Algorithms Illuminated: Part 1: The Basics by Tim Roughgarden (PDF)

Description

Algorithms are the heart and soul of computer science. Their applications range from network routing and computational genomics to public-key cryptography and database system implementation. Studying algorithms can make you a better programmer, a clearer thinker, and a master of technical interviews. Algorithms Illuminated is an accessible introduction to the subject—a transcript of what an expert algorithms tutor would say over a series of one-on-one lessons. The exposition is rigorous but emphasizes the big picture and conceptual understanding over low-level implementation and mathematical details. Part 1 of the book series covers asymptotic analysis and big-O notation, divide-and-conquer algorithms and the master method, randomized algorithms, and several famous algorithms for sorting and selection.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐As an introductory algorithm book, this book explains everything in detail. Reading this book make you feel like you are talking to the author.

⭐Seriously… his algorithms courses on Coursera completely changed the way I looked at and thought about problems and concepts in computer science. The theoretical foundations he helped me establish even assisted me in landing my dream job straight out of university at one of the world’s largest tech companies!In my four years of undergrad computer science education I never once had a professor who was able to clearly distill the essence of algorithms and data structures, or even instill the motivation for why it’s so important to master these concepts in the way that Roughgarden did.What I loved the most about his teaching style was being walked through a curated list of the “greatest hits” of computer science while being shown what it was about those key insights about a certain algorithm or technique that could be exploited in a more general form to solve whole classes of similar problems. I think this is one of the things I’ve noticed lacking in a lot of modern education; the primitives are taught, but usually in an unimaginative format, and the mindset/ability to compose those primitives to solve more complex problems is never really cultivated.My only advice for anyone working through this book is to have patience and be persistent. This style of analysis/thinking may be very different than what you’re used to if your experience in the education system was anything like mine in North American public schools – but it will pay off. Roughgarden even recommends referring to the free lecture notes of Mathematics for Computer Science in the beginning of the book if you need a refresher. You can also find forums where you can discuss math topics all over the internet, use them!I will be recommending this book to anyone who’s looking to establish a more rigorous understanding of the foundational concepts of computer science. I’m confident that this series will eventually become known as one of the “greatest hits” in computer science literature : )

⭐I took his courses on coursera and have notes from the course, I bought the book(s) for keepsake.The book is for you, if you prefer reading to video. Reading is faster especially for reference.The examples are great at illustrating the algorithms. This is for you if you want to fully understand the algorithms and implement them yourself. If you like a recipe book there are better books. It also expects you to write your own code but it gets easier after you work on implementing a few algorithms since you will get to re-use code.It is great to listen to the professor and catch some excitement about the algorithms so you may want to watch the lectures anyway and use the books as reference. He has maintained the conversational tone in the book as well but it is great to see on the video.The course is not meant to be comprehensive, but you will get the essentials and be really confident of the algorithms you learn. So this won’t be the only book you will need for algorithms, as the professor himself claims. As the title says it is about illustrating the algorithms.

⭐EDIT: The book does come with all solutions, see the comment under the review.Good book, but to learn algorithms, you have to do lots of practice! At the ends of each chapter, he has a few questions, but only 1 or 2 of these questions have answers to them. The VAST majority of questions don’t have answers, so how are you supposed to know if you understand or not???Here’s the kicker: To get the answers to all the questions, you have to pay $50 a month to take his course on Cousera. Thus this book serves as a way to get people to pay for this cousera course. A scam! This book should be enough to stand on its own, not to lure people into paying $50 a month for an online course.On the plus side, however, are the videos that the author provides. They are very helpful and are free online.

⭐I think that the book provides a great introduction to the topic, and I quite like how the author strikes the balance between theory and illustration of the concepts using concrete examples. That said, there is one major issue with this book — the problems at the end of each chapter are essentially useless as there are no answers or even hints to verify that you have actually understood the topic. I find it particularly funny that the author calls these sections ‘Test Your Understanding’ and then does not provide the answers (what? :).To be fair, you could ask for a hint in the discussion forum of the book, e.g. “I’m thinking that I should do x,y,z to solve the problem. Am I right?”, but you will never know the final answer. The reason for such a policy is that the author also has a Coursera class and uses problems from the book there. Downside: I guess you will have to pay for the certificate version of the class to know the answers to the problems. Upside: it is helpful to watch him present the material on Coursera and then double down by reading the book.In the end, I wish there was an explicit disclaimer about this situation. I hope that later issues of the book (and later books in the sequence) will have an independent set of problems.

⭐Prof. Roughgarden is my all-time favorite instructor. His style is clear, concise, humorous, and direct to the essence of algorithms, 5 minutes can make clear what my instructor failed to for a semester. Prof. Roughgarden has impacted me profoundly on three levels. First, he made the algorithm knowledge clear and I may owe my future job to him. Second, he ignited my passion for algorithm, math, and general computer science, the journey is so fun guided by a charming master. The third level inspiration was his direct-to-the-essence minimalist philosophy, things get simple after you know the essence and only in this way can you hold more. Thank you so much Prof. Roughgarden and Merry Christmas!!!

⭐This is a clear introduction to some of the basic theory of algorithms. It is built around several practical examples (mergesort, quicksort and others) that are explained clearly and whose performance is analysed clearly. Someone with almost no mathematical background, and who had never seen an algorithm before would probably give this book five stars. However, for anyone else it is painfully slow and long-winded.

⭐Tim runs a great course on Coursera and this book is a companion to it, but can be studied separately.4 stars instead of 5 as it does not seem to contain any extra information to that presented in the course.

⭐Tim Roughgarden has to be my favourite teacher of all time. I’ve taken his Coursera course (which is highly recommended) and was one of the most enjoyable yet challenging courses I’ve taken online or offline at any institution.Tim really has the knack for teaching which is so rare to find in mathematics and the sciences. Go buy the book and study every page and you’ll be well rewarded for your efforts.

⭐I am doing a PhD in Machine Learning and found this series Amazing! The exposition of the topics is soo smooth. Manages to convey complex topics in very understandable way. I have the whole series.

⭐I can’t even read the sample because the Kindle edition isn’t compatible with e-ink Kindles.

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