Book Image

Hands-On Data Structures and Algorithms with Python - Third Edition

By : Dr. Basant Agarwal
Book Image

Hands-On Data Structures and Algorithms with Python - Third Edition

By: Dr. Basant Agarwal

Overview of this book

Choosing the right data structure is pivotal to optimizing the performance and scalability of applications. This new edition of Hands-On Data Structures and Algorithms with Python will expand your understanding of key structures, including stacks, queues, and lists, and also show you how to apply priority queues and heaps in applications. You’ll learn how to analyze and compare Python algorithms, and understand which algorithms should be used for a problem based on running time and computational complexity. You will also become confident organizing your code in a manageable, consistent, and scalable way, which will boost your productivity as a Python developer. By the end of this Python book, you’ll be able to manipulate the most important data structures and algorithms to more efficiently store, organize, and access data in your applications.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
14
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15
Index

Computing the running time complexity of an algorithm

To analyze an algorithm with respect to the best-, worst-, and average-case runtime of the algorithm, it is not always possible to compute these for every given function or algorithm. However, it is always important to know the upper-bound worst-case runtime complexity of an algorithm in practical situations; therefore, we focus on computing the upper-bound Big O notation to compute the worst-case runtime complexity of an algorithm:

  1. Find the worst-case runtime complexity of the following Python snippet:
    # loop will run n times
    for i in range(n):
        print("data")  #constant time
    

    Solution: The runtime for a loop, in general, takes the time taken by all statements in the loop, multiplied by the number of iterations. Here, total runtime is defined as follows:

    T(n) = constant time (c) * n = c*n = O(n)

  1. Find the time complexity of the following Python snippet: ...