Algorithmic Toolbox

About this course: The course covers basic algorithmic techniques and ideas for computational problems arising frequently in practical applications: sorting and searching, divide and conquer, greedy algorithms, dynamic programming. We will learn a lot of theory: how to sort data and how it helps for searching; how to break a large problem into pieces and solve them recursively; when it makes sense to proceed greedily; how dynamic programming is used in genomic studies. You will practice solving computational problems, designing new algorithms, and implementing solutions efficiently (so that they run in less than a second).

Who is this class for: Programmers with basic experience looking to understand the practical and conceptual underpinnings of algorithms, with the goal of becoming more effective software engineers. Computer science students and researchers as well as interdisciplinary students (studying electrical engineering, mathematics, bioinformatics, etc.) aiming to get more profound understanding of algorithms and hands-on experience implementing them and applying for real-world problems. Applicants who want to prepare for an interview in a high-tech company.

Created by:  University of California, San Diego, Higher School of Economics

• Taught by:  Alexander S. Kulikov, Visiting Professor

  Department of Computer Science and Engineering

• Taught by:  Michael Levin, Lecturer

  Computer Science

• Taught by:  Neil Rhodes, Adjunct Faculty

  Computer Science and Engineering

• Taught by:  Pavel Pevzner, Professor

  Department of Computer Science and Engineering

• Taught by:  Daniel M Kane, Assistant Professor

  Department of Computer Science and Engineering / Department of Mathematics

Basic Info Course 1 of 6 in the Data Structures and Algorithms Specialization Commitment 5 weeks of study, 4-8 hours/week Language English, Subtitles: Spanish How To Pass Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. User Ratings 4.6 stars Average User Rating 4.6See what learners said Coursework

Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.

Help from your peers

Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.

Certificates

Earn official recognition for your work, and share your success with friends, colleagues, and employers.

University of California, San Diego UC San Diego is an academic powerhouse and economic engine, recognized as one of the top 10 public universities by U.S. News and World Report. Innovation is central to who we are and what we do. Here, students learn that knowledge isn't just acquired in the classroom—life is their laboratory. Higher School of Economics National Research University - Higher School of Economics (HSE) is one of the top research universities in Russia. Established in 1992 to promote new research and teaching in economics and related disciplines, it now offers programs at all levels of university education across an extraordinary range of fields of study including business, sociology, cultural studies, philosophy, political science, international relations, law, Asian studies, media and communications, IT, mathematics, engineering, and more. Learn more on www.hse.ru

Syllabus


WEEK 1


Welcome



Welcome to the first module of Data Structures and Algorithms! Here we will provide an overview of where algorithms and data structures are used (hint: everywhere) and walk you through a few sample programming challenges. The programming challenges represent an important (and often the most difficult!) part of this specialization because the only way to fully understand an algorithm is to implement it. Writing correct and efficient programs is hard; please don’t be surprised if they don’t work as you planned—our first programs did not work either! We will help you on your journey through the specialization by showing how to implement your first programming challenges. We will also introduce testing techniques that will help increase your chances of passing assignments on your first attempt. In case your program does not work as intended, we will show how to fix it, even if you don’t yet know which test your implementation is failing on.


6 videos, 7 readings, 2 practice quizzes expand

1. Video: Welcome!
2. Reading: Overview
3. Reading: Available Programming Languages
4. Video: Solving the Problem (screencast)
5. Reading: What's Up Next?
6. Practice Quiz: Solving Programming Assignments
7. Reading: Solving the Problem: Improving the Naive Solution, Testing, Debugging
8. Video: Solving the Problem: Improving the Naive Solution, Testing, Debugging
9. Reading: Stress Testing: the [Almost] Silver Bullet for Debugging
10. Video: Stress Test - Implementation
11. Video: Stress Test - Find the Test and Debug
12. Video: Stress Test - Testing, Submit and Pass!
13. Reading: FAQ on Programming Assignments
14. Practice Quiz: Solving Programming Assignments
15. Reading: Acknowledgements

Graded: A plus B
Graded: Maximum Pairwise Product

WEEK 2


Introduction



In this module you will learn that programs based on efficient algorithms can solve the same problem billions of times faster than programs based on naïve algorithms. You will learn how to estimate the running time and memory of an algorithm without even implementing it. Armed with this knowledge, you will be able to compare various algorithms, select the most efficient ones, and finally implement them as our programming challenges!


