At the most basic level, algorithms are a bunch of if-then statements taking place in a computer very quickly to give you an outcome: If you do A then you get B. If you do C instead, then you get D.

you’d have a monster string of numerals that would stress this simple program. And I’d need hundreds of pitches before I could even attempt to crack it.” The good news for algorithm junkies ...

It covers basic algorithm design techniques such as divide and conquer, dynamic programming, and greedy algorithms. It concludes with a brief introduction to intractability (NP-completeness) . We will ...