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Ask HN: Is there a good introduction to algorithms?

4 points by sdoering ↗ HN
As I try to learn new things every day, I was asking myself, why not build and sharpen my understanding of algorithms, as they clearly have the power to shape our understanding of the world.

And as I am acutally using a lot of these everyday, from smart checklists to google, I would love to learn more about them, their structures and creation.

Can you recommend me some good literature/websites, et al.?

5 comments

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dlss
Yes, search amazon.

- Art of Computer Programming is good but hard

- Algorithms by Cormen et al. is good, more accessible, but not as practical

Start with Algorithms and then advance.

If neither of those work for you, try an intro to programming book.

victorhn
Algorithmic thinking is something i did by solving a lot of ACM ICPC-style problems.

I recommend TopCoder, it is a site with about 3 algorithmic competitions by month (http://www.topcoder.com/tc), but there are also many online judges like SPOJ(http://www.spoj.pl/) or Project Euler(http://projecteuler.net/), where you can practice at any time.

If you solve a lot of these kind of problems, you will learn more about algorithms than by merely reading books.