium
●​ Minimum Path Sum - Medium
●​ Target Sum - Medium

CodeChef Problems:

●​ ALTARAY - Alternating Array

●​ STEPS - Steps

SPOJ Problems:

●​ BORW - Black or White

●​ MCOINS - Coins Game

Practice:
●​ Advanced Graph Algorithms:
●​ Problems to solve: 15
●​ Dijkstra's Algorithm
●​ Bellman-Ford Algorithm
●​ Floyd-Warshall Algorithm
●​ Minimum Spanning Tree
●​ Topological Sorting
●​ Miscellaneous Topics:
●​ Problems to solve: 15
●​ Bit Manipulation
●​ Tries
●​ Segment Trees
 ●​ Fenwick Trees
●​ Suffix Arrays

Weekly Schedule Template

Monday-Tuesday: Theory (Sedgewick chapters)​
Wednesday-Friday: Problem solving (Easy to Medium)​
Saturday: Hard problems and review​
Sunday: Weekly contest on CodeChef/LeetCode + weak area practice

Problem Distribution Per Topic

●​ Arrays & Math: 15-20 problems
●​ Strings: 12-15 problems
●​ Recursion & Backtracking: 12-15 problems
●​ Sorting & Searching: 15-18 problems
●​ Stack & Queue: 12-15 problems
●​ Linked Lists: 12-15 problems
●​ Trees: 15-18 problems
●​ Heaps & Hash Tables: 12-15 problems
●​ Graph BFS/DFS: 15-18 problems
●​ Advanced Graphs: 12-15 problems
●​ DP Fundamentals: 15-20 problems
●​ Advanced DP: 12-15 problems

Total: ~170-200 problems over 3 months

Progress Tracking Tips

1.​ Maintain a spreadsheet to track solved problems
2.​ Note the time taken for each problem
3.​ Review and re-solve problems you struggled with
4.​ Participate in weekly contests
5.​ Focus more time on topics where you're weak

Additional Resources
●​ CP-Algorithms for advanced topics not covered in Sedgewick
●​ GeeksforGeeks for implementation references
 ●​ Codeforces for additional contest practice
●​ InterviewBit for structured interview preparation

Success Metrics
●​ Solve 80% of Easy problems within 15 minutes
●​ Solve 60% of Medium problems within 30 minutes
●​ Solve 30% of Hard problems within 45 minutes
●​ Consistent participation in weekly contests
●​ Improvement in contest rankings over time

Month 1: Foundations and Basic Data Structures

Week 1-2: Introduction and Basic Data Structures

Theory:
●​ Read Chapters 1-3 from "Algorithms in C++" by Robert Sedgewick to get an
introduction to algorithms, union-find, and analysis of algorithms.

Practice:
●​ Arrays and Strings:
●​ Problems to solve: 10
●​ Two Sum
●​ Best Time to Buy and Sell Stock II
●​ Move Zeroes
●​ Reverse String
●​ Valid Palindrome
●​ Linked Lists:
●​ Problems to solve: 10
●​ Reverse Linked List
●​ Merge Two Sorted Lists
●​ Linked List Cycle
●​ Remove Nth Node From End of List
●​ Palindrome Linked List

Week 3-4: Stacks, Queues, and Basic Sorting Algorithms

Theory:
●​ Read Chapters 4-5 from "Algorithms in C++" by Robert Sedgewick to understand
stacks, queues, and basic sorting algorithms.

Practice:
●​ Stacks and Queues:
●​ Problems to solve: 10
●​ Valid Parentheses
●​ Min Stack
●​ Implement Queue using Stacks
●​ Evaluate Reverse Polish Notation
●​ Daily Temperatures
●​ Sorting Algorithms:
●​ Problems to solve: 10
●​ Merge Sorted Array
●​ Sort Colors
●​ First Missing Positive
●​ Kth Largest Element in an Array
●​ Sort List

Month 2: Intermediate Data Structures and Algorithms

Week 5-6: Trees and Graphs

Theory:
●​ Read Chapters 6-7 from "Algorithms in C++" by Robert Sedgewick to understand
trees and graphs.

Practice:
●​ Trees:
●​ Problems to solve: 15
●​ Invert Binary Tree
●​ Maximum Depth of Binary Tree
●​ Validate Binary Search Tree
●​ Binary Tree Level Order Traversal
●​ Lowest Common Ancestor of a Binary Tree
●​ Graphs:
 ●​ Problems to solve: 15
●​ Number of Islands
●​ Clone Graph
●​ Course Schedule
●​ Word Ladder
●​ Graph Valid Tree

Week 7-8: Advanced Sorting and Searching

Theory:
●​ Read Chapters 8-9 from "Algorithms in C++" by Robert Sedgewick to understand
advanced sorting and searching algorithms.

Practice:
●​ Advanced Sorting:
●​ Problems to solve: 10
●​ Merge Intervals
●​ Insert Interval
●​ Meeting Rooms II
●​ Non-overlapping Intervals
●​ Task Scheduler
●​ Searching:
●​ Problems to solve: 10
●​ Search in Rotated Sorted Array
●​ Find Peak Element
●​ Search a 2D Matrix
●​ Find Minimum in Rotated Sorted Array
●​ Median of Two Sorted Arrays

Month 3: Advanced Topics and Problem Solving

Week 9-10: Dynamic Programming

Theory:
●​ Read Chapter 10 from "Algorithms in C++" by Robert Sedgewick to understand
dynamic programming.

Practice:
 ●​ Dynamic Programming:
●​ Problems to solve: 20
●​ Climbing Stairs
●​ House Robber
●​ Coin Change
●​ Longest Increasing Subsequence
●​ Word Break
●​ Knapsack Problem
●​ Matrix Chain Multiplication
●​ Edit Distance
●​ Maximum Product Subarray
●​ Unique Paths

Week 11-12: Advanced Graph Algorithms and Miscellaneous Topics

Theory:
●​ Read Chapters 11-12 from "Algorithms in C++" by Robert Sedgewick to
understand advanced graph algorithms.

Practice:
●​ Advanced Graph Algorithms:
●​ Problems to solve: 15
●​ Dijkstra's Algorithm
●​ Bellman-Ford Algorithm
●​ Floyd-Warshall Algorithm
●​ Minimum Spanning Tree
●​ Topological Sorting
●​ Miscellaneous Topics:
●​ Problems to solve: 15
●​ Bit Manipulation
●​ Tries
●​ Segment Trees
●​ Fenwick Trees
●​ Suffix Arrays

Additional Resources

●​ CodeChef: CodeChef Practice

 ●​ SPOJ: SPOJ Problems
●​ LeetCode: LeetCode Explore

This plan should give you a structured approach to mastering Data Structures and
Algorithms in C++ with a strong focus on problem-solving. Good luck!