12 videos, 3 readings expand

1. Video: Why Study Algorithms?
2. Video: Coming Up
3. Video: Problem Overview
4. Video: Naive Algorithm
5. Video: Efficient Algorithm
6. Reading: Resources
7. Video: Problem Overview and Naive Algorithm
8. Video: Efficient Algorithm
9. Reading: Resources
10. Video: Computing Runtimes
11. Video: Asymptotic Notation
12. Video: Big-O Notation
13. Video: Using Big-O
14. Reading: Resources
15. Video: Course Overview

Graded: Logarithms
Graded: Big-O
Graded: Growth rate
Graded: Programming Assignment 1: Introduction

WEEK 3


Greedy Algorithms



In this module you will learn about seemingly naïve yet powerful class of algorithms called greedy algorithms. After you will learn the key idea behind the greedy algorithms, you may feel that they represent the algorithmic Swiss army knife that can be applied to solve nearly all programming challenges in this course. But be warned: with a few exceptions that we will cover, this intuitive idea rarely works in practice! For this reason, it is important to prove that a greedy algorithm always produces an optimal solution before using this algorithm. In the end of this module, we will test your intuition and taste for greedy algorithms by offering several programming challenges.


10 videos, 1 reading expand

1. Video: Largest Number
2. Video: Car Fueling
3. Video: Car Fueling - Implementation and Analysis
4. Video: Main Ingredients of Greedy Algorithms
5. Video: Celebration Party Problem
6. Video: Efficient Algorithm for Grouping Children
7. Video: Analysis and Implementation of the Efficient Algorithm
8. Video: Long Hike
9. Video: Fractional Knapsack - Implementation, Analysis and Optimization
10. Video: Review of Greedy Algorithms
11. Reading: Resources

Graded: Greedy Algorithms
Graded: Fractional Knapsack
Graded: Programming Assignment 2: Greedy Algorithms

WEEK 4


Divide-and-Conquer



In this module you will learn about a powerful algorithmic technique called Divide and Conquer. Based on this technique, you will see how to search huge databases millions of times faster than using naïve linear search. You will even learn that the standard way to multiply numbers (that you learned in the grade school) is far from the being the fastest! We will then apply the divide-and-conquer technique to design two efficient algorithms (merge sort and quick sort) for sorting huge lists, a problem that finds many applications in practice. Finally, we will show that these two algorithms are optimal, that is, no algorithm can sort faster!


20 videos, 5 readings expand

1. Video: Intro
2. Video: Linear Search
3. Video: Binary Search
4. Video: Binary Search Runtime
5. Reading: Resources
6. Video: Problem Overview and Naïve Solution
7. Video: Naïve Divide and Conquer Algorithm
8. Video: Faster Divide and Conquer Algorithm
9. Reading: Resources
10. Video: What is the Master Theorem?
11. Video: Proof of the Master Theorem
12. Reading: Resources
13. Video: Problem Overview
14. Video: Selection Sort
15. Video: Merge Sort
16. Video: Lower Bound for Comparison Based Sorting
17. Video: Non-Comparison Based Sorting Algorithms
18. Reading: Resources
19. Video: Overview
20. Video: Algorithm
21. Video: Random Pivot
22. Video: Running Time Analysis (optional)
23. Video: Equal Elements
24. Video: Final Remarks
25. Reading: Resources

Graded: Linear Search and Binary Search
Graded: Polynomial Multiplication
Graded: Master Theorem
Graded: Sorting
Graded: Quick Sort
Graded: Programming Assignment 3: Divide and Conquer

WEEK 5


Dynamic Programming



In this final module of the course you will learn about the powerful algorithmic technique for solving many optimization problems called Dynamic Programming. It turned out that dynamic programming can solve many problems that evade all attempts to solve them using greedy or divide-and-conquer strategy. There are countless applications of dynamic programming in practice: from maximizing the advertisement revenue of a TV station, to search for similar Internet pages, to gene finding (the problem where biologists need to find the minimum number of mutations to transform one gene into another). You will learn how the same idea helps to automatically make spelling corrections and to show the differences between two versions of the same text.


12 videos, 3 readings expand

1. Video: Change Problem
2. Reading: Resources
3. Video: The Alignment Game
4. Video: Computing Edit Distance
5. Video: Reconstructing an Optimal Alignment
6. Reading: Resources
7. Video: Problem Overview
8. Video: Knapsack with Repetitions
9. Video: Knapsack without Repetitions
10. Video: Final Remarks
11. Reading: Resources
12. Video: Problem Overview
13. Video: Subproblems
14. Video: Algorithm
15. Video: Reconstructing a Solution

Graded: Change Money
Graded: Edit Distance
Graded: Knapsack
Graded: Maximum Value of an Arithmetic Expression
Graded: Programming Assignment 4: Dynamic Programming