10.4 Practice Problems
Let's dive into some practice problems that will help solidify the concepts we've discussed in this chapter. By working through these problems, you'll gain a deeper understanding of how algorithms are applied in various real-world scenarios.
Problem 1: Algorithms in Databases
You are tasked with designing a database system for a library. The library has a collection of thousands of books, each with a unique identifier, title, author, and publication date. You need to design a system that allows library staff to:
- Add a new book to the collection.
- Find a book by its unique identifier.
- List all books by a particular author.
Describe what kind of data structures and algorithms you would use for each operation and explain why.
Solution:
- To add a new book to the collection: This is a simple insertion operation. The books can be stored in a database table where each book is a record. In terms of data structures, you might use an array or a...