Questions tagged [algorithms]
This tag is for questions about presenting specific algorithms or general principles of algorithmic design and analysis to students. It IS NOT for questions about writing or fixing algorithms.
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When mentoring individuals, teach clean coding and simple/effective thinking or let them do it their way?
I have a background of 20+ years professional coding, but my heart is really in teaching. About three years ago, I started tutoring ages grade 6 through adult in coding topics.
introduction to coding ...
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How can I help my students to think algorithmically?
I teach 13-14 year old boys an "Introduction to Computer Science" course. For most of them, it is their first structured coding experience.
Before we even touch an IDE, I have them walk through ...
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Is it a good idea to teach algorithm courses using pseudocode instead of a real programming language?
I am a young professor teaching a data structures course for the first time. I'm teaching at an engineering college that provides an academic degree, but the focus is preparing future computer ...
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Difficulty of algorithms homework problems
I have a question for educators, from the perspective of a TA. I'm happy to post my question elsewhere if it's not appropriate for this site.
Homework problems in algorithms classes often involve ...
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Teaching algorithmic thinking without a programming language
I am to teach Algorithms and Data Structures. There are lots of books that teach how to do algorithms in language X or Y. But I would like to teach algorithmic thinking per se, independent of the ...
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What are effective approaches for teaching dynamic programming?
Dynamic programming is a subject that's notoriously difficult to learn and to teach. It's one thing to educate oneself, say by reading the appropriate chapters in Kleinberg & Tardos or CLRS, and ...
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How to bring attention to computational complexity?
Many beginners strive to solve given problems, without thinking about efficiency of solution.
Consider such Python code:
...
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Pseudocode or Flowcharts?
For GCSE CS in the UK, students have to analyse, design, code, test and review a solution to a problem.
For the design section of their project, students have to plan out the algorithm for each part ...
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How to teach algorithms: implementation or application?
One unit of CS50 AP's curriculum focuses on three main sorting algorithms: bubble sort, selection sort, and insertion sort. There is also discussion of something more efficient like merge sort. One ...
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Will you tell students that Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs now(21st century)?
Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs occurs in 1976 (in Niklaus Wirth's book). In the past, we (teachers) may usually cite this equation to emphasize the importance of algorithms/data structures.
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First project in my second year data structures intro
I am currently teaching the pretty much normal second year Data Structures and Algorithms course. In this course there are four programming projects, with the first project completed the automated ...
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Single-dimensional array and simple looping activities of significance
I give a lab on single-dimensional loops and arrays. By "single dimensional loops", I mean that there is no nesting of loops. (I will later give a second lab on multi-dimensional loops and arrays, ...
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What are good, practical labs and activities for loops?
I am teaching some high school students, also the first time programmers, some basic programming concepts and applications. When introducing loop I find that using it to check prime number (and find ...
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3
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"Computer sciency" and "practical" exercices involving dictionaries
I am teaching a course in data structures to a 2o semester.
We hear often that the dictionary is a very versatile data structure, and solves quite so many problems. I'd like to illustrate that, but, ...
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Introducing A* Search Algorithm
I created a group lab where one student makes a random maze generator, one student makes a corresponding maze solver, and the last student calls the methods created by both students and creates an ...
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How do I construct a basic lesson on computational complexity and undecidability?
Essential Understanding 4.2 of the AP CS Principles curriculum is as follows: "Algorithms can solve many, but not all, computational problems." Among the topics I am expected to cover in the context ...
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System to validate run time complexity requirements
TL;DR: Do you know of a method/system that can determine the run time complexity of code automatically?
At our university we have a system in place that allows students to submit their code and get ...
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Is there any pedagogically motivated reason to teach quadratic probing?
I'm currently preparing a unit on the implementation of hash tables for a data structures and algorithms course (this is a university-level class if it matters).
Specifically, I'm focusing on ...
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1
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Is there an online drag-and-drop interactive sort simulator?
When teaching my students about different sort algorithms, I would like to give them a virtual hand of cards to sort so they can try out an algorithm by dragging and dropping to reorder the cards. Is ...
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Looking for good Master Theorem examples
I'm teaching an Algorithms class (junior/senior level), and we've just proved the validity of the Master Theorem. I'd like some good questions on it, both for homeworks and for exam questions. Problem ...
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How to learn to solve trees, graphs questions for competitive programming
I learnt about trees and graphs from my textbooks (undergraduate level) last year.
But now I'm doing competitive programming and unable to solve questions involving these concepts.
I fail to ...
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Algorithmic Game Theory as an undergrad
I am an undergrad going into my junior year this semester. I really wanted to explore algorithmic game theory, as my university has some excellent professors in that field. However, as my undergrad is ...
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Significant algorithm from CS for DrRacket that emphasize cons, car, and cdr
When my students move up to junior year, they make a series of transitions: from programming to theoretical computer science, and from imperative to functional programming. We use DrRacket, and one ...
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First Time Learning Non-Linear Data Structures
I'm looking for effective strategies and projects for introducing non-linear data structures to students. I currently teach linked lists, stacks, and then introduce binary trees. A lot of students ...
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Suggestions to improve my algorithm coding skills
I have a PhD in computer science (A fresh graduate). My bachelor's major is similar to CS but without algorithms (It's a discipline between business and CS).
