Grokking Algorithms, Second Edition

1 Introduction to algorithms

In this chapter

• You get a foundation for the rest of the book.
• You write your first search algorithm (binary search).
• You learn how to talk about the running time of an algorithm (big O notation).

An algorithm is a set of instructions for accomplishing a task. Every piece of code could be called an algorithm, but this book covers the more interesting bits. I chose the algorithms in this book for inclusion because they’re fast, or they solve interesting problems, or both. Here are some highlights:

• Chapter 1 talks about binary search and shows how an algorithm can speed up your code. In one example, the number of steps needed goes from 4 billion down to 32!

• A GPS device uses graph algorithms (as you’ll learn in ...