Algorithms, by Jeff Erickson

Solutions were stepping stones to my success. I am mature enough to not be tempted without trying out the problem. I sleep over it and then at last looking at the solution, if I ever find myself at my wit's end. That is because I have a firm understanding that there is no shortcuts to success. Having come from a third world country where cheating on oneself is delaying even the basic resources to get a job, I was raised with peers finding the 'peeping at solutions' an abhorrent act. Its a big shameful thing to do in my culture.

Solutions are the way I learn the thought process of author if he arrived at the final answer in a better way. Solutions expose errors in questions. Errors and typos in Indian texts were way more a common place in questions than in solutions. There was simply not a chance for a solution to have typo or logical errors.

If there are no solutions, I'd simply put it for later until I am proficient in the subject and want to try out the problems with confidence. There is always this insecurity when it comes to dealing with logic. Little things can slip in abstract thinking pretty easily. Silly mistakes take a toll. People like myself prefer to solve problems individually at our own pace. Solutions are a must for me. Of course, that 'later' almost always never comes.

I love how he offers the mnemonic http://algorithms.wtf

Bravo, Jeff!

Hi, I'm the author.

I'm honestly seriously torn about this. There is a serious tension between pedagogical needs of students in formal classrooms and the pedagogical needs of self-learners. I've chosen to aim for the former. Yes, I know it's a bummer.

(From experience) providing solutions interferes with the learning process of my own students at Illinois. I have to change up homeworks and exam questions every semester, because otherwise students will look up and copy/memorize the answers instead of trying to figuring them out, which means they do worse on the exams where they HAVE to figure things out.

Also, a significant majority of the requests I get for solutions are from university students who want to cheat.

I do provide solutions to the homework and exam and lab problems I assign in any particular class, after the fact. (And I release those solutions publicly, despite the protests of colleagues at other universities, until the semester ends.) And I have started proving model solutions in the homeworks, so that the students know what kind of answers I'm looking for. (See the course materials page, under CS 374.)

In practice, my stance is becoming increasingly moot, as more of my official solutions get uploaded to places like CourseHero and Koofers and their many foreign-language equivalents.

I am very likely to include solutions for a subset of problems (maybe three or four per chapter) in a future edition. But that will take a significant amount of time, and I wanted to get something out the door.

I managed to get a A- in Ericsson’s 373 as an undergrad (grads took the same class but had their own curve) in 2001. Great class, great experience, great teacher. Pushed me to do algorithms at a difficulty I didnt hunk possible.

I would agree that words like "obvious" or "trivial" can be disheartening to a learner.

If it's obvious to the reader, they know it whether or not you tell them it's obvious. If it's not obvious to them, then they will try to figure it out. Telling this person "it's obvious" only serves to make them feel bad about not getting it right away.