How long does DSA take on YouTube? 10 courses timed

Watching a free data structures and algorithms course on YouTube takes between 10 and 115 hours, depending on the course. We measured ten of the most recommended ones on 20 October 2026, counting every video to the last. The four placement series, Striver's A2Z, Love Babbar's C++ and Java courses and Apna College's C++ course, take 70 to 115 hours each.

At 1.5× speed and an hour a day, the longest of them, Striver's A2Z, is 77 days of watching: 11 weeks, before you count the time spent solving problems. The shortest complete course, mycodeschool's Data structures, is 10 hours.

Every course, measured

Ranked by total. "1.5×" is the total watched at one and a half times speed, and "Avg" the average video.

Course	Videos	Total	1.5×	Avg
Striver's A2Z	315	115 h	76 h	22 m
Babbar: C++	149	96 h	64 h	39 m
Babbar: Java	121	72 h	48 h	36 m
Apna College	144	70 h	46 h	29 m
Jenny's Lectures	121	44 h	29 h	22 m
MIT 6.046J	34	39 h	26 h	70 m
MIT 6.006	32	35 h	24 h	66 m
CodeWithHarry (Hindi)	92	32 h	21 h	21 m
Abdul Bari	84	24 h	16 h	17 m
mycodeschool	42	10 h	7 h	14 m

Totals are rounded to the hour; Striver's A2Z is 114 hours 33 minutes exactly. Private and deleted videos are left out: one in A2Z, two in Babbar's Java series and one in Jenny's. Each course name opens its live page, where the total is current and you can tick off what you have watched. The same ten are on our list of free DSA courses, with notes on who each suits.

Three kinds of DSA course

The ten fall into three groups, and the group tells you more about the time it will take than the instructor does.

Placement series, 70 to 115 hours. Striver's A2Z, Babbar's C++ and Java courses and Apna College's C++ course teach each data structure and then work through interview problems one at a time. That is why they are long. A2Z has the most videos by far, 315, but they are short, 22 minutes on average; Babbar's C++ course has fewer than half as many videos, 39 minutes each on average, and ends up 18 hours shorter.

Algorithms courses, 24 to 39 hours. Abdul Bari's Algorithms and MIT's 6.006 and 6.046J explain why algorithms work: complexity, recursion, divide and conquer, dynamic programming, graphs. MIT's are filmed lectures of about an hour each, so they suit a long sitting better than a commute. They are usually taken after a coding-first course, not instead of one.

Data structures first, 10 to 44 hours. mycodeschool (10 hours), CodeWithHarry's Hindi course in C (32) and Jenny's Lectures (44) teach the data structures themselves, with less of the interview-problem practice. They are where a first-year student starts.

Minutes a day before placements

The question most people are really asking is whether a course fits before their placements or interviews. These are the minutes of video a day each placement series needs at 1.5×, every day, to be finished in one, two, three or six months:

Course	1 mo	2 mo	3 mo	6 mo
Striver's A2Z	153	76	51	25
Babbar: C++	129	64	43	21
Babbar: Java	96	48	32	16
Apna College	93	46	31	15

These are minutes of video. DSA is learned by solving problems, not by watching someone else solve them, and A2Z is built around a problem sheet for that reason. Treat the numbers as the floor and plan your practice time on top: a course that needs 50 minutes of video a day is a study day of well over an hour.

Three months at under an hour of video a day is enough for any of the four. One month means two to two and a half hours of video a day for A2Z or Babbar's C++ course, before any practice; if that is where you are, a shorter course and a problem list is the more honest plan. The exam date guide works back from a fixed day in more detail.

Check the total covers every video

Some playlist length tools add up only the first 100 videos and stop without saying so. On these courses that makes a large difference: the first 100 videos of Striver's A2Z come to 39 hours, a third of its 115. Babbar's C++ course would come out at 74 hours instead of 96, and Apna College's at 53 instead of 70. If a total looks short for a course with more than 100 videos, here is how to check it.

Plan the one you choose

Paste the course's link on the home page, or click its name in the table above, and set your daily minutes in the planner: it gives you a finish date and the videos for each day, and you can put the sessions in your calendar. Tick each video as you finish it and the time left updates; the course stays in your list on the home page, so you can pick it up where you stopped. Watching at 1.5× saves a third of the time on explanations, and less on code-alongs, where you pause anyway (what speed costs →). The guide to finishing a long course has the method for keeping a plan going past week two.

Frequently asked

How many hours is Striver's A2Z DSA course?

114 hours 33 minutes over 315 videos, measured on 20 October 2026, with one unavailable video left out. At 1.5× that is 76 hours; at an hour a day, 77 days. The playlist's own page here shows the current total.

How long does it take to complete DSA for placements?

The placement series take 70 to 115 hours to watch, so about three months at 30 to 50 minutes of video a day at 1.5×. Add your time for solving problems on top; that is where the learning happens.

Is Love Babbar's course shorter than Striver's?

Yes. Love Babbar's C++ Placement DSA course is 96 hours over 149 videos; Striver's A2Z is 115 hours over 315. Babbar's Java series is 72 hours, and Apna College's C++ DSA course is the shortest of the placement series at 70.

Can I learn DSA in one month from YouTube?

You can watch a short course in a month: mycodeschool's data structures (10 hours) or Abdul Bari's Algorithms (24) fit with room for practice. A full placement series in a month means one and a half to two and a half hours of video every day at 1.5×, before any problems.

Why might a total differ from the playlist today?

These totals were measured on 20 October 2026. Creators add and remove videos, and videos go private. Each course's page here, and the DSA list, shows the total as it is now.