Frontend developers need to know data structures and algorithms because it helps improve a developer’s critical thinking process and problem-solving skills.
Deep knowledge of data structures and algorithms becomes more important when working with large data sets and complex problems.
In this article, we’ll talk about data structures and algorithms (DSA), shed more light on why frontend developers do need data structures and algorithms and expose you to the common types of DSA.
Towards the end of this piece, you’ll get to know our recommended learning resource to better equip yourself in a competitive industry like ours.
Without further ado, let’s get started.
Learning Overview
Late 2017, a friend introduced me to a web developers’ community in my city.
In this community, we meet twice every month to share knowledge, learn new things and help each other grow.
The community was made up of CS graduates and undergraduates, self-taught developers like me and senior devs who are highly experienced and were already in the web development industry.
As a newbie who just dabbled into web development, I was conversant with the web technologies required for front-end development.
In one of our meetings, we were made to go through the javascript data structures and algorithm challenges on FreeCodeCamp.
It baffled me how other web developers were chewing up logical programming questions and spitting out concise steps as solutions to complex problems, I just couldn’t and would see myself running to StackOverflow for the solution to even the smallest programming problem.
Why Frontend Developers Need to Know Algorithms
Prior to this experience, I thought learning algorithms was something I could do without, but on this particular day, I discovered I was wrong.
Lack of it will be the reason why you will struggle to figure out the right approach or steps to follow when faced with a programming problem.
I was fascinated by how these guys were breaking down complex programming problems, then using logic to solve these problems one after the other.
I decided to go back to the drawing board to study data structures and algorithms from scratch and this turned out to be one of the best decisions I made in my career as a frontend web developer.
I progressed from being a developer who’s 100% dependent on StackOverflow to a developer that can critically think, come up with solutions to problems, and convert these solutions into clean, robust and reusable code.
Also, my knowledge about data structures and algorithms has helped me ace job interviews because 85% of questions asked will always be questions related to algorithms.
Here are 5 Major Reasons Why Frontend Developers Need to Know Data Structures and Algorithms.
- It will help improve your critical thinking process and your problem-solving skills.
- It will help make you a better frontend developer who creates efficient, robust and high-performance codes.
- Helps in your career progression; moving from where you are now to a more advanced state level..
- Helps you ace job interviews because 85% of frontend development job interview questions are about data structures and algorithms.
- You get to learn the core principles of software development, and easily work with other programming languages other than frontend web technologies.
What are Data Structures and Algorithms?
A web application is a collection of instructions made up of codes that perform a specific task.
To perform these tasks, the web application may need to store data, retrieve data, and perform computations on data.
Hence, data structure refers to a named location that can be used to store and organize data.
An algorithm is a sequence of steps(instructions) to solve a clearly defined problem.
Learning data structures and algorithms allows us to write efficient and well-optimized web programs.
What’s the Relationship Between Algorithms and Data Structures?
Algorithms and data structures are strongly related.
A good algorithm has two objectives;
- Solve a specific problem
- Solve this problem efficiently in retrospect to having the least amount of code, best performance, least memory usage and finally, reduce the time taken for the algorithm to be executed.
Algorithms solve problems by processing data, so creating organized data with Data Structures makes the algorithm’s task a lot easier.
It is necessary to organize your data in a manner that makes it easier to apply algorithms.
Types of Data Structures and Algorithms
With Data structures you can store and organize data for efficient access and manipulation.
Some common data structures that are used in frontend web development include:
- Stacks
- Queues
- Linked Lists
- Sets
- Harsh tables
- Trees
- Graph
These data structures are basically categorized into three types.
- Stacks and Queues have similar array-like structures. The only difference between the both of them can only be seen in how items are inserted and removed.
- Linked lists, Trees and Graphs are structures with nodes that keep references to other nodes.
- Hash tables depend on hash functions to save and locate data.
Read more about Data Structures in JavaScript
Each of these data structures makes it possible to call upon data existing in a specific state and use it in several ways within your code.
Data structures allow algorithms to use stored data to execute a specific task laid out in a step-by-step manner by an algorithm.
Fundamental Javascript concepts such as working with variables, arrays, objects, loops and functions can then be written into algorithms, allowing frontend developers to manipulate strings, factorize numbers and make advanced calculations.
Therefore, every program consists of many algorithms.
The Big-O Notation
In order to find out the best algorithm for a given problem in our code, we need to be able to measure performance.
For this, we use the big-O notation to quickly explain the time complexity of an algorithm.
Big-O notation is a super important concept in web development and it’s the standard way of comparing the performance of algorithms.
Searching algorithms
The searching algorithms are used to retrieve some information stored in a data structure.
With this, you can search an array(the data structure) for the value of a particular data.
We have two types of search algorithms which include;
- Linear search
- Binary search
Sorting algorithms
This algorithm is used to organize an array of elements into a specific order.
Usually, the sorting order is lexicographical – e.g. alphabetical (a-z) or numerical (0-9).
This algorithm is categorized into 5 common types:
- Bubble Sort
- Selection Sort
- Insertion Sort
- Merge Sort
- Quick Sort
- Radix Sort
Read more: Search and sort Algorithms
Getting Started with Data Structures and Algorithms
There are various resources online for learning Data Structures and Algorithms.
We’ve reviewed multiple available courses and learning platforms, and we’ve found out some contain half-baked information and a lot more don’t employ the assignment/feedback loop style of tutoring which is proven to have a positive effect on learners.
And that’s why we recommend Master the Coding Interview: Data Structures + Algorithms Udemy course by Andrei Neagoie since it has proven to be the best value for money and time.
Here is a drafted outline of the rudiments of the course.
What you’ll learn
- Ace coding interviews given by some of the top tech companies
- Become more confident and prepared for your next coding interview
- Learn, implement, and use different Data Structures
- Learn, implement and use different Algorithms
- Get more interviews
- Professionally handle offers and negotiate raises
- Become a better developer by mastering computer science fundamentals.
Conclusion
As modern-day web development gives more attention to the client’s side.
The business logic of websites is gradually being pushed from the backend to the frontend.
Hence, Front-end developers depend on view libraries and frameworks like React, Angular and Vuejs to be productive.
Likewise, these view technologies in turn depend on state management libraries like Redux to manage data.
There’s an increasing need for Frontend developers to progress from knowing only basic data structures and algorithms to equipping themselves with the knowledge of complex algorithms and data structures.
This will help improve their chances of getting hired(because 80% of interview questions are based on algorithms)
It will help improve programming skills and writing codes that don’t only solve programming problems but solve them efficiently using fewer lines of codes and increased performance.
For starters, our recommended course Master the Coding Interview: Data Structures + Algorithms by Andrei Neagoie will set you on the right track.
And it’s a wrap.
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Till we meet again on another article,
Happy Coding!
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