Coursera Algorithms course

[J. Kevin Robbins]

Has anyone taken this course? I'd like to hear your thoughts on it. Based on the description, it sounds very difficult. I don't even recognize much of the terminology (union-find, red-black trees?)

I do not have a CS degree or any advanced math so this one might be way over my head.

[Karthik Shiraly]

I took their previous session (in October '14) and I highly recommend it.
I really liked Sedgwick's way of explaining both the concepts and the thought process.
It's more visualization and programming oriented, rather than CS/math oriented. Check out some of their book material to get an idea of the course content.
You don't require a CS degree or advanced math to take it. Quite the opposite, in fact; the material is designed to be approachable to those who haven't taken CS/math.

[J. Kevin Robbins]

Thanks for the info. Based on that I'll probably check it out. It doesn't cost anything, so what do I have to lose except some time, right?

[Karthik Shiraly]

In fact, I took this course because other ranchers here had good things to say about it. You might find the previous discussion on it quite informative.

[Heena Agarwal]

Karthik Shiraly wrote:In fact, I took this course because other ranchers here had good things to say about it. You might find the previous discussion on it quite informative.

For some reason my posts in that thread seem too discouraging. I think it's not too difficult to complete this course with a full time job if that job and your chores give you a healthy lifestyle.

These days you get two weeks to complete the assignment without penalty and almost about a month to complete it with little penalty. That is really a cool thing. To anybody considering to take up this course, I'd say, go for it.