This roadmap is inspired by industry standards (roadmap.sh, [GeeksforGeeks], [Scaler], and others) and tailored for a 6–12 month journey, with skills, projects, and recommended stack for advancing your DSA (Data Structures & Algorithms) and System Design expertise.
- Programming Fundamentals
- DSA: Core Concepts
- DSA: Patterns & Advanced Data Structures
- DSA: Algorithms & Problem Solving
- Competitive Coding & Mock Interviews
- System Design: Principles & Fundamentals
- System Design: Scaling, Reliability & Performance
- System Design: Patterns & Architectures
- Advanced System Design & Real World Case Studies
- Projects: Portfolio & Practice
- Stack & Tools
- Skills Checklist
- Pick a primary language: C++, Python, Java, JavaScript, C#, Go, Rust, etc.
- Master variables, data types, loops, conditionals, functions, scope
- Learn OOP basics: classes, inheritance, polymorphism
Mini-projects:
- CLI calculator
- Simple array manipulation tasks
- Convert code snippets (e.g., palindrome check, sorting)
- Time complexity, Space complexity (Big-O analysis)
- Arrays & Strings: operations, sliding window, two pointers
- Linked Lists: singly, doubly, circular; pointers, fast/slow
- Stacks & Queues: usage, implementation, recursion, undo
- Hash Tables/Maps/Sets: for fast lookup, uniqueness
- Trees: binary, BST, AVL, heaps, traversals
- Graphs: BFS, DFS, directed/undirected, weighted
- Recursion & Backtracking: basics and constraints
- Sorting & Searching: bubble, merge, quick, binary search, variations
- Problem-solving patterns: sliding window, two pointers, fast/slow pointers, prefix sum
Mini-projects:
- Implement custom Array, LinkedList, Stack
- Balanced parentheses validator
- Binary tree traversals (inorder, preorder, postorder)
- Heaps/Priority Queue, Trie
- Trees (AVL, Red-Black, Segment Trees, Fenwick/BIT trees)
- Disjoint Set Union (Union-Find)
- Suffix Array, Suffix Tree
- Interval/Segment/Fenwick Trees for efficient queries
- Advanced Graph Algorithms (Dijkstra, Floyd-Warshall, Tarjan’s, Johnson’s, SCCs, MST)
- Persistent & Augmented Data Structures
- Geometry Algorithms
- Heavy-Light Decomposition, B-Trees, Centroid Decomposition
- Bit Manipulation, Game Theory, Mo’s Algorithm
Mini-projects:
- Fenwick Tree implementation for prefix sums
- Build a segment tree for range min/max queries
- Union-Find for cycle detection in graphs
- Dynamic Programming: memoization, tabulation (e.g., knapsack, LCS, LIS, coin change)
- Divide & Conquer, Greedy Algorithms (optimal substructure)
- Graph Algorithms: BFS, DFS, Topological Sort, Dijkstra, Kruskal, Prim, Bellman-Ford
- String Algorithms: KMP, Rabin-Karp, Z-Algorithm
- Practice problem-solving patterns:
- Prefix sum
- Two pointers & sliding window
- BFS/DFS in trees and graphs
- Backtracking for permutations/combinations
Mini-projects:
- Longest substring without repeating chars (sliding window)
- N-Queens puzzle solver (backtracking)
- Knapsack DP, Tree diameter, Topological sort
- Practice on platforms: LeetCode, CodeForces, HackerRank, AtCoder, CodeChef
- Tackle problems by category and pattern
- Mock interviews: timed contests, whiteboard exercises
- Learn from solutions and discuss trade-offs
Mini-projects:
- Weekly problem sets by topics
- Simulated technical interviews
- Scalability: vertical/horizontal, sharding, partitioning, load balancing
- Reliability: redundancy, replication, fault tolerance, backup
- Maintainability: modular, clean code, CI/CD pipelines
- Availability, Consistency, Partition Tolerance (CAP theorem)
Mini-projects:
- Build a scalable file storage service
- CI/CD pipeline setup for a microservice
- Caching (Redis/Memcached), CDN, distributed systems
- API design (REST, GraphQL, gRPC, versioning)
- Concurrency, parallelism, pub/sub messaging (Kafka, RabbitMQ)
- Security: authentication, authorization, data encryption, rate-limiting
- Observability: logging, monitoring, metrics (Prometheus, Grafana)
Mini-projects:
- REST API with cache layer
- Real-time data pipeline using Kafka + Redis
- Dockerize a multi-service setup
- Monolith vs Microservices, SOA, Event-driven, CQRS
- Object-Oriented Analysis & Design, SOLID, design patterns (Singleton, Factory, Observer)
- API Gateway, Rate limiting
- High Availability: failover, disaster recovery, geo-redundancy
Mini-projects:
- Microservices to handle orders/notifications
- Implement event-driven architecture with Kafka/RabbitMQ
- CQRS pattern in an API
- Distributed systems: consensus (Raft/Paxos), transactions, network partitioning
- Real-world case studies:
- URL shortener (Bit.ly)
- E-commerce platform
- Netflix (global scale, CDN, microservices)
- WhatsApp/Uber (real-time messaging, location, pub/sub)
- Instagram (write-optimized DBs, Cassandra)
- Design trade-offs, industry best practices
Mini-projects:
- Design and implement a scalable URL shortener
- Breakdown Netflix or Uber’s architecture patterns
Beginner:
- Notes app API
- Blog API
- Calculator (array/linked list based)
Intermediate:
- Chat backend with WebSockets + Redis
- E-commerce: product catalog, cart, orders, payment
- Tree/graph visualizer
Advanced:
- URL shortener at scale (system design)
- Real-time event pipeline (Kafka, Redis, Docker)
- Scheduling/notification system
- Languages: C++, Python, Java, JavaScript, C#, Go, Rust
- Platforms: LeetCode, HackerRank, CodeForces, GeeksforGeeks, AtCoder
- System Design: Docker, Kubernetes, Redis, Kafka, RabbitMQ, Prometheus, Grafana, Nginx
- Project management: Git/GitHub, CI/CD tools, monitoring/logging platforms
- Master Big-O, time/space complexity
- Implement arrays, linked lists, trees, graphs (core DSA)
- Apply major algorithmic techniques (DP, divide & conquer, greedy)
- Recognize and use coding patterns effectively (sliding window, two pointers, BFS/DFS)
- Utilize advanced data structures (segment tree, trie, union-find)
- Design, analyze, and debug scalable systems (system design fundamentals)
- Build and scale RESTful APIs, integrate caching/pipeline solutions
- Deploy and monitor distributed microservices (Docker/Kubernetes)
- Solve problems and practice mock interviews regularly
- Complete portfolio projects, beginner → advanced
Official Resources:
- GeeksforGeeks DSA
- roadmap.sh/datastructures-and-algorithms
- System Design Roadmap
- LeetCode Patterns
- Design a URL shortener
These are portfolio-ready mini-projects to consolidate your skills:
- DSA Patterns:
- Sliding window substring challenge, longest palindrome
- Implement Stack, Queue, Trie, Union-Find
- Fenwick Tree/Segment Tree for range queries
- System Design:
- URL shortener with Redis, API gateway, analytics
- Real-time messaging/chat pipeline with Kafka/Redis/Docker
- E-commerce backend with microservices, event-driven architecture