Great read. I think you're missing a link in there. "Spend at least 40 hours coding solutions to different types of problems. One of the best resources is TopC

Great read. I think you're missing a link in there. "Spend at least 40 hours coding solutions to different types of problems. One of the best resources is TopCoder. Read this. Then try solving problems." Did you mean to link to the top coder algorithm tutorials?