[cloverich]

I think a lot of the hate comes from a perception that its all about memorization, and that in turn comes from lack of experience with DS&A. There's absolutely a lot of BS, but I think in general as one currently grinding through it, its better than I first thought. Most of the common problem lists cover data structures and algorithms covered prominently in the algorithms book I read (Segewick). Moreover, I find that leetcode, despite its sometimes lowish quality, still provides the best platform to efficiently practice implementing basic algorithms. The Segewick book for instance provides numerous exercises in each chatper. But setting them up, running through them, getting feedback, seeing other implementations -- that would require tremendous amounts of time. Pairing it with leet code, you can quickly jump to exactly the thing you want to work on, get a variety of similar questions, and see competing solutions.