So knowing a professionally comprehensive set of tricks and approaches for commonly used algorithms has just straight up made me a better coder.I know when its

So knowing a professionally comprehensive set of tricks and approaches for commonly used algorithms has just straight up made me a better coder.I know when its wise to wield bfs, dfs, sliding window, et al, and have the capability to knock out and efficient function, when needed. Its rare, but its helpful to master some of these tools. There is a certain power in being able to reason a correct algorithmic approach, modularize it in your head, and then use it to tackle a real life problem, without having to resort to hashing it out in an ide. The hard part is distilling the most commonly used and most helpful of these tools. But after doing so, I can now approach side projects where I got stuck on not having an efficient way to store and access data. Knowing the start and limits of those algorithms gives me that confidence that what I build is close to as efficient as possible, and allows me then focus on pulling those efficient modules together. As a self taught dev, its given me confidence in my expertise, and that pays off in job opportunity, self respect, confidence to mentor others, and actually completing hard projects that I could not complete before.