Is it recommended to know how to create an array (data structures in general) from scratch?

[HarrisonHemstreet]

I noticed while reading through this page that the approach for using an array native to the language is explained, but the topic of creating an array from scratch is not explored.

Is it recommended to take time to learn how to implement every data structure from scratch? Or should we spend more time on learning the strategies for solving the associated algorithm problems instead?

I'm just wondering what the better use of time for prepping for coding interviews would be. Thanks!

[jhondoe2233]

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[yehiarasheed]

Well, I'm no expert on this matter but my personal opinion is that you do need to know how every data structure is implemented (as in the complex ones like List, Stack, Queue and so on) and having an array is probably as basic as it gets you probably don't need to know how that works too. However, that's the way that I've learned Data Structures in university, which is by first talking about the Data Structure as a concept (or a black box), talking about how it behaves, what would you expect from it (ex: you would expect to have a method that tells you if the Data Structure is empty or not isEmpty() which returns a boolean value, you would expect to have a method to insert an item insert(Object x), another one to remove an item remove(Object y) and so on). Then the professor went on and implemented the Data Structure that was being explained using the only Data Structure that we knew at the time aka. an Array. We continued to do it this way till the end of the course but the fact that these data structures were implemented internally using lists in order for them to be actually dynamic was established many times, especially after we took how lists work in the second half of the course. And that is in my opinion the best way to approach Data Structures, or even regular algorithms (That is given that you like to understand how the Data Structure or Algorithm works, you'll automatically know how it is implemented and the reasoning behind it and so on).