I am quite good at AI research but my ...
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How to teach algorithms in an interactive way
I am faculty of computer science. Currently, I am teaching a design and analysis of algorithms course to second-year undergraduate students. This is my second semester of teaching before this I have ...
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How to avoid misconceptions about while loop when using null loop
Is it problematic to teach students to use an empty while loop to create an until loop? If so, what learning progressions avoid ...
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What are competitive programming problems that require a tree data structure to solve them?
I want to practice my problem-solving skills that involve the usage of a tree data structure (e.g. Binary Search Tree, Heap, <...
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2
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What are some real life applications of the knapsack problems class?
Students are very happy when they see some real applications of the theory. Any suggestions for interesting examples of knapsack problems?
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Software for runnable algorithmic organigrams
I teach an algorithmics course at a level equivalent to first year of college. I discovered LARP (sorry it's in french), a software that allows to draw organigrams, run them, debug them step by step ...
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Feedback request: an assignment on programming a research paper
I am teaching an elective course on algorithms for 3rd year undergraduates. There are 12 weekly assignments, each of which is worth 1% of the grade, and a final exam which is worth 88%. I would like ...
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Example of amortized analysis of algorithms rather than data structures
Amortized analysis is often taught in algorithms classes, with the different methods (aggregate, accounting, potential). It is very important when discussing some data structures and their use in ...
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Error free solution manual for "Introduction to Algorithms" by Cormen et al. for self study or alternative method to tackle them single handed
I am a CS undergraduate student, strictly speaking I am fond of studying theoretical CS subjects, the corresponding books just attract me. Now in theoretical CS we probably have algorithm design and ...
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A real world example for the divide and conquer method
Can someone give a real world example for the divide and conquer method? For example, I've heard the boomerang used to explain the idea of a loop back address. What is a real world example we can use ...
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Any website/textbook with problems+solutions in algorithms?
I'm trying to find an online source or textbook with problems+solutions for problems in dynamic programming, number theory, graph theory, greedy algorithms, etc. Do you know of any?
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Greedy Algorithm Approach
One of the popular algorithm design techniques is the Greedy Algorithm.
Do we have real-world examples of Greedy Algorithm which we can teach Undergraduate students?
I know the famous Djikstra's ...
3
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1
answer
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Is it worth to learn to make a MD5-hash cracker?
I found a puzzling site where one puzzle was to find a string whose MD5-hash is given. Is such a puzzles good for learning? I mean, I believe that hash might be cracked by using enough computing ...
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Which is the best book for algorithms before I dive into Leetcode?
I am really interested in diving into leetcode. However, I want a solid foundation on data structures and algorithms being used to solve the problems in Leetcode. Please recommend to me some books/...
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Understanding Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd Edition
I'm taking a course on data structures and algorithms and it follows the book Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd Edition (ISBN-10: 9780262033848) by Charles E. Leiserson, Clifford Stein, Ronald Rivest, ...
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What is the closest pair problem useful for?
The closest pair problem is the famous problem of finding out the closest pair of points given an arbitrary set of points on a plane. This problem has a divide and conquer algorithm and often is used ...
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How should one go into learning algorithms and data structures? What do you think is an efficient way to do so?
Should one first understand its logic and see its implementation? Or should one try to implement it first oneself?
How should one learn so that one can quickly implement the algorithm or data ...
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Project based on game 2048
I'm thinking about an assignment based around the game 2048. This would be towards the end of a first programming course at the university level and assumes the students have been introduced to at ...
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Accounting and potential methods in amortized analysis
I am still trying to improve the understanding of amortized analysis by students (as in a previous question). In many textbooks such as the CLRS, three methods are presented: aggregate, accounting, ...
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Divide and conquer for subset sum problem
I want my students (equivalent first-year college students) to work on algorithmic paradigms during a 2 hours practical programming session in OCaml.
I chose the subset sum problem since it can ...
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Pedagogical issues with Stack Implementation
I am new to teaching the particular syllabus I have been asked to teach and I am confused by the approach given for several of the algorithms. For example the stack implementation based on the course ...
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Searching for algorithms using array, stack, queue, List or no data structure solving interesting problems
rI am a teacher in germany (high school) and I am searching for algorithms, that solve interesting problems using no data structure or linear data structures only. The goal is to motivate the students ...
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Textbook or video lectures to develope intuition for solving any unseen Graph Theory problems
Background
Hello, I am a third year undergraduate in CS. I am eager to pursue higher education from one of the best institutes in out country. For that I need to write a competitive exam, named GATE ...
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Any tools or frameworks for visualisation of algorithms?
I would like to make animation of algorithms in order for students to see the flow of an algorithm in a visual way.
Like an alternative to https://visualgo.net/en
I want to make custom animations like ...
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1
answer
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How to structure a Predictive Keyboard project similar to GBoard
Many are now familiar with GBoard, the Google / Android predictive Keyboard. I don't actually know how it works. Obviously it must gather usage data on the device where it is being used, but it ...
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Does anyone know of any reliable summary of the complexity of common data structure operations?
It seems that the most popular source on the internet on this topic is https://www.bigocheatsheet.com/:
Wikipedia and basically any other similar table I find on the internet copy this one.
There are ...
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