Divide and Conquer, Sorting and Searching, and Randomized Algorithms #

by Stanford University

About this Course #

The primary topics in this part of the specialization are: asymptotic ("Big-oh") notation, sorting and searching, divide and conquer (master method, integer and matrix multiplication, closest pair), and randomized algorithms (QuickSort, contraction algorithm for min cuts).

Project #

Calculate the minimum number of cuts by choosing random contraction edges. I implemented this with multithreaded Rust.

Week 1 #

Introduction; "big-oh" notation and asymptotic analysis.

Week 2 #

Divide-and-conquer basics; the master method for analyzing divide and conquer algorithms.

Week 3 #

The QuickSort algorithm and its analysis; probability review.

Week 4 #

Linear-time selection; graphs, cuts, and the contraction algorithm.

Following the online course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/algorithms-divide-conquer