Vision for AlgoEspresso
AlgoEspresso : A Fresh Beginning ☕
Three years ago, I took my first deep dive into Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA), not because I had a sudden love for binary trees or recursion (let’s be honest, who does at first?), but because I had a goal—to join A2SV.
For those unfamiliar, A2SV (Africa to Silicon Valley) is an organization that trains and connects African talent to opportunities in top tech companies. I had seen others go through the program, land dream internships, and build incredible careers, and I knew I wanted to be part of that journey.
I spent months grinding LeetCode, Codeforces, and HackerRank, determined to pass the entrance test. Eventually, I joined A2SV, spent over a year mastering DSA and system design, and later, I became a teacher there, mentoring the next generation of engineers. It was a transformative experience—one that made me realize something important.
The Problem with Learning DSA
Through my time as both a student and a mentor, one thing became clear: DSA is taught in the most uninspiring way possible.
- Walls of text and dry explanations.
- Zero real-world applications to make concepts click.
- No visuals, just abstract code that looks like an ancient spell.
(I may have excaggerated a bit there, but it’s hard to find a solution that clicks all the boxes)
One algorithm that gave me a particularly hard time? Bellman-Ford. I had to dig through countless YouTube videos, articles, and forums before I finally had an “aha!” moment. And that’s when it hit me—learning DSA shouldn’t be this painful.
Introducing AlgoEspresso ☕ – Learning DSA, But Better
That’s where AlgoEspresso comes in. I’m building THE place to learn DSA. Not just another tutorial site, but a structured, interactive, and highly visual learning platform that takes you from zero to hero. Instead of just dumping information, it will guide you step by step, using animations and interactive examples to break down complex concepts. Let’s users solve problems and run them against testcases, and evaluate their performance.
Why name it “AlgoEspresso”?
Simple. I love coffee. Some call it an addiction, I call it passion. Just like a good espresso kickstarts your morning, AlgoEspresso will give learners a sharp, clear understanding of algorithms—without the sluggishness of traditional learning methods.
What Makes It Different?
I thought depply on this, what can I do different what’s something that is missing. Then I saw this video made by a great youtuber and software engineer Marko. He built a digital book to learn concepts in software development and the cherry on top is that they’re filled with with cool interactive animations like the one below.
Well I want to do that take this inspiration and apply it to DSA concepts. Another thing is I want to make every thing in it, every lesson, every question free to access. The project is going to be Opensource. Anyone can contribute, or suggest improvements.
Oh one more thing I forgot perhaps is flexibility interms of themes, fonts and the like. They should also be personalizable. Leetcode’s recent new UI redesign is sort of forced and now the option to revert to old UI is gone. I want my looks customizable to the liking of the user.
The Long-Term Vision
In the long run I want AlgoEspresso to be the go-to to learn DSA, weather it’s for begineers or for those brushing up, prepping for an interview. Contest is a features I aim to build later on.