HN Books @HNBooksMonth

I worked through this one on Dan Luu's recommendation and loved it: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0073523402

⬐ jhgb

That's one wonderfully written book.

Algorithms [1] by Robert Sedgewick is particularly well written.

Also, this one [2] is quite good and concise. I believe better suited for someone who is not unfamiliar with classic algorithms (like you).

[1] http://algs4.cs.princeton.edu/home/

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Sanjoy-Dasgupta/dp/00735234...

As an older self-taught engineer who went through interviews last year this is great advice. Other books I found particularly useful were:

Algorithms by Dasgupta, Papadimitriou and Vazirani:

http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Sanjoy-Dasgupta/dp/00735234...

And Elements of Programming Interviews by Aziz, Lee and Prakash:

http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Programming-Interviews-Inside...

Are you kidding me? The Vazirani/Dasgupta book is a joke compared to CLRS.

I learned algorithms from CLRS (as most students have), and it is bar-none, the best data structures/algorithms book on the market. The explanations are clear, detailed and rigorous.

The Vazirani/Dasgupta book does not go into as much detail. You don't believe me that this book is bad? Read some of the Amazon reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Sanjoy-Dasgupta/product-rev...

⬐ jasim

I don't see where we are disagreeing here - Vazirani/Dasgupta is not as detailed/rigorous as CLRS and that is precisely the point. The detail of CLRS comes at the cost of readability.

I'm not denying that I enjoyed learning from CLRS - but I recollect having to take more effort to parse its detailed pseudo-code than what a higher level of abstraction would've taken.

This is where a book with less detail like Vazirani can help. I would never recommend relying on a single text for studying anything - least of all Algorithms. Each of these complement the others in a nice way and being able to look at the same concept from the perspective of different authors always help.

> The Vazirani/Dasgupta book does not go into as much detail. You don't believe me that this book is bad? Read some of the Amazon reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Sanjoy-Dasgupta/product-rev....

You've pointed to the 3 one-star reviews instead of the 17 five-star reviews of the book. Was that a mistake? Joking aside, those reviews seem to be from people who've tried to use Vazirani as their sole Algorithms text. Having seen CLRS first, I've always approached Vazirani as a complement to CLRS and that worked.

Just bought this on Amazon, looks great but I still prefer dead trees for tech books. Awesome that they've released it for free online though, very cool!

Amazon Link (no affiliate): http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0073523402/ref=mp_s_a_2?pi=SL7...

⬐ almost

Whoops, seems I posted the mobile link, here's the desktop site link: http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Sanjoy-Dasgupta/dp/00735234...

And here's the uk one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Algorithms-Sanjoy-Dasgupta/dp/007352...

I had the pleasure of taking the class based around this book from Christos Papadimitriou while at UC Berkeley. It is indeed a concise and excellent book. If you see it in person you'll be surprised how short it is compared to most textbooks. I must confess, though, that some of the exercises can be absolutely maddening.

Dead tree link for those interested: http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-Sanjoy-Dasgupta/dp/00735234...