Грокаем Алгоритмы

Open up the picture book and you will immediately see that algorithms are easy.

Algorithms are just step-by-step algorithms for solving problems, and most of these problems have already been solved, tested and verified by someone. You can, of course, plunge into the deep philosophy of the brilliant Knuth, study the multi-page tomes with evidence and justification, but do you want to spend your time on this?

About the book

I (Aditya Bhargava) first of all strived to make the book easy to read. I avoid unexpected turns; every time a new concept is mentioned in a book, I either explain it right away or say where I will explain it. Key concepts are reinforced with exercises and repeated explanations so you can test your assumptions and make sure you are on track.

The book contains many examples. My goal is not to dump a bunch of obscure formulas on the reader, but to simplify the visualization of these concepts. I also believe that we learn best when we can remember something we already know, and examples help refresh our memory. So when you think about how arrays are different from linked lists (Chapter 2), just think about looking for company seats in a movie theater. By now, you've probably figured out that I'm a visual learner - the book is full of pictures.

The content of the book has been carefully thought out. It makes no sense to write a book describing all sorting algorithms - there are sources such as Wikipedia and Khan Academy for this. All the algorithms described in the book are of practical value. I've used them in my programming job and they provide a good foundation for learning more advanced topics.

Who is this book for?

This book is intended for readers who know the basics of programming and want to understand algorithms. Maybe you've already run into a programming problem and are trying to find an algorithmic solution.

Or maybe you want to understand where algorithms can come in handy. Below is a short and incomplete list of people who might find the book useful:

- self-taught programmers;

- students who started to study programming;

- graduates wishing to refresh their memory;

- specialists in physics / mathematics / other disciplines interested in programming.