Algorithmic problem solving

What Hacker News says

1. jpamataMay 2023
   A book that has a similar style to this one (teaching algorithm design) and my personal favourite is Algorithmic Problem Solving by Roland Backhouse.

   It just teaches algorithmic problem solving via math, but unlike mathy algorithmic books like CLRS, you only need algebra for this one.

   I like how the book, IIRC, starts with invariants, providing the reader the foundational skill needed to notice underlying patterns and to decompose problems.

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2. jonsenJul 2018
   Ad 1) Two five-star reviews on amazon UK:

   https://www.amazon.co.uk/Algorithmic-Problem-Solving-Roland-...

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3. bmerMay 2016
   E. Hehner has a course called "Formal Methods for Software Design", which he presents completely openly online (including video lectures, a textbook, solutions, and so on): http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hehner/FMSD/

   I really liked it.

   I also liked R. Backhouse's approach to it, encapsulated in two books:

   1) less playful: http://www.amazon.com/Program-Construction-Calculating-Imple...

   2) more playful: http://www.amazon.com/Algorithmic-Problem-Solving-Roland-Bac...

   If you are looking for motivation, you might also like: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/pubs/p...

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   I found Dijkstra's stuff to be easier to read after I had read books by Hehner/Backhouse, even though chronologically, Dijkstra came first.

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