Algorithms

"The book presents some very basic algorithms, using Java. It’s written by two authors I’ve worked with in grad school at Princeton. There are two main books on algorithms used in universities, and this is one of them. They both present the same important algorithms that you’ll need to know, but this one does it in a much more approachable way. Every algorithm you see in the book is also implemented in Java, so if you want to run it, you can copy the code and execute it yourself. I like that it’s so practical. It doesn’t bog you down in mathematical terminology and proofs, which I also like. I wouldn’t recommend sitting on the couch with this one, because you’ll need to be a bit more proactive. But as far as algorithm books go, this one is pretty approachable. I would say it’s also helpful if you’re going to go for programming interviews. They usually ask you to either write some algorithm or piece of code, and reading this book beforehand would be very useful to get ready. That’s a great point. Algorithms sound like something mysterious, but they’re not. They’re recipes, with a series of steps to go from an input to an output. It’s very simple, and there is nothing mysterious or malicious about that. If you’re going to learn computer science, or if you want to start programming, you should learn something about an algorithm at some point. And even the general public should know that there’s nothing crazy going on with algorithms, even though that word is being thrown around without much meaning attached to it. It’s very straightforward, in the same way that you would bake using a recipe, or build a piece of Ikea furniture."