Algorithms roadmap

The roadmap is a map rather than a checklist, and the distinction matters. A strict linear sheet makes beginners feel they have to complete every step in order before they are allowed to move on, and this one is built to be used the opposite way, so you should skip around it based on what you need and what you are curious about. The earlier topics tend to be the highest return on your time and the most directly applicable to interviews, which makes them a sensible place to start, but that is a reason to start there, not an obligation to finish them in sequence. Jump to what interests you, drop back to fundamentals when something later exposes a gap, and let your understanding build organically instead of mechanically.

You will also notice AtCoder, CSES, and contest problems sitting alongside the more familiar interview ones, and that is deliberate. The common belief that competitive programming is scary or irrelevant or overkill is simply wrong, and the resources themselves are some of the best that exist anywhere. AtCoder and CSES in particular give you cleaner statements and better test cases, and they force you to understand the underlying algorithm rather than pattern-match your way to a template. The whole roadmap is hand-picked from CSES, USACO, and contest-style problems by people who have actually competed, and it is selected for the ideas that generalize rather than the patterns that get memorized.

Competitive programming is a strict superset of interview problems: the techniques transfer downward cleanly while the reverse does not hold, and reaching Expert, somewhere around 1600, is already enough to make most big tech rounds feel easy.