Divide and Conquer, Sorting and Searching, and Randomized Algorithms

Stanford University via Coursera

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Provider

Coursera
Pricing

Free Online Course (Audit)
Languages

English
Certificate

Paid Certificate Available
Duration & workload

4 weeks long, 17 hours worth of material
Sessions
Level

Intermediate
Subtitles

Arabic, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, Russian, English, Spanish

A Best Course of All Time

Found in

Algorithms and Data Structures Courses

Part of

Algorithms

Overview

Class Central Tips

The primary topics in this part of the specialization are: asymptotic ("Big-oh") notation, sorting and searching, divide and conquer (master method, integer and matrix multiplication, closest pair), and randomized algorithms (QuickSort, contraction algorithm for min cuts).

Syllabus

Week 1

Introduction; "big-oh" notation and asymptotic analysis.

Week 2

Divide-and-conquer basics; the master method for analyzing divide and conquer algorithms.

Week 3

The QuickSort algorithm and its analysis; probability review.

Week 4

Linear-time selection; graphs, cuts, and the contraction algorithm.

Taught by

Tim Roughgarden

Reviews

4.7 rating, based on 68 Class Central reviews

4.8 rating at Coursera based on 5010 ratings

Start your review of Divide and Conquer, Sorting and Searching, and Randomized Algorithms

Dhawal Shah @dhawal

Dhawal Shah completed this course, spending 12 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be medium.

This course helped me get a job. Before doing this course, I had trouble clearing technical interviews. Infact, I couldn't even clear the phone interviews. "Algorithms: Design and Analysis, Part 1" was instrumental in clearing my first technical interview...

This course helped me get a job. Before doing this course, I had trouble clearing technical interviews. Infact, I couldn't even clear the phone interviews. "Algorithms: Design and Analysis, Part 1" was instrumental in clearing my first technical interview and helped me get a job as a Software Engineer in Silicon Valley.

Just to be clear, this course alone isn't enough to clear technical interviews. What it did was strengthen my basics in Computer Science, due to which I was able to leverage a lot of online content and algorithm textbooks. Trying to prepare for technical interviews by googling "technical interview questions" doesn't get you anywhere. If you are asked a question that you haven't seen before, coming up with an answer won't be easy. But if your basics are good you will have set of tools to evaluate and come up with a reasonable solution.

Every week there is a programming assignment. The assignment are usually direct implementation of an algorithm or data structure and can be done in the language of your choice. This further reinforces the concepts taught in the lectures.

Tim Roughgarden is an excellent teacher and the course videos are quite portable. I carry those videos on my tablet and occasionally watch them if I feel I need to brush up a particular topic. At the time of writing this review a new version of the course hasn't been offered for a while, but the course videos are open to everyone.
Henrik Warne @henrik

Henrik Warne completed this course, spending 10 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be medium.

I took courses on algorithms and data structures when I went to university, and I really enjoyed both of them. Since then I have been working as a software developer for more than 20 years, so I thought it would be interesting with a refresher. I am...

I took courses on algorithms and data structures when I went to university, and I really enjoyed both of them. Since then I have been working as a software developer for more than 20 years, so I thought it would be interesting with a refresher.

I am quite familiar with several of the concepts taught in this course, for example: big-O notation, quick sort, merge sort and hash tables (I use those pretty much every day). But there were several other concepts that I was not familiar with: I had never heard of the Master Method (for finding the big-O performance of recursive algorithms), and even though I studied some graph algorithms and heaps (the data structure), I had forgotten most of it.

The course turned out to be excellent! The lectures were very clear, and explained the different algorithms really well. And the combination of quizzes and programming problems (five in total), really made me learn the material. The programming assignments all involved implementing algorithms discussed in the course. Even though they consisted of pretty straightforward implementations, you had to take care (as always in programming) to get all the details right.

I still think it is pretty amazing to have access to this many great courses for free. It was definitely a valuable course for me. I learned a lot and I enjoyed both the lectures, the quizzes and the assignments. The only caveat is that it does require quite a time commitment. I spent at least 10 hours a week on the course. All in all a great course!
Martin Rožnovják

Martin Rožnovják completed this course, spending 8 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be hard.

This was my very first course of algorithms, I had had some experience with programming before. The course was moderately challenging - I would say right at my limits but not overwhelming thus making the most out of its content - I wish I would learn...

This was my very first course of algorithms, I had had some experience with programming before. The course was moderately challenging - I would say right at my limits but not overwhelming thus making the most out of its content - I wish I would learn with this efficiency on every course.
The content was much broader compared to syllabuses of other similar courses and has always been clear and to the point (no unnecessary prolonging empty words) so it made me thing about it and learn giving me only a little chance of the so-called 'illusion of competence.'
The assignments (programming and quizzes) were very appropriate and have solidified the knowledge.

So I can't wait for its second part, hope it will be as good as this one :)
Wei En

Wei En completed this course, spending 4 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be medium.

Professor Roughgarden has done a great job in explaining the content. I've finally understood what big-O notation, etc. means, after taking this course. The lack of interactive visuals (which I find to be necessary for studying how an algorithm works) may bother you.

The exercises are quite well done and provide a few challenging questions. Additionally, there are theory problems in the course pages which are optional and gets students to think creatively.

In general, this is a great introduction to algorithms, if you're not particularly bothered by the lack of interactive visuals.
Eli Bendersky

Eli Bendersky completed this course and found the course difficulty to be very easy.

