Algorithms (2019) | Hacker News Reader

Algorithms (2019)

jeffe.cs.illinois.edu

138 pointsdavikr23 comments

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Related. Others?

Algorithms by Jeff Erickson - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26074289 - Feb 2021 (152 comments)

Algorithms book, by Jeff Erickson - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20733923 - Aug 2019 (13 comments)

Algorithms, by Jeff Erickson - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18805624 - Jan 2019 (238 comments)

Algorithms, Etc. (2015) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16379236 - Feb 2018 (6 comments)

Algorithms Course Materials, by Jeff Erickson - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3345041 - Dec 2011 (2 comments)

Maybe we should just have a HN top open source technical textbooks list along with all prior discussions listed under it.

This would be awesome. Do a weekly/biweekly/monthly poll on different topics and adding the top voted entries to the list? Doesn't just have to be programming or science either, there've been some great threads with recommendations for music courses and lectures.

It's like going back to pre-google, but in a fun way.

Auto dang-bot that posts the comment he posted would be nice!

Recurring threads on HN are not limited to textbooks / resources. They're also working as intended (I think?) -- if they're getting upvotes, it's because they are bringing value to people and new to a sufficient number of readers.

As someone trying to learn new domains, I would love an HN approved list of resources for learning

HN is a good source for these. You can, of course, look up via search, but it'd be nice to have a permanent shortcut :D

Meh. I like reading posts about learning resources in the main line.

Some sort of wiki-style site would be pretty neat, but on the other hand I also appreciate how barebones hn is and how it sticks to it's single purpose pretty well. Also getting a consensus on these things might be hard.

For my graduate algorithms course, this was by far the book that fit my brain the best. Can't recommend it enough.

How does this compare to the (better-known IIANM) Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest and Stein?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Algorithms

CLRS is terse. The mistake many make is not reading it precisely. By that, I mean - read each passage once, build a mental model, then read it twice more to confirm or refute that model. Each word is there for a reason.

For a different treatment, get Tim Roughgarden’s book. Brilliant presentation.

  Table of Contents

   1. Recursion
   2. Backtracking
   3. Dynamic Programming
   4. Greedy Algorithms
   5. Basic Graph Algorithms
   6. Depth-First Search
   7. Minimum Spanning Trees
   8. Shortest Paths
   9. All-Pairs Shortest Paths
  10. Maximum Flows & Minimum Cuts
  11. Applications of Flows and Cuts
  12. NP-Hardness

Each chapter has more detailed subsections in the full TOC, but this gives an overall outline.

With the success of internet/search/gpt and package managers, these are the sorts of things that are good to know exist and have various space/time bounds but otherwise easy to look up. Some of the subsections and applications are probably good to see how a fundamental algorithm can be used different ways.

Most of my thinking time is at a higher (not deeper) level where it's mapping a problem to selected datastructures/algorithms and program design, putting the pieces together in a manageable way.

The alternative URL is http://algorithms.wtf

The book might be more aptly called 'advanced algorithms' as the prerequisites clearly indicate a need for a solid understanding of discrete mathematics, all fundamental data structures, and proficiency in basic algorithms related to searching, sorting, and graph theory.

First chapter questions:

(a) Identify (or write) a song that requires Θ(n3) time to sing the first n verses.

(b) Identify (or write) a song that requires Θ(nlog n) time to sing the first n verses.

Any ideas?

It's a good book for sure. You'll never look at your best-asymptotic fibonacci solution the same way again.

What does the cover graphic symbolize? Maybe it is stylized Arabic text...?

That's geometric / square Kufic script, but I don't know how to parse it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kufic#Square_Kufic

Yes, exactly: it looks like a highly stylised rendering of al-Khwārizmī (الخوارزمي or something like that.... spelling may not be entirely standardised), repeated 4 times at 90° rotations.

For those who aren't familiar, the word "algorithm" is derived from al-Khwārizmī's name. See page 2 of this book for details.

Maze ?

I reviewed this, it was “okay” but some part disagreed with me.

A better treatment is Tim Roughgarden. Not free, but not expensive either. Worth every penny and then some. (I learned of it from a HN commenter.)

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