"Foundations of Computer Science" by Aho and Ullman is my personal favourite.
Ask HN: Looking for a book on algorithms and data structures
41–50 of 98 posts
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a book on algorithms and data structures
#42"A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms, 2nd Edition" by Jay Wengrow is one I'd recommend every time. It really makes it easy enough to understand things I previously only considered to be the domain of math-oriented people. Not sure if it goes deep enough for you though...
Yes, wholeheartedly agree. All other classic recommendations from this thread pale in comparison. Jay Wengrow did a fantastic job with this book.
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a book on algorithms and data structures
#43The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven Skiena Amazing book. Very readable. I highly recommend it. The book has a section call "War story" at the end of each chapter in which Skiena shares his real life experience of when the contents from that particular chapter came in handy for him. Go through it. You won't regret https://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Manual-Steven-Skiena...
Not OP but I’m interested in this subject as well. I took a look at this book and others that are similar and I’ve realized my foundations on math are really lacking to even understand the given examples. Since I only had the opportunity to finish my high school diploma and this was several years ago I wonder if you could have any suggestion to brush my math knowledge up in order to properly understand the examples o…
I'm not sure if this is universally true or not, but the algorithms courses at the universities I'm familiar with require a course in discrete math as a prerequisite.
You can find Discrete and Combinatorial Mathematics (an Applied Introduction), 5th Edition, Ralph P. Grimaldi online and an answer key can be found online as well. (This book covers two discrete math courses. Chapters 1-5, 7, 8, 12 is a first course in discrete math. I'm not sure what chapters the second course covers, but that requires linear algebra as a prerequisite.)
It's not perfect, but it's a start. I think you need to be familiar with some high school algebra, exponents, and logarithms. You can find some review information in the appendix. If you have troubles with recalling that information, then you can try Khan academy. (It really is an if you don't use it, you lose it situation with much of math.)
You're probably aware of this already, but most people don't read the book and come away with the knowledge required to solve the problems. You'll need to work through the examples in the chapter, be able to recall the definitions and theorems, and then work the exercises at the back of the book.
I think the discussion of proof methods is pretty poor in the book. You can find many intro to proof method type supplemental notes online to help fill in the details.
There really is so much information out there that you can pretty much always find an alternative explanation or viewpoint for undergrad level material. Many profs will post their own lecture notes, homework, and solutions. There are some math forums that have explanations. So find a book you're reasonably comfortable with and supplement it with extra material.
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a book on algorithms and data structures
#44CLRS is pretty accessible for beginners, at least as far as computer science textbooks go.
Perhaps you would benefit from pairing it with a MOOC like MIT's Introduction to Algorithms. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu...
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a book on algorithms and data structures
#45Introduction to Algorithms -Thomas H. Cormen
Grokking Algorithms -Aditya Bhargava
Cracking the Coding Interview Book by Gayle Laakmann McDowell
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a book on algorithms and data structures
#46The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven Skiena Amazing book. Very readable. I highly recommend it. The book has a section call "War story" at the end of each chapter in which Skiena shares his real life experience of when the contents from that particular chapter came in handy for him. Go through it. You won't regret https://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Manual-Steven-Skiena...
I bought the PDF last year for $7 (a very steep discount) during Apress/Springer's Black Friday sale. If you don't need the book right now or are on a budget, it may be worth waiting until next week in case they repeat the offer.
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a book on algorithms and data structures
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Since I only had the opportunity to finish my high school diploma and this was several years ago I wonder if you could have any suggestion to brush my math knowledge up in order to properly understand the examples of these books. You should really consider taking a few community college math courses if you're serious. Math is extremely difficult to learn on your own. Not only because of not knowing what you don't kn…
> You can work through the concepts and delude yourself into thinking you understand something when really you're just hand waving it I keep seeing this and I don't quite understand how this one works. If I were studying math on my own (which I've done and still do), I'd do the following: 1. Pick a book. Say, Rudin's Principles of Mathematical Analysis[0]. Read a section, then attempt problems. Pick a problem. Say, "…
> I keep seeing this and I don't quite understand how this one works.
> I don't see how the process above is delusional.
Because those that are just starting to learn math don't take your approach to learning.
I had a lot of bad habits that I had to break when I was learning math that really caused me to do poorly in many classes. If you are coming at it from a more qualitative field, then it's very easy to read the book and come away with nothing from it.
I'm taking a discrete math course and I was trying to offer up some advice on the school's subreddit to someone struggling in the class. They mentioned something about me taking the easier prof, so that's why I'm doing well. I said that I had fully worked at least 50 problems in each chapter we covered and asked how many they had done. The response was I went to lecture, read the notes once, and attempted the homework exercises; I didn't know you had to do some much work in this class.
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a book on algorithms and data structures
#48The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven Skiena Amazing book. Very readable. I highly recommend it. The book has a section call "War story" at the end of each chapter in which Skiena shares his real life experience of when the contents from that particular chapter came in handy for him. Go through it. You won't regret https://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Manual-Steven-Skiena...
It's unfortunate that it costs 77$ :(
Edit: unfortunate for me ofc.
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a book on algorithms and data structures
#49The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven Skiena Amazing book. Very readable. I highly recommend it. The book has a section call "War story" at the end of each chapter in which Skiena shares his real life experience of when the contents from that particular chapter came in handy for him. Go through it. You won't regret https://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Manual-Steven-Skiena...
It's unfortunate that it costs 77$ :( Edit: unfortunate for me ofc.
$30 used on ebay
Re: Ask HN: Looking for a book on algorithms and data structures
#50The good thing about Algorithm Design & Analysis as a topic is that there is no lack of great resources to learn from! And even better, a large portion of them are freely available online (in forms of lecture notes, or entire books, video lectures, programming challenges with online judging, etc).
In addition to what others have mentioned, here are some example resources you might prefer for a beginner-intermediate level intro:
1. (free online) Algorithms by Dasgupta, Papadimitriou, and Vazirani http://algorithmics.lsi.upc.edu/docs/Dasgupta-Papadimitriou-...
2. (free online) Algorithms by Jeff Erickson https://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/teaching/algorithms/
3. Algorithm design by Kleinberg & Tardos https://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/032...
4. Another one specifically for more applied view (esp., how they are used in programming contests such as ICPC) is Skiena & Revilla's "Programming Challenges" book (https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Challenges-Contest-Traini...). Note that this is different than Skiena's other popular book (Algorithm Design manual) which is also pretty good and has a "war story" based perspective to design of algorithms.
5. There are also several resources where lecture notes from university Algorithm & DS courses are very useful. Here is an example from my previous Professor, David Kempe: http://david-kempe.com/teaching/DataStructures.pdf
6. Several programming competition specific tutorials can be found on Topcoder: https://www.topcoder.com/thrive/tracks?track=Competitive%20P... (individual SRM archives are also good place to try problems first hand and then learn from other's approach). In general, if you search for ACM-ICPC resources, you will find a lot more targeted information/problems which will apply not only for leetcode, but also for detailed understanding of the theory too.