The data structures and algorithms you use critically affect two factors in your applications: Memory usage (for data structures). CPU time (for algorithms that interact with those data structures).

Learn when and how to use different data structures and their algorithms in your own code. This is harder as a student, as the problem assignments you'll work through just won't impart this knowledge.

Building fast and highly performant data science applications requires an intimate knowledge of how data can be organized in a computer and how to efficiently perform operations such as sorting, ...