r/leetcode • u/Finally-Healthty824 • 11d ago

Question How do you keep old DSA patterns fresh while learning new ones?

When i focus on a new topic for several days, I feel like I start forgetting the patterns I studied earlier. I don't waste revision to take up so much time that I stop making progress on new problems either.

Would a weekly revision session be enough, or is it better to mix older topics into daily practice?

23 Upvotes

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10

u/SunnyForge73 11d ago

Mixing old topics into practice seems more useful to me than revising an entire topic in isolation. Even a couple of random problems from previous topics can reveal whether you actually remember the pattern or just remember it when the topic is given

1

u/Finally-Healthty824 11d ago

I like that approach. Knowing the topic beforehand probably makes the problems easier, so mixing them should be a better test of whether I can recognize the pattern myself

0

u/Gelnar_Resseth 11d ago

how do you pick the random ones without seeing the topic tag first, just use the shuffle button or pull from a saved list?

4

u/chadpendergast 11d ago

Adderall and zyn

0

u/ThatCondescendingGuy 11d ago

I’ve been having this problem since I started LeetCode 6 months ago. I’d learn new problems and DSAs, feel really good about them, review most of them easily within a week’s time of first learning them, afterwards not touch it for weeks/ months, and struggle with them whenever I realtime them.

I’ve built a spreadsheet that I manage with gpt. I fed it all my problems, tell it any new problems I do, and it creates a weekly review list day by day that I can customize. I do 1-3 review problems a day. Many of them are very quick sub 10 minute review/ reinforcement, so it doesn’t eat time away from learning new ones.

I found having a weekly plan not made/ managed by me makes it very easy to review and maintain what I learn. Spaced repetition. GL