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Coding practice roadmap for placements

Five stages, in order, each with the sites where you can do the work. Shishya does not run a coding judge — these links take you to each site. Each site decides what is free and what is paid, and that can change — check on the site before you pay for anything. Shishya has no affiliate or referral arrangement with any of them.

  1. 1. Learn one language properly

    Pick one of C++, Java or Python and stay with it until you can write loops, functions, arrays and strings without looking things up.

    • NPTEL programming courses ↗Full IIT / IISc courses on programming and data structures, in the Computer Science discipline; some universities give credit for them (see the SWAYAM credit guide).Cost: Free to learn; the certificate exam is optional and paid.
    • freeCodeCamp ↗A nonprofit's self-paced curriculum — web development, JavaScript, Python — with projects.Cost: Free, including its certifications.

  2. 2. Data structures and algorithms

    Arrays, strings, hashing, recursion, sorting and searching, then stacks, queues, trees, graphs and dynamic programming — one topic at a time, with problems after each.

    • GeeksforGeeks ↗Articles on every DSA topic, practice problems and a daily problem.Cost: Articles and practice free; some courses paid.
    • CSES Problem Set ↗A problem set ordered by topic, with an online judge.Cost: Free.

  3. 3. Interview-style practice for placements

    Solve problems the way interviews ask them: explain the approach, write clean code, state the time and space complexity.

    • LeetCode ↗Interview-style problems with an online judge, and weekly contests.Cost: Many problems free; a paid Premium unlocks the rest.
    • GeeksforGeeks practice ↗Problems filterable by topic and difficulty.Cost: Free.

  4. 4. Competitive programming contests

    Timed contests build speed and accuracy. Start with beginner divisions; read the editorial after every contest.

    • Codeforces ↗Rated contests, problem archive with editorials.Cost: Free.
    • CodeChef ↗Rated contests and practice by difficulty.Cost: Contests free; some learning content paid.
    • AtCoder ↗Rated contests, including beginner contests.Cost: Free.

  5. 5. Build and show

    Two or three small projects of your own, in a public code repository, with a README that says what each does. Put them on your resume.

A steady pace beats a burst

  • Solve a few problems every day rather than many on one day; revisit the ones you could not solve a week later.
  • Read the editorial or a solution only after a real attempt, then write it again yourself without looking.
  • Paid courses are optional — every stage above can be done with the free parts of these sites.