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[–] bloopton [S] 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

So it's more like a conceptual understanding of the way systems and programs around you work?

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[–] brux 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

Yes. Knowing which data structure to pick is very valuable, but you'll rarely create the implementation of one of those data structures. Think about this problem: You have a huge list of Strings, and you want to find if there are duplicates. Comparing every two nodes will take way too long. What data structure can solve this for you?

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[–] pm_me_firearms ago 

strings are just numbers, right? So make them into two arrays, sort them, and check them using an algorithim that I've forgotten the name of, but involves deciding to increment a side by looking at which side has the lower number.

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[–] king_of_voat 1 point -1 points (+0|-1) ago 

While it's true that you probably won't ever have to implement fundamental datastructures yourself knowledge of them is really important. Algorithms as a topic are by far not the only thing you should focus on studying.

If you know your datastructures, deciding how you want to write something performantly will become a lot easier, just consider e.g. that tree maps can be useful in cases where you need to be able to lookup all values with a key greater than x. You could work around with using some sort of hash map / list combination but knowing this stuff will make your life way easier.