Problems on Algorithms [Facsimile] [Paperback]

Ian Parberry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 8, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0134335589 | ISBN-13: 978-0134335582 | Edition: 1st

With approximately 600 problems and 35 worked examples, this supplement provides a collection of practical problems on the design, analysis and verification of algorithms. The book focuses on the important areas of algorithm design and analysis: background material; algorithm design techniques; advanced data structures and NP-completeness; and miscellaneous problems. Algorithms are expressed in Pascal-like pseudocode supported by figures, diagrams, hints, solutions, and comments.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Too often the problem sets in standard algorithm texts are composed of small, idiosyncratic units of busy-work and irrelevant questions -- forcing instructors into the time-consuming task of finding or composing additional problems. Designed to fill that gap, this supplement provides an extensive and varied collection of useful, practical problems on the design, analysis, and verification of algorithms.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1st edition (February 8, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0134335589
• ISBN-13: 978-0134335582
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,714,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A little gem of fundamental computer science, July 5, 2003

By 

James Arvo (Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Problems on Algorithms (Paperback)

This is a terrific little book, which I recommend highly to students of computer science, but above all to those who teach computer science. While I could imagine teaching a short course based on this book alone, it would be an excellent supplement to a more thorough-going text. Better still, just keep this little book around for those times when you are searching for a good homework or exam problem. It's got hundreds of them.

On the down side, Parberry's discussions are so terse that students may get somewhat frustrated if it is their only source. Yet, there is much to be said for being concise! The author wastes nary a syllable before launching into the problems, which is how he managed to pack so much into a mere 167 pages. Don't be deceived by the thickness of this book; it may look like a mere pamphlet, but it contains 651 exercises, many of which have lengthy hints and good number of which are actually worked out in detail.

The book introduces a wide range of topics from very basic (mathematical induction) to somewhat sophisticated (NP-completeness). About half of the book focuses on mathematical prerequisites such as induction, inequalities, binomial coefficients, combinatorics, graphs, Big-Oh & Big Omega, and recurrence relations. The rest of the book covers topics such as graph algorithms, searching, greedy algorithms, dynamic programming, divide-and-conquer, backtracking, program correctness, and even a chapter on NP-completeness. The latter includes a terse description of both Cook reducibility and Karp (many-to-one) reducibility. This last chapter would be a bit too dense for someone unfamiliar with these concepts, but it's a nice review with copious exercises.

There are a few things I particularly like about the book. First is the chapter on program correctness, which includes dozens of examples and exercises on loop invariants. This is a great resource in itself. Secondly, I really like the occasional "What is Wrong?" sections, where the author presents what seems to be a valid proof or argument, and the student is asked to find the subtle flaw. This is an excellent pedagogical technique.

If you're an undergraduate in computer science, the simpler exercises will be extremely useful to you. If you are a graduate student in computer science, you will gain from seeing all these fundamental topics covered so quickly, and with very clear examples. Read it before your qualifying exam! If you are a professor of computer science (like me), you may want to keep this book under wraps; it's too good a source for exam problems.

I'll close with a paraphrasing of one of the exercises in the book. This is significantly wordier than most of the problems in this book, but it's clever and is exactly the type of thing that would make a great homework exercise in an introductory algorithms class. "You are facing a high wall that stretches infinitely in both directions. There is a door in the wall, but you don't know how far away or in which direction." The problem then asks you to describe how you would find the door in O(n) steps, where "n" is the number of steps initially separating you from the door. What a cute problem!

I wish there were more volumes like this.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great supplemental text for the study of algorithms, January 31, 2006

By 

calvinnme - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Problems on Algorithms (Paperback)

This little book is a treasured member of my computer science book collection. It makes a great companion to "Introduction to Algorithms" by Thomas Cormen et al, and it is also a great refresher for students studying for the algorithms section of a computer science Ph.D qualifying examination.
The book starts with an introductory chapter which is followed by five chapters of background material on subjects that you should master before you set foot in an algorithms class. Those subjects are mathematical induction, Big-O and Big-Omega notation, recurrence relations, correctness proofs, and basic algorithm analysis. The next four chapters are organized by algorithm design technique: divide and conquer, dynamic programming, greedy algorithms, and exhaustive search. The book is rounded out with chapters on advanced data structures, NP-completeness, and a final chapter on miscellaneous subjects that do not fit into any other chapter.
The format of each chapter is just a little bit of instruction followed by lots of problems. Each problem is labeled as to level of difficulty and whether or not there is a hint or solution provided for it at the end of the chapter.
The ultimate purpose of this book is to assist you in understanding how to design and analyze algorithms in general via the solution of problems, not to provide you with every algorithmic technique under the sun. In that purpose I think that it succeeds brilliantly. Just remember that ultimately it is a book of problems. You should look elsewhere for the details of the theory. Highly recommended.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of fun, December 7, 2002

By 

G. Allen Morris III "gam3" (Saranac Lake, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Problems on Algorithms (Paperback)

This book is full of interesting problems on algorithms. I have solved several of the problems in this book and it was great fun. Just thinking about solving so of these problems is interesting. I spent several hours solving the problem that is on the cover, it required the use Concrete Mathematics (0201558025), so be prepared many if not most of the problems in this book are very hard.