About

Welcome to my notes dump!

I spend a lot of time thinking about how to teach algorithms, and I realize that I should probably spend some time writing my ideas down. This page is a rough and incomplete approximation of how I'd teach an algorithms class, updated whenever I decide to write down a new set of notes or rethink what belongs in the course. Given that I learned algorithms from UC Berkeley's CS170, these notes will likely be influenced by them.

Material is divided into three types: core, supporting, and peripheral.

• Core: Knowledge that I consider essential to a basic understanding of algorithms. It may assume that you are familiar with the prior core material.
• Supporting: Proofs, examples, questions, or anything else I consider to be helpful but not necessary to understand the concepts. It will almost certainly build upon the core material.
• Peripheral: Tangents that are almost certainly unnecessary but I found personally interesting enough to think about (and type up). Likely to feel like when you ask your friend about a topic they're very invested in and you want them to stop talking but they're just so excited about it.

Material assumes a CS1-equivalent background (control flow, data structures), as well as familiarity with math up to calculus. More familiarity in CS and in mathematics is helpful but not necessary.

Please feel free to use these notes if you'd like (for non-commercial purposes, obviously)! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out at liujon23 (at) berkeley (dot) edu. I also happily welcome any civil discussion/suggestions/criticisms about these notes.