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I've been asked to recommend a resource (on-line, book or tutorial) to learn Algorithms (in the sense of of the MIT Intro to Algorithms) for non-CS or Math majors. Obviously the MIT book is way too involved and some of the lighter treatments (like OReilly's Algorithms in a Nutshell) still seem as if you would need to have some background in algorithmic analysis. Is there resource that presents the material in a way that developers who do not have a background in theoretical computer science will find useful?
I think the best way to learn algorithms are through the various competition sites.
USACO - my personal favorite, as it gives a clear path through the material
TopCoder - already mentioned
Sphere Online Judge - great if you want to work in another language other than C/C++/Java
As far as books, the best single intro I've seen for the non-math specialist is Data Structures and Algorithms. It takes you through an algorithm line by line and shows you how it decomposes mathematically, something CLRS's otherwise excellent analysis section is a little less clear on.
Skiena's Algorithm Design Manual is also excellent, as is his Programming Challenges, which is essentially a tutorial through the Valladolid Online Judge.
Honestly, though, I think the single most helpful thing a beginner can do is to implement the various algorithms -- merge sort, say, followed by Quicksort -- and time them against variously sized inputs. Create a spreadsheet with a graph that shows their growth over time. Very few non-specialists will have the patience or the know-how to set up a recurrence relation and solve their way through it. But you must understand the effect of, say O n^2 growth over time, and there's no better way to learn this than to watch your own program blow through its memory stack. :)
I say this as a non-CS, non-math programmer who has spent a good couple of months wrapping my mind around algorithmic analysis.
I'd go for the Algorithm Design Manual, by Steven Skiena. It's very readable and starts with the basics in an easy-to-understand way. For example, it explains big-O notation very well. The emphasis is on practical application, which is a big bonus for beginners coming from a non-theoretical field.
The second half of the book is a reference of common algorithm problems and practical approaches to their solutions. I found it invaluable as a learning aid, and now as a reference.
I'm not sure which MIT book you're referring to, but the canonical text is CLRS. I don't think it really assumes any background besides high school math.
Personally, I found doing TopCoder algorithm competitions over the course of the past few years to be the best way for me to learn common algorithms and put them into practice. Perhaps you should try the same. Whatever you do, I suggest that you spend a lot more hands-on-keyboard time implementing things you learn than head-in-book time, because that's the way to really internalize different techniques.
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I want to improve my programming skills, when I participate in some programming competition I feel that every challenge is so tough that i can not solve it,I have good knowledge of coding but I fell to decide the algorithm needed to solve particular problem for that can anyone tell me which books to read
I would suggest first to get comfortable with programming language of your choice. Once you have confidence on your language and Data structure, you can proceed confidently for any programming challenges. Make a habit of writing complete code with all edge cases handled on a sheet of paper rather than simple pseudo code for your practice session.
Now to solve algorithmic problem first to grasp elementary algo functioning via book or online resources. If you are using coreman (good book for algo) then you might want to understand basic concepts of different sorting techniques, heap, queue, hashing, greedy and dynamic algorithm. For some topic i would recommend to research online as well - like dynamic programming and hashing. Almost 70-80% interview questions are either hashing or DP based. Then look for major examples and their solution for these algorithm. Once your mind will set up you would be able to think quickly for any algorithmic problem.
Introduction to Algorithms by Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest , Clifford Stein is a good one to start with.
Covers almost everything, from graph theory to geometric algorithms and all related data structures, furthermore they use the commonly used "Big O" notation to indicate the efficiency of the algorithms explained. Most of the time multiple algorithms are presented for the same problem, together with their advantages and disadvantages.
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I have found numerous data-structures on wikipedia, also have also looked into several books in data-structures and found that they vary. I want to know what are the basic or minimum list of data-structure knowledge a new CS graduate should have?
Also is it necessary to know their implementation in more than one programming knowledge considering there is a difference in the implementation. If i know the implementation of Linked list in C should i know its Java based implementation?
It would be great if you could help me understand categorically:
Basic datastructures(necessary for a CS grad)
Advanced Datastructures
Edit : i am more interested in the list of data structures.
Have a look at Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen et al. In my experience, if you know what is in there you are set for anything coming at you.
I would not consider knowing any implementation very useful. If you know the basics you should be able to implement your own version quickly, but chances are you will never have to because there are libraries for that. So the rule for practice is: know your libraries!
Even so, it is important that you know properties of data structures (e.g. space overhead, runtimes of central operations, behaviour under concurrent accesses, (im)mutability, ...) so you will always use the one best suited to your task at hand.
This question is really a little too broad, even the way you've narrowed it down, because it depends on what sort of future path you're looking at. Grad school? PhD track? Industry? Which industry?
But as a rough minimum, I'd say, take a look at CLRS (as Raphael suggests) and pick out the following:
Linked lists, and the variations like stacks, queues, etc.
Basic heaps
Basic hash tables
Trees, especially including binary search trees, and preferably familiarity with at least one self-balancing BST
Graphs, both matrix-representation and adjacency list representation
And probably some more based on what sort of job you're looking for. As someone on a PhD track... well. All of them. At some point you will take a qualifier and be expected to know most of them.
Check out the MIT's OCW Intro to Algorithm Course It is great tutorial theoretically.
For practicing data structures in Java check : Data Structures & Algorithms in Java by Robert Lafore, it is excellent.
Implementation in one language is sufficient, but try to solve it in structured-oriented language like C and OO language like Java/ C++. This will help a lot while preparing for interviews.
One good resource for basic data structures in C : here
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I'm planning to invest some time every week studying data structures and algorithms.
