14 Best YouTube Channels for Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) in 2026

Last updated: 6 October 2026; every channel, playlist and video length re-checked on YouTube that day. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. See our review methodology.

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QUICK VERDICT

Data structures and algorithms (DSA) is the part of programming that decides whether your code still works when the input is a million times larger, and it is the main subject of technical interviews at most software companies. You do not need to pay to learn it. Some of the best teaching on the topic is free on YouTube, from MIT lecture recordings to channels built entirely around interview questions.

The hard part is choosing. Thousands of channels cover the same topics, several of the most-recommended ones stopped uploading years ago, and a few popular names are easy to confuse with look-alike accounts. We checked every channel and playlist below on 6 October 2026, recorded its size and when it last posted, and ranked them by what each is actually best at.

Best YouTube channels for DSA at a glance

Video and playlist counts are as listed on YouTube on 6 October 2026. “No (archive)” means the channel has not posted in three years or more; the videos still teach the fundamentals well, because arrays, trees and graphs have not changed.

The 14 best YouTube channels for data structures and algorithms

We ranked the channels by how well they teach (clarity and accuracy of the explanations, judged from their flagship series), how complete and well organized their DSA material is, and how useful it is for the reason most people learn DSA: passing a technical interview. Channel size was a tiebreaker, not a ranking factor.

1. NeetCode: best for coding-interview patterns

NeetCode is built around one idea: interview questions repeat a small number of patterns (two pointers, sliding window, binary search, BFS and DFS, dynamic programming), and if you learn the pattern you can solve problems you have never seen. Each video takes one LeetCode problem, draws the idea first, then codes it, usually in under 20 minutes.

Start with the Blind-75 solutions playlist (75 videos), then work through the NeetCode 150 list on neetcode.io, which links every problem to its video. The site also has free Blind 75 and NeetCode 250 lists and a paid Pro tier with structured courses; the YouTube material alone is enough for most candidates.

Channel: NeetCode · 1.12M subscribers · 481 videos · uploading regularly · solutions mainly in Python.

2. take U forward (Striver): best structured A-to-Z course

If you would rather follow one course from the very first array to advanced graphs and dynamic programming, Striver’s A2Z DSA course is the most complete free option on YouTube. The playlist runs to 316 videos and follows the order of his A2Z sheet on the take U forward website, which lists 20 modules and 495 topics, so you always know what to study next.

Explanations start with the brute-force answer and improve it step by step to the optimal one, which is exactly how interviewers expect you to talk. The A2Z playlist is complete; new uploads are now occasional, and the website sells optional paid plans on top of the free sheet.

Channel: take U forward · 1.12M subscribers · 545 videos · sheet lists about 131 hours of material.

3. Abdul Bari: best for algorithm theory

Abdul Bari explains algorithms on a whiteboard the way a good university lecturer does, slowly and with every step traced by hand. His Algorithms playlist (84 videos) covers asymptotic notation, divide and conquer, greedy methods, dynamic programming, backtracking, branch and bound, graph algorithms such as Dijkstra, Prim and Kruskal, string matching and NP-hard problems.

It is the channel to watch when you can code a solution but cannot explain why it runs in O(n log n), or when you are studying for a university algorithms exam. It is light on interview-style problem drills, so pair it with NeetCode. The channel posts rarely now, but the playlist has not dated.

Channel: Abdul Bari · 1.32M subscribers · 116 videos · last upload about a year ago.

4. MIT OpenCourseWare: best university course

MIT publishes the full lecture recordings of 6.006 Introduction to Algorithms (Spring 2020), 32 videos taught by Erik Demaine, Jason Ku and Justin Solomon. It is the most rigorous free DSA course anywhere: proofs of correctness, running-time analysis, hashing, sorting, graph search, shortest paths and dynamic programming.

The course page on MIT OCW adds the problem sets and exams with solutions, which is what turns the videos into a real course. Expect to need comfortable Python and some discrete math. If interviews are your goal, it is more than you need; if you want to understand the subject properly, nothing on YouTube beats it.

Channel: MIT OpenCourseWare · 6.53M subscribers · still publishing new courses.

5. freeCodeCamp.org: best single-video full courses

freeCodeCamp publishes complete courses as one long video with timestamps, which suits people who like to work through a topic in a few long sessions. Four are worth knowing:

• Data Structures Easy to Advanced Course – Full Tutorial from a Google Engineer (8 h 3 min), William Fiset’s course on everything from arrays to Fenwick trees, with Java code.
• Data Structures – Full Course Using C and C++ (9 h 46 min), the classic mycodeschool material in one video.
• Algorithms and Data Structures Tutorial – Full Course for Beginners (5 h 22 min), a gentler introduction developed by Pasan Premaratne and Jay McGavren of Treehouse.
• Algorithms Course – Graph Theory Tutorial from a Google Engineer (6 h 44 min), the best free single resource on graph algorithms.

Channel: freeCodeCamp.org · 11.9M subscribers · uploads several times a week.

