Reddit reviews Algorithms
We found 8 Reddit comments about Algorithms. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Reddit reviews AlgorithmsWe found 8 Reddit comments about Algorithms. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Algorithms by Robert Sedgewick. I find it clearer and easier to understand than Intro to Algorithms (CLRS)
This book is excellent, but it can be a little dense for beginners. I personally recommend: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004P8J1NA/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o04_?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Algorithms-4-Robert-Sedgewick-ebook-dp-B004P8J1NA
I learned mostly through reading textbooks in University, but not many of the books we were assigned stood out as being particularly great. Here's a few that I did enjoy:
To balance things out, I'll also give a list of books I thought were awful:
Because for some tasks you really do need to know whether a bucket sort or a quicksort is more appropriate. For some tasks, you really do need to know whether to use a Set or a List, and knowing the difference can occasionally save you from reinventing the wheel.
If you're looking for a great book to study that covers all these practical topics, check out Algorithms by Robert Sedgewick.
Looking for this book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004P8J1NA/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=algs4-coursera-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004P8J1NA
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Will pay $5 via PayPal.
Algorithms are not an indicator of how good a programmer you are. Yes, algorithms are how you solve problems and it feels bad when you can't figure out the algorithm, but there's a million different algorithms that could potentially do the job, each with different constraints like time complexity, memory space taken during execution, initial order of the input data etc. If you're issue is not being able to solve a problem because you can't figure out what algorithms to use, you're actually already half way to the solution and further ahead than about 50% of my IT class. I'm in college right now and a lot of students don't even get to the point where they realize they need an algorithm to solve the problem, they just sit there and freeze and hope someone helps them or get a TA. While it's great to be able to solve algorithms on the fly, how about you not try to reinvent the wheel/rediscover a textbook's worth of human knowledge? There are literal textbooks which just contain different algorithms for different purposes: https://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Algorithms_4-Robert-Sedgewick-ebook/dp/B004P8J1NA/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=algorithms&qid=1554225551&s=books&sr=1-3 (This one btw is used in a college CS course). Being able to memorize and/or recreate every algorithm in this textbook is not good programming (although I will say anyone who could recreate each algorithm independently is actually a genius). Being able to understand an issue and its constraints, and having a base of knowledge enough to either solve it immediately or help guide you to a new concept that would solve the problem is the ideal for being a programmer.
Take this challenge for example: https://www.codingame.com/training/medium/skynet-revolution-episode-1
I know I need a certain type of path-finding algorithm which always finds the shortest path for me to cut. I don't know what algorithm it is though since I've never learned about it. I could spend 10 hours rediscovering whatever algorithm is needed that was invented decades ago. Or I could be a smart, take the hint from the problem that a breadth first search is needed, and start learning about that to eventually solve the issue without trial and error. Over time, after completing multiple challenges, you'll accumulate the knowledge required to solve most problems as you are already familiar with all the algorithms required. And if you can't, that's just an opportunity to learn something new.
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Start of with hackerrank if you want the basics. Then proceed to leetcode. Start with easy questions, then medium and hard.
Refer to these links:
Algorithms
Intro to Algorithms
Algorithms Design Manual