Dive Into Algorithms - Question for Author about his favorite top5

[Mic Majewski]

Hello Bradford,

I wanted to ask about your top 5 favorite algorithms (totaly subjective and up to your taste)

Maybe there were some moments while preparing a book when something blew your mind.
I mean for example some algorithm was particularly: beautiful, elegant, efficient, easy to use in normal life, smart or maybe producing unintuitive output etc.

Congrats on the publication!

Best Regards
Michal

[Bradford Tuckfield]

Hi Michal,

Thanks for your question. It's always hard to pick favorites! But here's a top 5 list:

1. Sleep sort. Anonymous, unique, eccentric, impractical, clever. Plus it shows that even something as old and static as sorting can experience innovation. Covered in chapter 4 of my book.

2. Supervised learning in general, decision trees and k-NN in particular. Powerful, simple, lucrative, and endless in its applications. Covered in chapter 9.

3. Minimax. Like supervised learning, both simple and powerful. Can change the way you think about everyday decisions. Can help you play chess. Covered in chapter 10.

4. Kurosawa's algorithm for creating a magic square. Ancient, magical, and interesting. Chapter 2.

5. Russian peasant multiplication. A new way to understand a mundane task. A connection to the pharaohs. A tie in to modern computer architecture. Also in Chapter 2.

Ask me tomorrow and the list might change! Every algorithm is like a person, with its own particular quirks and personality. Feel free to share your own favorites too if you'd like. Happy Friday and best regards,

Bradford

[Mic Majewski]

Thanks for your reply!

I will dig into them for sure.

I'm a newb so not taste developed yet as haven't used enough algorithms at my by far.
Today I find few things fascinating
1. Recursion way of solving problems => Tower of Hanoi for simplicity
2. Fractal => Escape time algorithm - for its simplicity compared to the complexity of the output
3. Ulam spiral - for scratching the surface of the mystery of the prime numbers
4. Ancient Egyptian multiplication - why we don't learn at school their way?
5. Bisection algorithm - for simplicity

I'm don't quite have a grasp on what formally can be classified as an algorithm so not sure if 3 is one

Thanks for your list!

Cheers