Do you recommend: "MIT Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd Edition" by Cormen, Leiseson, Rivest and Stein?
AFAIK this book is legendary but I don't know its target audience.
Is this book suitable for my purpose? or it is for academic studies? is it loaded with heavy math?
For Java I recommend Algorithms in Java, Parts 1-4 by Robert Sedgewick. And the companion book Algorithms in Java, Part 5: Graph Algorithms by Robert Sedgewick.
For general studies I also have the Introductions to Algorithms books, it is a good general reference. This Algorithms, Fourth Edition by Robert Sedgewick looks good as well, but probably covers a lot of stuff already in the previously mentioned books.
For Clojure, you will probably need to get a Functional based Algorithm book. Pearls of Functional Algorithm Design looks like it might be a good companion to a the more general procedural books.
It has a fair amount of math and mathematically oriented material, but most of the math isn't all the "heavy" (though, of course, definitions of "heavy" vary). It is fairly academic -- if your interest is primarily in learning algorithms from a purely practical viewpoint (e.g., what algorithm to apply in a given situation) it may be rather overkill for your purposes (though I don't have an immediate recommendation of anything that's dramatically better for that kind of use either).
The Algorithm Design Manual by Steve Skiena
You'll probably find this book useful - it has very little emphasis on theory but a lot on the how/what/where/why without delving into too much of math. The author talks about the applications from his experience - so you get to see a practical bent. A light read but a LOT to read!
Introduction to Algorithms is a very good book. You can read the book and follow the video lecture series available at AcademicEarth.org.
But if you want to learn it with a specific language (C, C++ or Java), you can pick any of the data structures and algorithms books by Mark-Allen Weiss, Robert Lafore or Robert Sedgewick.
I read Computer Algorithms by Horowitz and Sahni, its quite easy to follow with enough examples and pseudo codes.
In addition to Cormen, I'd recommend reading Purely Functional Data Structures, if you're using both Java and Clojure.
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I know C and C++ and I have some experience with Java, but I don't know too much about Algorithms and Data Structures.
I did a search on Amazon, but I don't know what book should I choose. I don't want a book which put its basis only on the theoretic part; I want the practical part too (probably more than the theoretical one :) ).
I don't want the code to be implemented in a certain language, but if is in Java, probably I would happier. :)
Don't buy any book use
MIT OCW
.
Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen et. al. is a standard introductory algorithms book, and is used by many universities, including my own. It has pretty good coverage and is very approachable.
And anything by Robert Sedgewick is good too.
I think introduction to Algorithms is the reference books, and a must have for any serious programmer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Algorithms
Other fun book is The algorithm design manual http://www.algorist.com/. It covers more sophisticated algorithms.
I can't not mention The art of computer programming of Knuth
http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html
If you want the algorithms to be implemented specifically in Java then there is Mitchell Waite's Series book "Data Structures & Algorithms in Java". It starts from basic data structures like linked lists, stacks and queues, and the basic algorithms for sorting and searching. Working your way through it you will eventually get to Tree data structures, Red-Black trees, 2-3 trees and Graphs.
All-in-all its not an extremely theoretical book, but if you just want an introduction in a language you are familiar with then its a good book. At the end of the day, if you want a deeper understanding of algorithms you're going to have to learn some of the more theoretical concepts, and read one of the classics, like Cormen/Leiserson/Rivest/Stein's Introduction to Algorithms.
If you don't need in a complete reference to the most part of algorithms and data structures that are in use and just want to get acquainted with common techniques I would recommend something more lightweight than Cormen, Sedgewick or Knuth. I think, Algorithms and Data Structures by N. Wirth is not as bad choice even in spite of it was printed far ago.
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I would like to learn about games (strategy) algorithms especially about how do
enemies algorithms works ?
Is there any good place for beginners?
There are many aspects for AI in strategy games, but keep in mind that there is a big difference between Realistic AI and AI that makes a game fun to play. Cheat where you can while not making it obvious to the player that the enemy is cheating.
AI Game Programming Wisdom books
http://www.aiwisdom.com/
AI Game Programming Wisdom
AI Game Programming Wisdom 2
AI Game Programming Wisdom 3
AI Game Programming Wisdom 4
Also gamedev.net has a huge collection on AI articles and a good forum with lots of information. (http://www.gamedev.net)
Game Programming Gems feature a section on AI as well, but when AI is what you want, go with the AI Game Programming Wisdom books.
Here is an overview on RTS specific articles: http://www.aiwisdom.com/ai_genrerts.html
Also look at Pathfinding, possibly some neural networks / genetic algorithms when you want to play with that, although it might be a bit overkill when you're just starting out.
Firstly you need to learn about AI. Secondly it comes down to designing an algorithm that has the computer compete against a human player (it has goals and actions to complete the goals)
This may be a good start.
Wow, that's quite the question.
I'd start with the O'Reilly book, 'AI for Game Developers'.
Also explore the Game Programming section on Amazon.com. There's a lot out there on strategic computation, game theory, random responses, etc.
For beginners, I'd really recommend Mat Buckland's Programming Game AI by Example
It is very easy to follow and I've found that it provides an excellent starting point for Games AI.
However, as the posters above have previously said, the field of game AI is incredibly broad and more and more academic AI techniques are being introduced as the hardware advances. The AI Game Programming Wisdom books are very, very good, detailing techniques from various real world examples.
For beginners Udacity is a great place to start. It provides many on-line courses for free. The Algorithms and Introduction to AI courses may be particularly useful in this case.
Once you have a basic understanding of algorithms and AI you can move to more advanced resources.