Book Image

50 Algorithms Every Programmer Should Know - Second Edition

By : Imran Ahmad
4 (5)
Book Image

50 Algorithms Every Programmer Should Know - Second Edition

4 (5)
By: Imran Ahmad

Overview of this book

The ability to use algorithms to solve real-world problems is a must-have skill for any developer or programmer. This book will help you not only to develop the skills to select and use an algorithm to tackle problems in the real world but also to understand how it works. You'll start with an introduction to algorithms and discover various algorithm design techniques, before exploring how to implement different types of algorithms, with the help of practical examples. As you advance, you'll learn about linear programming, page ranking, and graphs, and will then work with machine learning algorithms to understand the math and logic behind them. Case studies will show you how to apply these algorithms optimally before you focus on deep learning algorithms and learn about different types of deep learning models along with their practical use. You will also learn about modern sequential models and their variants, algorithms, methodologies, and architectures that are used to implement Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT. Finally, you'll become well versed in techniques that enable parallel processing, giving you the ability to use these algorithms for compute-intensive tasks. By the end of this programming book, you'll have become adept at solving real-world computational problems by using a wide range of algorithms.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: Fundamentals and Core Algorithms
7
Section 2: Machine Learning Algorithms
14
Section 3: Advanced Topics
20
Other Books You May Enjoy
21
Index

What is an algorithm?

In the simplest terms, an algorithm is a set of rules for carrying out some calculations to solve a problem. It is designed to yield results for any valid input according to precisely defined instructions. If you look up the word algorithm in a dictionary (such as American Heritage), it defines the concept as follows:

An algorithm is a finite set of unambiguous instructions that, given some set of initial conditions, can be performed in a prescribed sequence to achieve a certain goal and that has a recognizable set of end conditions.

Designing an algorithm is an effort to create a mathematical recipe in the most efficient way that can effectively be used to solve a real-world problem. This recipe may be used as the basis for developing a more reusable and generic mathematical solution that can be applied to a wider set of similar problems.

The phases of an algorithm

The different phases of developing, deploying, and finally, using...