6. WilliamFiset: best for graphs and advanced data structures

William Fiset’s own channel holds the material behind his freeCodeCamp courses in shorter pieces. The Data structures playlist (55 videos) goes further than most beginner channels, into union-find, Fenwick trees, suffix arrays, AVL trees and sparse tables, each with animated diagrams and Java source code on GitHub.

Use it once the basics are solid, or when an interview problem needs a structure the beginner courses skip. The channel has not posted in about three years.

Channel: WilliamFiset · 228K subscribers · 144 videos.

7. Jenny’s Lectures CS IT: best for exam-style computer science

Jenny’s Lectures teaches DSA the way a computer science degree or a competitive exam tests it: definitions, memory representation, and operations traced step by step. Her Data Structures and Algorithms playlist runs to 122 videos, from how arrays are stored in memory through linked lists, stacks, queues, trees, heaps, hashing and graphs.

It is the best choice if you are studying for a university course or an exam rather than an interview, and the channel still uploads every week.

Channel: Jenny’s Lectures CS IT · 2.12M subscribers · 964 videos.

8. Kunal Kushwaha: best for Java

Kunal Kushwaha’s Java + DSA + Interview Preparation Course (69 videos) teaches Java from scratch and then moves straight into data structures, recursion, sorting and interview problems, so a beginner does not need a separate Java course first. The lectures are long and thorough.

Channel: Kunal Kushwaha · 923K subscribers · 519 videos · active.

9. codebasics: best for Python

codebasics is best known for data science, but its Data Structures And Algorithms In Python playlist (20 videos) is one of the clearest short introductions for Python programmers. Each video explains a structure, implements it in Python, and ends with exercises. It will not take you to interview level on its own; follow it with NeetCode, which also codes in Python.

Channel: codebasics · 1.58M subscribers · active.

10. mycodeschool: best for C and C++ fundamentals

mycodeschool stopped uploading about nine years ago and is still one of the most recommended DSA channels, because its Data structures playlist (42 videos) explains pointers, linked lists, stacks, queues, trees and graphs with unusually clear memory diagrams. If linked lists or recursion have never quite clicked, this is the series to watch.

Channel: mycodeschool · 814K subscribers · 110 videos · archive.

11. Telusko: best short Java data-structures series

Telusko is best known for Java tutorials, and its Data Structures using Java playlist (16 videos) is a compact refresher on linked lists, stacks, queues and trees implemented in Java. Watch it when you already program in Java and want the structures in your own language without a 60-hour course.

Channel: Telusko · 3.03M subscribers · active.

12. Back To Back SWE: best whiteboard-style interview walkthroughs

Back To Back SWE explains interview problems step by step, spending most of each video on the reasoning before the code, which is a good model for how to talk in a real interview. The channel is no longer updated, but its 92 videos remain a strong set of interview-problem explanations.

Channel: Back To Back SWE · 253K subscribers · archive.

13. Tushar Roy – Coding Made Simple: best for dynamic programming

Tushar Roy’s videos are old (the last upload was about eight years ago) and plain, a whiteboard and a marker, but his dynamic programming series is still how many engineers learned to fill in a DP table. It also covers harder topics that beginner channels skip, such as max flow (Ford-Fulkerson), sparse tables and all-pairs shortest paths.

Channel: Tushar Roy – Coding Made Simple · 252K subscribers · 103 videos · archive.

14. CS Dojo: best gentle introduction

CS Dojo, run by YK Sugishita, makes beginner-friendly programming and computer science videos, including introductions to the core data structures at a relaxed pace. It is the right first stop if the other channels feel too fast, though it does not go deep enough for interviews. New videos are now occasional.

Channel: CS Dojo · 1.95M subscribers · 114 videos.

Also worth knowing

• Neso Academy (3.28M subscribers): short, structured lessons across the whole computer science syllabus, useful alongside a degree.
• Caleb Curry (743K): beginner-friendly programming explanations. Note that his channel handle is @codebreakthrough; @calebcurry belongs to a different account.
• Errichto Algorithms (332K): competitive programming from a top-ranked contestant, for when interviews are no longer enough of a challenge.
• 3Blue1Brown (8.68M): not a DSA channel, but its visual math builds intuition for graphs, recursion and probability.

Best YouTube channel for DSA by programming language

Searchers most often ask for a channel in their own language. Any language works for interviews, so learn DSA in the one you already know best.

A 12-week plan using only free YouTube channels

This plan assumes 8 to 10 hours a week and that you can already write basic programs. Adjust the pace, not the order.

1. Weeks 1-2: complexity and arrays. Big-O from Abdul Bari’s first videos, then arrays, strings and hashing from Striver’s A2Z. Solve the easy array problems on the NeetCode 150.
2. Weeks 3-4: two pointers, sliding window, binary search. NeetCode’s pattern videos, solving each problem before you watch the solution.
3. Weeks 5-6: linked lists, stacks, queues and recursion. mycodeschool for the mental model, Striver for the problems.
4. Weeks 7-8: trees, heaps and tries. Striver’s tree series plus NeetCode’s tree problems.
5. Weeks 9-10: graphs. freeCodeCamp’s graph theory course, then NeetCode’s graph section.
6. Weeks 11-12: dynamic programming and review. Tushar Roy or Back To Back SWE for DP intuition, NeetCode’s DP problems, then timed mock interviews on problems you have not seen.

