About this Book

• Learn best by being able to recall examples we already know makes recall easier.

• This book is chock-full of images.

The first three chapters of this book lay the foundations:

Chapter 1

• Binary search
• Big O notation ：Analyze the speed of an algorithm.
  Chapter 2
• Fundamental data structures
  • Arrays
  • Linked lists
    Chapter 3
• Recursion : A handy technique used by QuickSort.

Algorithms with broad applications

• Problem-solving techniques

  • Divide and conquer (Chapter 4)

  • Dynamic programming (Chapter 9)

  • Using a Greedy algorithm instead, if there's no efficient solution. (Chapter 8)

• Hash tables (Chapter 5)

  • contains sets of key and value pairs

  • Tips to solve problems

    • Always thinking of using a hash table or modeling as a graph.

• Graph algorithms (Chapter 6,7)

  • Model a network to calculate the degrees of separation between two things or the shortest route to a destination.
    • Breadth-first search (chapter 6)
    • Dijkstra’s algorithm (chapter 7)

• K-nearest neighbors (chapter 10)

  • Simple machine-learning algorithm

• Next steps (Chapter 11)

  • Goes over 10 algorithms that would make good further reading.

Chapter 1

An algorithm is a set of instructions for accomplishing a task.

Binary search

• A sorted list of elements.

• Eliminate half the remaining possible every time.