Exam Review – Algorithms, part 1 (Princeton)
Finally, i’m back on this blog.
I’m here to review another course, the algorithm and data structure course made by Kevin Wayne and Robert Sedgewick
from Princeton and hosted by Coursera ( this course ). (Note: i’ll probably retake the course in roder to get an statement or something like an honor code, if Coursera still delivers them. I’ll probably update this review with points of the exams and all the exercise i’ve made during the course).
Algorithm pt.1 is a 2 part mooc related to the famous algorithm book written by the authors above here (hey, it also have a web site! ). The first course, which is something like 8/10 weeks long, covers the bases of the topic, starting from the logic of nodes, queues, stacks and linked lists leading to more advanced topics like hash tables, search trees (binary and not) and all the ds related to symbol tables.
The lectures
Firstly, i’ve to say that the lectures were reaaaally good, in fact i liked them a lot! All the lectures were from 7 or 8 to 20 minutes long, and are full of examples and important explanation for the algorithms and for the structures, mostly “visive” (with this i mean that many examples used to explain the algorithms are done with moving figures to explain how the algorithm works), which are marvellous for the better understanding.
Mr. Sedgewick, the lecturer during all the course, talks clearly and, in general, really good (as said previously).
The only con i can find is the “background noise” that Mr. Sedgewick does sometimes (usually is “Mmmmm”), but it’s understandable. Another little con is that it was a little difficult for me to focus on an entire lecture of 20 minutes (or so), and i’ve found a little bit loo long imho, but it’s a problem of mine
The Course
I’ve found the course really enjoyable, but, due to my lack of experience (and, as usual, my total noobness) extremely tough. I’ve almost cried when i’ve completed my first programming assigment. For real. And i scored something like 11/100.
So the assignments and the exercises are hard, which is really important for me, as a challenge to go throught all the course (i hope, at least). The exercises are divided (as the lectures, btw) in the topics covered during every week, and for every week, we have 2 “exercises” based on the lectures and one programming assignment. (i’ll upload those on my github later). I’ve found also really usefull the website of the book, which is plenty of informations and also reposts the code foundable in the lectures.
Note: Coursera, in june 30, deleted the course, so i was really angry about it. Luckily, the course was re-updated (for free!) on the platform some days later, which bring me a tear of joy (oh, in sto blog pare che io pianga sempre)
Final Recap
The course is really a must have for every self taught computer scientist and every one who wants to
learn data structures and algorithms, and probably one of the best mooc in the entire internet, also totally for free. I really liked it and it’s an important piece of my bachelor in cs! Probably 8,5 outta 10, scratching the surface of the 9th grade
As usual, stay tuned! Many review are coming! 😉
I’m here to review another course, the algorithm and data structure course made by Kevin Wayne and Robert Sedgewick
from Princeton and hosted by Coursera ( this course ). (Note: i’ll probably retake the course in roder to get an statement or something like an honor code, if Coursera still delivers them. I’ll probably update this review with points of the exams and all the exercise i’ve made during the course).
Algorithm pt.1 is a 2 part mooc related to the famous algorithm book written by the authors above here (hey, it also have a web site! ). The first course, which is something like 8/10 weeks long, covers the bases of the topic, starting from the logic of nodes, queues, stacks and linked lists leading to more advanced topics like hash tables, search trees (binary and not) and all the ds related to symbol tables.
The lectures
Firstly, i’ve to say that the lectures were reaaaally good, in fact i liked them a lot! All the lectures were from 7 or 8 to 20 minutes long, and are full of examples and important explanation for the algorithms and for the structures, mostly “visive” (with this i mean that many examples used to explain the algorithms are done with moving figures to explain how the algorithm works), which are marvellous for the better understanding.
Mr. Sedgewick, the lecturer during all the course, talks clearly and, in general, really good (as said previously).
The only con i can find is the “background noise” that Mr. Sedgewick does sometimes (usually is “Mmmmm”), but it’s understandable. Another little con is that it was a little difficult for me to focus on an entire lecture of 20 minutes (or so), and i’ve found a little bit loo long imho, but it’s a problem of mine
The Course
I’ve found the course really enjoyable, but, due to my lack of experience (and, as usual, my total noobness) extremely tough. I’ve almost cried when i’ve completed my first programming assigment. For real. And i scored something like 11/100.
So the assignments and the exercises are hard, which is really important for me, as a challenge to go throught all the course (i hope, at least). The exercises are divided (as the lectures, btw) in the topics covered during every week, and for every week, we have 2 “exercises” based on the lectures and one programming assignment. (i’ll upload those on my github later). I’ve found also really usefull the website of the book, which is plenty of informations and also reposts the code foundable in the lectures.
Note: Coursera, in june 30, deleted the course, so i was really angry about it. Luckily, the course was re-updated (for free!) on the platform some days later, which bring me a tear of joy (oh, in sto blog pare che io pianga sempre)
Final Recap
The course is really a must have for every self taught computer scientist and every one who wants to
learn data structures and algorithms, and probably one of the best mooc in the entire internet, also totally for free. I really liked it and it’s an important piece of my bachelor in cs! Probably 8,5 outta 10, scratching the surface of the 9th grade
As usual, stay tuned! Many review are coming! 😉
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