If your near-term target is TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, or Accenture, grinding LeetCode-hard dynamic programming is mostly wasted effort. Mass recruiters hire at huge scale, so their process optimises for fundamentals, aptitude, and basic coding under time pressure — not exotic algorithms. Knowing this saves you weeks.

The mass-recruiter bar is "can you write correct, simple code and pass the aptitude + verbal sections," not "can you solve a hard graph problem." Over-indexing on hard DSA here is a classic misallocation.

What the rounds actually look like

• Aptitude — quantitative, logical reasoning, verbal. Often the biggest filter. Practise this as seriously as coding.
• Coding — 1–2 problems on arrays, strings, basic math, patterns, loops, and simple logic. Occasionally a basic data structure. Rarely hard.
• Pseudocode / MCQ (TCS NQT style) — reading and reasoning about code, output prediction, basic complexity.
• Verbal / email writing — yes, really. Don't skip it.

The DSA you actually need

Priority	Topics
Core	Arrays, strings, basic math, patterns/loops, simple recursion, sorting/searching
Helpful	Hash maps, basic linked lists, stacks/queues
Skip (for now)	Hard DP, advanced graphs, segment trees, tricky greedy

Where to spend your time

Roughly: aptitude 40%, basic coding 35%, pseudocode/MCQ + verbal 25%. If you're also targeting product companies later, build the deeper DSA after you've cleared the mass-recruiter basics — the foundation transfers, the over-preparation doesn't transfer backwards.

For the deeper product-vs-service split, read service vs product company DSA prep. When you're ready to specialise by role, SUITS reorders the curated sheet so you drill the right patterns first — and the most important DSA topics post covers the shared foundation every track needs.