take U forward
Striver's A2Z DSA Course
Striver's A2Z DSA Course by take U forward is the most structured free DSA course available. It runs from C++ basics, recursion, sorting and hashing through arrays, binary search, linked lists, trees, BSTs, graphs and dynamic programming, closing with maths, sliding window, greedy and stack/queue — pattern-first, with a problem after every concept.
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Overall progress
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What this playlist covers
Striver's A2Z DSA Course by take U forward runs to 314 videos across 15 sections: Basics, Patterns & STL, Recursion Basics, Hashing, Sorting Algorithms, Arrays, Binary Search, Binary Trees and Binary Search Trees, plus 7 more. Tick each video off as you finish it — progress is saved in this browser, and syncs across devices once you sign in. Nothing here is gated and there is no signup to start.
The most complete free DSA course on YouTube, and the only one here where nearly every lecture hands you a problem to solve immediately after it.
Who it is for
Someone with three to six months before they start interviewing who wants one course rather than six playlists stitched together. It assumes you can already write a loop and a function in C++ — if you cannot, start with the Basics, Patterns & STL section rather than skipping it.
How to work through it
- 01Do not watch it front to back. The first four sections (Basics, Recursion Basics, Hashing, Sorting — 15 videos) are setup; get through them quickly and do not linger.
- 02Arrays (28) and Binary Search (28) next. These are where interviews start and where the pattern-recognition habit forms.
- 03Then Linked List (28), Stack & Queue (19), Sliding Window & Two Pointers (12) — the structures that show up constantly and take the least time to learn.
- 04Binary Trees (38) and Binary Search Trees (15) before graphs. Tree recursion is the prerequisite for graph traversal, not the other way round.
- 05Graphs (56) and Dynamic Programming (55) last, and budget for them honestly — they are a third of the course between them and the two topics people run out of time on.
What it does well
- 299 of the 314 lectures link straight to the problem they teach. No other playlist on this site comes close, and watching without solving is the single most common way people waste a DSA course.
- The DP section (55 videos) is taught as a progression — 1D, then grids, then subsequences, then strings, then stocks, then partition DP — rather than as a pile of individual problems.
- Section boundaries match how interviewers actually think about topics, so the tracker doubles as a revision checklist in the week before an onsite.
Where it falls short
- 314 videos is a real commitment. At two a day it is five months. Starting it four weeks before a placement season is a mistake — use a sheet instead.
- Maths gets 7 videos and Greedy 13, which is thin next to graphs and DP. If a company is known for either, supplement.
- It is C++ throughout. The ideas transfer, but if you interview in Python or Java you will be translating as you go.
What to pair it with
- Striver SDE 79 — The same author's short list — use it for revision once you have been through the course, not instead of it.
- DSA patterns — Cross-check that you can name the pattern behind a problem before you look at the solution.
- Aditya Verma DSA Patterns — If the DP section here does not land, his 49-video treatment approaches it completely differently.