Algorithms come up all the time. Sometimes standard algorithms to use, sometimes to implement or modify slightly, sometimes as something completely custom where

Algorithms come up all the time. Sometimes standard algorithms to use, sometimes to implement or modify slightly, sometimes as something completely custom where some inspiration is drawn from the classics. But does this mean you need to learn them by rote or be able to figure them out on a whiteboard? No. And although they appear regularly, I don‘t spend enough time on them that this would meaningfully affect my performance. So the time you spend thinking doesn‘t matter, very unlike a whiteboard situation.