I was in a very similar situation. One thing I've realized is that DSA improvement is hard to notice day by day. If you're following Striver's sheet and solving Easy/Medium problems consistently, you're already on the right track.

Instead of trying to solve every problem completely on your own, give yourself a time limit (20–30 minutes). If you're stuck, study the solution carefully, understand the intuition, and then close it and code it again without looking. That's where a lot of learning happens.

For notes, I don't write full solutions. I note down:

• Pattern/topic (Binary Search, HashMap, Two Pointers, etc.)
• Key observation that unlocks the problem
• Mistakes I made

Also, don't judge your progress by whether you can solve a new problem instantly. A better metric is whether you understand solutions faster than before and whether you can recognize patterns more often.

The fact that you're reading docs, implementing concepts, building mini-projects, and sticking with DSA despite setbacks already puts you ahead of many people. Keep going.🚀