Algorithms Illuminated
Accessible, no-nonsense, and programming language-agnostic introduction to algorithms. Part 3 covers greedy algorithms (scheduling, minimum spanning trees, clustering, Huffman codes) and dynamic programming (knapsack, sequence alignment, shortest paths, optimal search trees).
Stats for nerds
9recommend
10mentions
10people
2018–2026years
90% recommend10% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- This post resonates with me. As a book-lover and collector, I prefer my books to be of high quality, long lasting, and beautiful to hold and look at. If I'm spending $ or $$$ on books, I want to get a good reading experience, and that often starts with both the quality of paper as well as the print.
Like the OP himself (hi Alex), I'm also frustrated with the quality of books (many of which are print-on-demand) from Amazon.
Case in point: Algorithms Illuminated by Tim Roughgarden (https://algorithmsilluminated.org/). Great set of books, but poor quality, sadly. All printed on demand.
Ditto with Sebastian Raschka's (early) books from Packt Publishing (Python Machine Learning). Great content, but poor printing (very low contrast, etc).
This is not a debate on ebooks vs paper books, or PDF vs something else. It's about quality of printed books.
I paid $$$ for Kevin Murphy's _Probabilistic Machine Learning_ from MIT Press. Excellent quality paper, great printing. It's a keeper. I'll be reading it years from today. Just as I read (and have) books from decades ago. I might pass 'em on to somebody well deserving, not junking them to recycle.
Like OP, I want my books and my library to be long lasting. It's a joy. And I'm happy to pay a higher price if needed.
- Algorithms Illuminated by Tim Roughgarden really helped me understand algorithm design and analysis. Used it to prep for a masters in computer science, with no previous degree in the area.
https://www.algorithmsilluminated.org/
The author even shares free video classes and other extra material.
- Perhaps Algorithms Illuminated (Roughgarden).
- As an alternative, you could pick up “Algorithms Illuminated” by Tim Roughgarden. Get the Part 1 book, read it casually a few times to get a sense of what’s in there, then go back to the beginning and start slogging through the exercises. Don’t hesitate to look for stuff on Google and YouTube when you’re stuck, but keep reviewing as much as necessary until you’ve legit learned the material.
This is the approach I’m taking. Too soon to say if it’s working out yet. I’m thinking long term rather than getting a job offer at X company in Y months. There might be other books that work better for you than the one I recommended. I’m also in my 30s and have a job I’m more or less satisfied with currently.
- "Algorithms Illuminated" by Roughgarden. Very accessible. Reads like a novel not a textbook. Has exercises throughout the chapter to test knowledge. I recommend it over your suggestion that you want a textbook. This book will serve you much better.
- Im not good at maths but to get my work done this books helped me a lot:
https://www.amazon.de/Problem-Solving-Algorithms-Structures-... If I remember correctly it is Python 2
https://www.amazon.de/Algorithms-Illuminated-Part-1-Basics/d...
https://www.amazon.de/Algorithms-Illuminated-Part-Graph-Stru...
https://www.amazon.de/Algorithms-Illuminated-Part-Dynamic-Pr...
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