Track every problem you could not solve and retry it a week later. For the interview itself, our guide to how to crack a coding interview covers the stages and a six-week plan, and what LeetCode’s free tier includes explains when Premium is worth paying for.

Why learn DSA on YouTube, and where it falls short

YouTube’s advantages are real: the material is free, the best explanations are as good as any paid course, and you can replay a hard section as often as you need. Several of these channels are run by engineers who have sat on the other side of the interview table.

The limits are just as real. Videos do not check your work, so it is easy to watch 50 solutions and still freeze on a new problem. Playlists also vary in quality and order, and nobody tells you when you are ready. That is why every plan above pairs a channel with a problem list you solve yourself.

When a paid DSA course is worth it

Most people do not need to pay. A paid course is worth it when you want graded exercises and a fixed path, a certificate for your resume, or interactive practice in the browser instead of video. If that is you, these are the three we would pick; our best data structures and algorithms courses guide compares more.

• Grokking the Coding Interview Patterns (Educative): text-based and interactive, built around 28 coding patterns and more than 500 challenges, which is the same pattern approach NeetCode uses, with an in-browser coding environment. It is sold through Educative’s subscription; annual plans list from $298 a year and were on sale from $134 on 9 October 2026. Read our Grokking the Coding Interview review.
• Data Structures and Algorithms Specialization (UC San Diego on Coursera): six courses with auto-graded programming assignments, rated 4.6 from 16,775 reviews, about five months at 10 hours a week. The best choice if you want a university-style certificate.
• JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures Masterclass (Colt Steele on Udemy): 21.5 hours, rated 4.7 from 31,296 ratings and updated January 2026. The pick for JavaScript developers, and usually inexpensive in Udemy’s frequent sales.

See Grokking the Coding Interview → See the UC San Diego DSA courses →

How we chose these channels

We started from the channels most often recommended for DSA by developers and by AI search assistants, then checked each one on YouTube on 6 October 2026: that the channel and its DSA playlists are live, how many videos each series has, how many subscribers the channel has, and when it last uploaded. We dropped channels whose DSA material we could not locate or verify, and we flag inactive channels rather than hide them, because an old explanation of a linked list is still correct.

We ranked on teaching quality as shown in each flagship series, completeness and organization, and usefulness for interviews. None of these channels pays us. The only links on this page that can earn us a commission are the three paid courses in the section above.

Frequently asked questions

Which YouTube channel is best for DSA?

For most people preparing for coding interviews, NeetCode is the best single channel: short, clear walkthroughs of the problems interviewers actually ask, organized by pattern on the free NeetCode 150 list. If you want a complete course from zero rather than interview drills, Striver’s A2Z DSA course on take U forward (316 videos) is the most structured option, and Abdul Bari is the best for understanding why algorithms work.

What is the best YouTube channel for DSA in Java?

Kunal Kushwaha’s Java + DSA + Interview Preparation Course (69 videos) teaches Java and data structures together, which suits beginners. Telusko’s shorter Data Structures using Java playlist (16 videos) is a good refresher, and freeCodeCamp’s 8-hour Data Structures course by William Fiset is written in Java.

What is the best YouTube channel for DSA in Python?

NeetCode solves almost every problem in Python, which makes it the strongest choice for Python interview prep. For the fundamentals, codebasics’ Data Structures And Algorithms In Python playlist (20 videos) is short and beginner friendly, and MIT’s 6.006 lectures assume Python 3.

What is the best YouTube channel for DSA in C++?

mycodeschool’s 42-video data structures playlist is the classic C and C++ introduction, and freeCodeCamp’s 9-hour Data Structures – Full Course Using C and C++ puts that material in a single video. For problem practice after that, Striver’s A2Z course is the most complete free path.

Can you learn data structures and algorithms from YouTube alone?

Yes, the free material is good enough to pass most coding interviews, but only if you practice. Watching solutions feels like progress while teaching you very little; solve each problem yourself on LeetCode or the NeetCode and Striver sheets first, and watch the video only after you have tried. A paid course mainly adds structure, graded exercises and a certificate.

How long does it take to learn DSA from YouTube?

Plan on roughly three months at 8 to 10 hours a week to cover the core topics and work through a list like the NeetCode 150. Striver’s A2Z sheet lists about 131 hours of content across 20 modules, and MIT’s 6.006 is a full university semester. Interview readiness depends more on how many problems you have solved than on hours watched.

Is LeetCode free?

LeetCode’s problem library and its weekly contests are free; LeetCode Premium adds company-tagged questions and premium-only problems. See our guide to what LeetCode’s free tier includes.

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