[whack]

The examples you gave are very helpful in giving more context. I'm guessing that you're productive in your job, because you know the details of how to use language ABC, framework XYZ and the various patterns for solving common industry problems using ABC and XYZ. The part you seem to be weak in, is abstract problem solving. Ie, coming up with a pseudo-code algorithm that will accomplish some abstract goal that you've never come across before.

This requires a completely different skillset. You rarely have to come up with novel algorithms when building a CRUD app, hence why you've never gotten the chance to practice those skills. That said, it's definitely worth learning - if nothing else because it will help you in job interviews.

There's no shortcut to this. Go on leetcode or hackerrank or similar sites - or do all the homework assignments and projects along with your fiance. You're working out a brand new muscle, so it will definitely seem frustrating at first, but you'll get much better with practice.

[cs0]

Your first paragraph hits the nail on the head. This is exactly me.

Thank you for your reply. I do intend to work further on my skills in order to get better!

[oneplane]

One (relatively) easy way to get better at it is combining a book and some real world uses with a project and a language suited for it.

For example, you could take python or java (or C#, pretty much any general OOP language), and make a simple crud application. Then add a "reporting" page where you can see different results on for example uses of trees, sorting algorithms or storage data structures (like linked lists, hash maps etc). The crud part can be your familiar part where you have a good feel of what's what, and the report/test/whatever page can be your sandbox to see how your experiments deal with your data.

One of the books I found helpful was Data Structures and Problem Solving Using Java by Mark A. Weiss.

A softer start can be found with http://interactivepython.org/runestone/static/pythonds/index...

If you want something using languages you already know, that's fine too. Say for example you wanted to simply know how to build a tree, or more generally a graph. Those concepts may sound big or complex, but they are only as big or as complex as you want them to be allowing you to build a simple version (i.e. a class that is a node in a linked list, and it holds just a number as a value and the next node for your list as a pointer or value or whatever you like). It's something you could do in 10 lines of code just to get yourself started. Building on top of that is a whole lot easier than jumping straight into AVL trees and A* path finding algorithms.

Starting light, say, making a few things yourself in a language of your choice will get you a good feel as to what you want to explore and how easy it is to grasp the concepts, for example:

- linked lists and doubly linked lists

- binary trees (binary doesn't mean binary data, don't worry)

- sorting (check quicksort, shellsort, bubblesort on wikipedia for starters to get an animation for an idea what it is)

- heap

- stack

- (priority-) queue

[indigochill]

If you prefer watching videos/working through a MOOC for this stuff, I can highly recommend Robert Sedgewick's Algorithms I on Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/learn/algorithms-part1

If you don't know his name, you should - he's written some of the best books on these algorithms and his MOOC is similarly rich in visualizations and concrete examples that help you develop the intuition for the algorithms. Also incidentally his doctoral advisor was Donald Knuth, who he evidently learned a lot from.

[madmulita]

Take a look at "How to design programs"[1]. It teaches a systematic way of attacking/solving problems.

[1] https://www.htdp.org/

[derangedHorse]

I went through this too! I'd definitely recommend giving it a go if you're up for it. You may have those moments of utter confusion, but you'll definitely learn a lot!

[Latteland]

Good job in putting it tactfully. I think you have it exactly right, there's a different skillset used in interviewing often, abstract problem solving - that really is different than the skills to write a crud app.