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Ask HN: Great and intuitive courses on Algorithms

7 points by Nib ↗ HN
Are there any awesome online courses that "Introduce" one to algorithms ? I mean, I've seen the ADuni course and one by UC Berkeley, but they're kinda old and un-intuitive.

So, shoot away people...

4 comments

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bobsadinook
http://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/content/9...
Nib
A. I've seen the book. I have a copy of it, but it's too difficult to understand and huge in sizzle. Personally, I think ADM is better than CLRS. Also, it's not intuitive and "user"-friendly. B. I asked for course recommendations, though I have this book, It's not possible for me to easily afford such books, they are way too costly and my parents won't let me spend my pocket money on them.
yzzxy
> my parents won't let me spend my pocket money on them

This sounds like a larger problem. Unless they're trying to get you to invest it or something "responsible," it seems like a red flag that someone as interested in computing as you appear to be would have parents stifling their learning.

On a more useful note, there are some good courses available on Coursera:

https://www.coursera.org/courses?query=algorithms&languages=...

Both the Stanford and Princeton intro courses there don't appear to require nonfree texts.

Also, I wouldn't worry about a course being "old." Algorithms don't really go out of style, outside of some advanced topics like concurrency and architecture-specific design. Algorithm texts from the last century (or perhaps even earlier, if you look at number theory work by ancient mathematicians) are totally useful and relevant today.