Principles of Algorithm Design

Algorithms have been commonly defined in simple terms as “instructions for completing a task”. They’ve also been called “recipes”. In The Social Network, an algorithm is what Zuckerberg needed to make Facemash work. If you saw the movie, you probably remember seeing what looked like a scribbly equation on a window in Mark’s dorm room. But what does that scribbly algebra have to do with Mark’s simple “hot or not” site?

Algorithms are indeed instructions. Perhaps a more accurate description would be that algorithms are patterns for completing a task in an efficient way. Zuckerberg’s Facemash was a voting site to determine someone’s attractiveness relative to a whole group of people, but the user would only be given options between two people. Mark Zuckerberg needed an algorithm that decided which people to match up to one another, and how to value a vote relative to that person’s previous history and previous contenders. This required more intuition than simply counting votes for each person.

This article will dive into the principles of algorithm design. If you haven’t a clue what I’m referring to, read on!

When you hear the word “algorithm,” you probably respond in one of three ways:

You immediately know and understand what we’re talking about because you studied computer science.
You know that algorithms are the workhorses of companies like Google and Facebook, but you aren’t really sure what the word means.
You run and hide in fear because everything you know about algorithms reminds you of high-school Calculus nightmares.

If you are one of the second two, this article is for you.

source: net.tutsplus.com