Techniques for Designing and Analyzing Algorithms

Design and analysis of algorithms can be a difficult subject for students due to its sometimes-abstract nature and its use of a wide variety of mathematical tools. Here the author, an experienced and successful textbook writer, makes the subject as straightforward as possible in an up-to-date textbook incorporating various new developments appropriate for an introductory course.

This text presents the main techniques of algorithm design, namely, divide-and-conquer algorithms, greedy algorithms, dynamic programming algorithms, and backtracking. Graph algorithms are studied in detail, and a careful treatment of the theory of NP-completeness is presented.

In addition, the text includes useful introductory material on mathematical background including order notation, algorithm analysis and reductions, and basic data structures. This will serve as a useful review and reference for students who have covered this material in a previous course.

• The first three chapters provide a mathematical review, basic algorithm analysis, and data structures.
• Detailed pseudocode descriptions of the algorithms along with illustrative algorithms are included.
• Proofs of correctness of algorithms are included when appropriate.
• The book presents a suitable amount of mathematical rigor.

After reading and understanding the material in this book, students will be able to apply the basic design principles to various real-world problems that they may encounter in their future professional careers.

Preface
1. Introduction and Mathematical Background
2. Algorithm Analysis and Reductions
3. Data Structures
4. Divide-and-Conquer Algorithms
5. Greedy Algorithms
6. Dynamic Programming Algorithms
7. Graph Algorithms
8. Backtracking Algorithms
9. Intractability and Undecidability
Bibliography
Index

Douglas R. Stinson　obtained his PhD in Combinatorics and Optimization from the University of Waterloo in 1981. He held academic positions at the University of Manitoba and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln before returning to Waterloo in 1998. In 2019, Dr. Stinson retired from the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo and he now holds the title Professor Emeritus. His research interests include cryptography and computer security, combinatorics and coding theory, and applications of discrete mathematics in computer science. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2011. He has published almost 400 papers and several books, including　Cryptography: Theory and Practice, Fourth Edition, also published by CRC Press.