The Algorithm Design Manual

This book contains a large number of problems that is the only redeeming quality with this book. And also the algorist site has solutions to many problems which helps a lot. Now that i have listed out the good points let us start with the negatives. If you are looking to understand why something is something this is definitely not the book to use. Let me illustrate with an example paragraph from the book :"How much time does this algorithm" ( calculation of fibonacci series ) "take to compute F(n)? Since Fn+1/Fn =phi= (1+ sqrt(5))/2 =1.61803, this means that Fn > 1.6n. Since our recursion tree has only 0 and 1 as leaves, summing up to such a large number means we must have at least 1.6n leaves or procedure calls! This humble little program takes exponential time to run. "This is an actual text from the book trying to explain the complexity of calculating fibonacci series numbers, also an example of how not to write a paragraph to explain something. How did the sqrt of 5 come about what is with Fn+1/Fn and what is this greek symbol phi. Maybe i am not as smart enough to read this and make sense out of, but then again this is a personal opinion.Another passage for heapsort :"Power in any hierarchically-structured organization is reflected by a tree, where each node in the tree represents a person, and edge (x,y) implies that x directly supervises (or dominates) y. The fellow at the root sits at the “top of the heap."I struggled to figure out how a heap is different from a tree, why cant the same be stated simply and then allow for more analysis of how things work out, this is again a personal opinion and maybe smarter people can understand and use the same.All i am saying is data structures and algorithms is a reasonably difficult subject in its own, without the additional complexity introduced in this book. My free advice to the author would be to explain what exists or what can be a trivial or brute force solution to a problem, differentiate clearly how the new approach is different and try to integrate the same into the trivial solutions correctness. Please do not make me jump to another section of the book for more explanation when the said section has more concepts which have not been introduced until now, if i knew all the terms used in the later section why would i be reading this book ?

Some books (like IL Finar for Organic Chemistry, and Cormen for Algorithms) are the quarries of knowledge. You mine and find more and more knowledge. Read these books only if you have enough understanding of what it takes to write an algorithm (or mechanism).Another category of books give you a basic understanding of subject. This book is that kind. It helps you understand why algorithms work the way they do. One thing, which I like in the book is, the book describes the way the author sees the world, and author never shies from telling how he was wrong at a point, and how quickly he mended his ways.Algorithms are like mathematics. It does not matter how many questions you solve, you can still go wrong at places. You still have things to learn. Algorithms are no different. It is ok to write wrong or sub-optimal algorithms. It is ok to do mistakes. It is always laudable to correct your course and understand why two seemingly similar things are inherently different. This usually adds to the insight about life. This adds depth instead of horizon, the latter can be added later.

Skiena is absolute ace. Explanations are accurate and to-the-point, coverage of topics is amazingly broad without being overwhelming, there are plenty of solved examples, and the exercises are very good. The book may not be for the beginners though, but would be an excellent second book. The best part is that the second half of the book is devoted entirely to a catalog of problems one is likely to encounter in practice - and very detailed discussions of approaches to solve them. This alone makes this book immensely valuable (besides making it much more practical and applied than any other algorithms book on the market).Be sure however to implement the algorithms though, otherwise you will not see your skills improve. Especially use it in conjunction with TopCoder, CodeChef etc. and see your skills skyrocket.I know for a fact that this book is rated very highly at places like Google, so if you can work through this book well, you might very well be on your way to such places. Good luck !

This is an excellent book and every guy with a CS / Software background would know this by now. Some thoughts on why I bought Hard Cover - the 1k price one is an "Indian Edition" yellow tint version with missing pages. This hard cover is from Springer and of high quality. Only gripe about the book is the errata list - Jesus!. The list is so long that you kinda look at the list when go through every page. At least it is updated.This is a good book to give you a background about Data Structures and Algorithms. Some basic math knowledge is required.

This book is a combination of theoretical knowledge accompanied by sets of practical questions on each subject. I have just started reading this book but I am sure if some one reads it completely with some dedication then no one can stop him/her from grabbing a position in any of the IT giants (I too have bought it with the same objective in mind :D)Last but not the least this is not a paperback version, the pages are white soft and clear as feather :) All the best and happy reading.

I bought from the first time seller The BookShop 10. It’s really a good quality book. This is hard cover so may be that’s why. As you see book was well packaged but still I received it little damaged at both the corners so reducing the stars by 1.Book has really a descriptive and understandable and simple language. Loved the way author has showed the Algorithms world to us.

i already have a ebook copy of the book, just received my copy.this book is a must have for any algorithm enthusiast.But then the copy which i got had some of the pages crushed andthe cover bent with lots of scratches at the back. the sides of thebook was dirty, i generally treat my book with utmost care. this is disappointing :(

Good book for intermediate level of data structures and algos

Don't buy this book expecting a very detailed and mathematical approach to each algorithm.However, this book provides an excellent catalog of algorithms, very handy if you need to revisit topics you have forgotten (or read about things you may have missed). It's indeed helpful if you prepare for a tough interview.Beware of bugs in the code though. It's best to implement each solution yourself anyway.

I read the first edition of this book back in University and bought a new copy for my girlfriend who's learning programming, it's as good as I remembered.The text is very accessible to read and the pictures help to visualise and understand what's going on.

Bought because advertised over the web as a good book to prepare for a tough job interview but the book is not good, it is simply not rigourous and you will find it poor if you have already studied the subject elsewhere.My main objection to it is that it strives to be a popular book when in fact the subject is highly technical - no matter how you try to slice it.

Great compilation of problems, written in an easy to understand matter. Code examples are very useful.

É uma das melhores escolhas para quem procura aprender a desenvolver algoritmos, as explicações são concisas e bem organizadas, possuem imagens para facilitar a compreensão e relatos das aplicações dos algoritmos no mundo real. Os códigos de exemplos são escritos na línguagem C com uma fonte semelhante a das IDEs e editores utilizados pelos programadores. O livro está dividido em duas partes uma com toda a fundamentação teorica da construção e analise de algoritmos e outra com uma espécie de "guia do mochileiro de algoritmos" categorizando os problemas, estruturas de dados em capítulos e explicando soluções para eles.