Striver's A2Z DSA course or Love Babbar's DSA series? Teaching style, language, structure, problem sheets, and how to choose for placements.
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If you are preparing for placements in India, you have almost certainly been told to "do Striver" or "do Babbar." Both teach data structures and algorithms for free on YouTube, both come with well-known problem sheets, and both have helped many students crack interviews. The real differences are teaching language, structure and how much hand-holding you want. This page compares them honestly.
| Striver (Raj Vikramaditya, takeUforward) | Love Babbar (CodeHelp) | |
|---|---|---|
| Main resource | A2Z DSA course and sheet, plus the SDE Sheet | DSA course playlist in C++, plus the 450 DSA sheet |
| Language of teaching | Mostly English | Mostly Hindi |
| Code language | C++ and Java (solutions often in multiple languages on the site) | C++ |
| Style | Problem-first: brute force, better, optimal for each problem | Concept-first, building from basics with lots of dry runs |
| Strength | Structured progression, very strong on recursion, DP, graphs | Beginner-friendly, motivating, covers C++ basics too |
| Website support | Articles and problem pages for each sheet item on takeUforward | Sheets and resources linked from the channel |
Striver's signature approach is to solve each problem three ways: brute force, a better approach, and the optimal approach, explaining the time and space complexity of each. That is exactly how you are expected to talk in an interview, so watching it repeatedly trains the right habit. The A2Z sheet is organized step by step, from basics (patterns, maths, arrays) through binary search, linked lists, recursion, trees, graphs and dynamic programming. His recursion, DP and graph playlists in particular are widely considered among the best free explanations of those topics. **Tradeoffs:** If you are a complete beginner to programming, the pace can feel fast. The sheet is long, and trying to finish all of it before an approaching placement season is unrealistic for many students.
Love Babbar's DSA course starts closer to zero, including C++ fundamentals, and explains concepts in Hindi with detailed dry runs on a whiteboard. For students who are new to coding or more comfortable in Hindi, that lowers the barrier a lot. His energy and motivational style keeps many students going. The 450 DSA sheet is a widely shared list of practice problems grouped by topic, and works as a practice checklist alongside the videos. **Tradeoffs:** Videos are long, and the course moves through basics more slowly, which can feel repetitive if you already code. The course and sheet are C++-focused, so Java or Python users need to translate.
- **New to programming, comfortable in Hindi:** start with Love Babbar for C++ and early DSA. - **Already know a language, want interview-style thinking:** Striver's A2Z. - **Weak at recursion, DP or graphs specifically:** Striver's dedicated playlists, whichever course you started with. - **Java user:** Striver, since many solutions on takeUforward include Java. - **Short on time before placements:** Striver's SDE Sheet, which is shorter and focused on frequently asked problems. Mixing is fine, as long as you have one main sheet you are tracking. Switching sheets every month resets your progress.
About 2 hours a day, which is typical for students preparing alongside college. - **Weeks 1 to 2:** Language basics, complexity analysis, patterns, basic maths. - **Weeks 3 to 5:** Arrays, strings, hashing, sorting, binary search. - **Weeks 6 to 7:** Linked lists, stacks, queues. - **Weeks 8 to 9:** Recursion and backtracking. - **Weeks 10 to 11:** Trees and binary search trees. - **Weeks 12 to 13:** Graphs. - **Weeks 14 to 16:** Dynamic programming, then mixed revision and timed practice. Do problems on LeetCode or GeeksforGeeks after each topic, without looking at the solution for at least 20 to 30 minutes.
DSA courses run to hundreds of videos and hundreds of problems. Two trackers help: one for the videos and one for problems (the sheet itself). For the video side, paste the playlist into Filow to get per-video progress, timestamped notes (useful for marking the exact moment an approach clicked) and flashcards you can review before interviews.
Striver is better for interview-style problem solving and advanced topics; Love Babbar is better for beginners and Hindi speakers. Both are good choices.
It covers the DSA most companies test, but you also need timed practice, core CS subjects like DBMS, OS and networks, and projects.
Either is fine. C++ is popular for competitive programming because of the STL; Java is common in Indian service and product companies. Use the language you are most fluent in.
With about two hours a day, three to five months is typical to cover core topics and do enough practice.
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