The teacher is pretty good – I actually enjoyed watching the lectures and wasn't bored, which is unusual with me when it comes to lectures. I really liked the "optional" videos (watched them all). Not sure whether they would have been taught in the real...

The teacher is pretty good – I actually enjoyed watching the lectures and wasn't bored, which is unusual with me when it comes to lectures. I really liked the "optional" videos (watched them all). Not sure whether they would have been taught in the real course, but they add a lot.

It took me, on average, 15-30 minutes per week for the "dry" (problem sets) part, and another 15-30 minutes per week for the "wet" (programming questions) part. This is way, way too little. The exam was extremely easy. It took me less than an hour to solve (out of 3 allotted hours), and the handful of points I lost are due to pure sloppiness (mis-reading one of the questions).

To conclude, I really enjoyed taking the course, and big thanks to Tim Roughgarden and the course staff for offering it and investing effort into making it enjoyable. I will be seriously considering enrolling in the follow-up Part II in late summer.
Tian Qiu

Tian Qiu completed this course, spending 6 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be hard.

This a good intro to algorithms course for those who already have some exposure to programming. The aim of the course is to introduce some classic algorithms and show us the toolbox of algorithms design and analysis by giving very detailed analysis on...

This a good intro to algorithms course for those who already have some exposure to programming.
The aim of the course is to introduce some classic algorithms and show us the toolbox of algorithms design and analysis by giving very detailed analysis on them. With what is taught in this course in mind, it is much more easier to learn other new algorithms since I now know how to think about them and how to do the analysis( or at least have a basic idea on how analysis should be carried out).
Quizzes and programming assignments are not trivial. Cracking them requires solid understand of the course content. Since no specific codes are provided, how hard the programming assignments are really depends on the previous coding experience.
The book written by the professor is also good. Clear and organized.
Five Star. Highly recommended!
Sai Charan

This course will introduce you to the basic elements of academic information seeking - we will explore the search process from defining a strategy to evaluating and
documenting your search results.
Shubham Agarwal

Shubham Agarwal completed this course, spending 7 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be medium.

It is one of the must course one should do to achieve expertise in Data Structure and Algorithms. The instructor Tim Roughgarden, one of the best instructor i have ever seen. The methodology and material is awesome. And i will advise to complete all the assignments to get the best of the course.
square-B

square-B completed this course and found the course difficulty to be hard.

I thought this was a great learning experience. I would certainly recommend Coursera and this class specifically, to anyone. Be prepared as this course will take up A LOT of your time and it can be VERY challenging. Having said that, if you put in the work and tough it out, you will learn a lot. I know I did.
Jiting Tian

Jiting Tian completed this course, spending 12 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be hard.

This is an introductory course on the principles of computational algorithms, but, it's very hard. The related mathematics is challenging and the concepts are difficult to understand. However, the teacher has cleverly cut the materials into small pieces and provide them in a gradual and clear way, so students can master the materials finally if they have taken great efforts to study it.
Shubham Agarwal

Shubham Agarwal completed this course.

Great course. Worth spending time. Not only videos by Tim are awesome but also the programming assignment and problem sets. If properly and seriously done, can improve your algorithmic skill to a great extent in just one and half month.
Jeffrey Yun (Haoyu)

Jeffrey Yun (Haoyu) completed this course, spending 8 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be medium.

I took the Algorithms specialization during my winter break of my 2nd year as an Computer Science student in college, after taking introductory data structures + algorithms classes and developing a competitive programming hobby.

Tim Roughgarden is an amazing instructor, and the Algorithms specialization is one of my all-time favorite MOOCs.
Luiz Cunha

Luiz Cunha completed this course, spending 10 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be hard.

In my top 3 MOOC.
Great content and delivery by Prof. Roughgarden on a rather dry topic.
The videos are great quality.
The assignments are very challenging but interesting.
I just wished this MOOC would be longer
Anna K

Anna K completed this course, spending 2 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be medium.

This course requires too much time to watch the videos.. Several hours of videos per 1 week, and the lecturer gets repetitive and some information is not necessary.. Sorry, did not fly with me...
Anonymous

Anonymous completed this course.

The course is very good, but it is focused on providing proofs of correctness and running time of algorithms, and so it is more theoretical than applied. Still, I learned a lot about algorithms in this course!
Anonymous

Anonymous completed this course.

Hard but worth every penny. Got to learn more from this course than every other algorithms courses i've taken. Don't expect to be spoonfed, and expect to do background reading. Wonderful!
Anonymous

Anonymous completed this course.

Excellent course, great teacher and challenging assignments fun to do. I definitely enjoyed the course and learned a lot.
Anonymous

Anonymous completed this course.

Very much worth the time. I especially enjoyed the programming assignments as they made very clear the dramatic impact algorithm improvements can have when operating on large data sets. The professor made video lectures more engaging than I thought would be possible. I just finished Part 1 and will be taking Part 2 when it starts.
Anonymous

Anonymous completed this course.

Landed my first job all thanks to this wonderful course. Programming assignments were a little tough at times but nothing that can't be handled. Probably one of the best online courses available for learning algorithms and data structures.
Anonymous

Anonymous completed this course.

I took this course in Summer 2012 (2nd iteration). Lectures were great. Everything was on time. Programming assignments and problem sets were very insightful. Definitely recommend this course.