Book excerpt: "This book does the impossible: it makes math fun and easy!" - Sander Rossel, COAS Software Systems Grokking Algorithms is a fully illustrated, friendly guide that teaches you how to apply common algorithms to the practical problems you face every day as a programmer. You'll start with sorting and searching and, as you build up your skills in thinking algorithmically, you'll tackle more complex concerns such as data compression and artificial intelligence. Each carefully presented example includes helpful diagrams and fully annotated code samples in Python. Learning about algorithms doesn't have to be boring! Get a sneak peek at the fun, illustrated, and friendly examples you'll find in Grokking Algorithms on Manning Publications' YouTube channel. Continue your journey into the world of algorithms with Algorithms in Motion, a practical, hands-on video course available exclusively at Manning.com (www.manning.com/livevideo/algorithms-?in-motion). Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology An algorithm is nothing more than a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem. The algorithms you'll use most often as a programmer have already been discovered, tested, and proven. If you want to understand them but refuse to slog through dense multipage proofs, this is the book for you. This fully illustrated and engaging guide makes it easy to learn how to use the most important algorithms effectively in your own programs. About the Book Grokking Algorithms is a friendly take on this core computer science topic. In it, you'll learn how to apply common algorithms to the practical programming problems you face every day. You'll start with tasks like sorting and searching. As you build up your skills, you'll tackle more complex problems like data compression and artificial intelligence. Each carefully presented example includes helpful diagrams and fully annotated code samples in Python. By the end of this book, you will have mastered widely applicable algorithms as well as how and when to use them. What's Inside Covers search, sort, and graph algorithms Over 400 pictures with detailed walkthroughs Performance trade-offs between algorithms Python-based code samples About the Reader This easy-to-read, picture-heavy introduction is suitable for self-taught programmers, engineers, or anyone who wants to brush up on algorithms. About the Author Aditya Bhargava is a Software Engineer with a dual background in Computer Science and Fine Arts. He blogs on programming at adit.io. Table of Contents Introduction to algorithms Selection sort Recursion Quicksort Hash tables Breadth-first search Dijkstra's algorithm Greedy algorithms Dynamic programming K-nearest neighbors