Day 2 – Diving Deeper into Matrix Operations + LeetCode Warm-up

Hey everyone, Dhairya here 👋

So yesterday I kicked off my AI/ML prep journey with a quick refresh on Python basics and the foundations of linear algebra — vectors, dot products, and matrix multiplication using NumPy. That felt like setting the stage.

Today (Day 2) I decided to build on that by exploring matrix operations and transformations — because these are absolutely everywhere in ML, from data preprocessing to deep learning.

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🔢 What I Learned Today

• Matrix operations → Addition, subtraction, and element-wise multiplication are the easy ones, but what clicked today was how these small building blocks scale into larger ML concepts.

• Transformations → I went into how matrices can transform vectors (like scaling, rotating, and projecting them). It’s cool to see how something abstract in math connects directly to computer vision and deep learning later.

• Python practice on LeetCode → To keep my Python skills sharp, I solved a few problems. It was a good reminder that ML isn’t just about libraries — you need solid problem-solving and clean coding habits too.

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🌱 Reflections

One thing I noticed is that matrix transformations are not just a “math thing” — they’re actually the language computers use to represent the world. Images, datasets, embeddings… all of these are just giant matrices waiting to be transformed.

Also, starting LeetCode again after a break was humbling 😂 — but I know sticking to a bit of daily practice will make me much stronger when tackling ML projects and coding interviews.

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🎯 What’s Next?

For Day 3, I plan to:

• I’m going to start with calculus for ML ( Derivatives, gradients)

• More hands-on coding problems to stay sharp

• Start connecting these math concepts to how ML models actually use them

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That’s it for today! Small steps, but consistent ones.

See you tomorrow for Day 3 ✨

— Dhairya

💻 Full Notebook & Practice

I’ve uploaded my Day 2 notebook (matrix operations + transformations in NumPy) here:
👉 GitHub Link – Day 2 Notebook

I’ll also keep a separate folder for my LeetCode practice solutions, so over time I can track progress there too.

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YouTube

• 3Blue1Brown – Linear Transformations

• Khan Academy – Matrix Operations

• StatQuest – Matrices and Determinants

Websites

• GeeksforGeeks – Matrix Operations in Python

• Brilliant.org – Linear Transformations

• Towards Data Science – Matrices in Machine Learning