Shreya Narayan’s Post

DSA Failures: Why Getting Stuck is Good for Your Brain When I first started preparing for coding interviews, I thought getting stuck on a DSA problem meant I wasn’t good enough. One moment still sticks with me vividly: I was solving a dynamic programming problem on LeetCode — it was “Partition Equal Subset Sum.” What looked like a simple subset-sum variation completely broke me. I spent 2 hours. Tried brute force. Even watched a hint video — still didn’t click. That night, I genuinely questioned if I was even made for coding. But two days later, something strange happened: With fresh eyes, I actually figured it out — on my own. Not by copying someone’s solution. Not by memorizing a template. But by truly understanding how to break down a DP state and transition. That experience taught me something powerful: Getting stuck isn’t failure — it’s brain growth happening in real-time. When you struggle, your brain is building new pathways. When you give up too early, you rob yourself of that growth. Today, whenever I get stuck on a hard DSA problem, I see it as an opportunity — not a defeat. If you’re struggling too — KEEP GOING. The breakthrough is closer than you think. #DSA #CodingInterview #InterviewPreparation #TechInterviews #LeetCode #DSAPractice #ProblemSolving #SoftwareEngineering #CareerGrowth #CodingJourney #DynamicProgramming #CodingStruggles #BrainGrowth #NeverGiveUp #LearningMindset #Consistency #TechCareers #CodingLife #DeveloperJourney #TechMotivation