There's a basic truth about being a knowledge worker that most people don't think about. This truth holds for young, old, programmer and non-programmer alike.

There's a basic truth about being a knowledge worker that most people don't think about. This truth holds for young, old, programmer and non-programmer alike. If you want to stay relevant and fresh long term, you need to be continuously learning. You can get away with not worrying about ongoing learning in the short term, say 8 years or less, but in the long term it's going to catch up with you. This is one key reason programmers tend to move to other careers or into management after 10+ years: it's a lot of work to continuously learn. And worse than that, it's uncomfortable and makes you feel dumb when you know you're really smart and capable. Learning to embrace that feeling of being dumb, of being a beginner, is key to growth. And once you stop growing and learning, you start getting old. For developers this means learning new languages, techniques, technologies, methodologies. If we accept that this learning is going to be happening, then it's not too much to ask that data structures and algorithms refreshers are part of this ongoing learning say 1 out of every 3 or 4 years. Most engineers actually don't do this, and just stick with what they've been doing for the most part. Or just happen to passively learn whatever is rolling by them in the course of doing their job. For engineering, there are actually tons of things that need to be studied that are technically not part of the job: writing skills, communication skills, math skills. Sometimes these things help you even though they're not part of the daily grind. The same goes for algorithms and data structures. Studying these things also sends a signal to your interviewer: you're willing to go figure it out even when it's not fun and not convenient. As a hiring manager, I like that. And we can debate whether it's a good thing, but it is what the situation is at many places. Plus, it's fun to study a lot of it, so it's a good option to get on the learning.