Divide and Conquer, Sorting and Searching, and Randomized Algorithms

This course helped me get a job. Before doing this course, I had trouble clearing technical interviews. Infact, I couldn't even clear the phone interviews. "Algorithms: Design and Analysis, Part 1" was instrumental in clearing my first technical interview and helped me get a job as a Software Engineer in Silicon Valley.

Just to be clear, this course alone isn't enough to clear technical interviews. What it did was strengthen my basics in Computer Science, due to which I was able to leverage a lot of online content and algorithm textbooks. Trying to prepare for technical interviews by googling "technical interview questions" doesn't get you anywhere. If you are asked a question that you haven't seen before, coming up with an answer won't be easy. But if your basics are good you will have set of tools to evaluate and come up with a reasonable solution.

Every week there is a programming assignment. The assignment are usually direct implementation of an algorithm or data structure and can be done in the language of your choice. This further reinforces the concepts taught in the lectures.

Tim Roughgarden is an excellent teacher and the course videos are quite portable. I carry those videos on my tablet and occasionally watch them if I feel I need to brush up a particular topic. At the time of writing this review a new version of the course hasn't been offered for a while, but the course videos are open to everyone.

I took courses on algorithms and data structures when I went to university, and I really enjoyed both of them. Since then I have been working as a software developer for more than 20 years, so I thought it would be interesting with a refresher.

I am quite familiar with several of the concepts taught in this course, for example: big-O notation, quick sort, merge sort and hash tables (I use those pretty much every day). But there were several other concepts that I was not familiar with: I had never heard of the Master Method (for finding the big-O performance of recursive algorithms), and even though I studied some graph algorithms and heaps (the data structure), I had forgotten most of it.

The course turned out to be excellent! The lectures were very clear, and explained the different algorithms really well. And the combination of quizzes and programming problems (five in total), really made me learn the material. The programming assignments all involved implementing algorithms discussed in the course. Even though they consisted of pretty straightforward implementations, you had to take care (as always in programming) to get all the details right.

I still think it is pretty amazing to have access to this many great courses for free. It was definitely a valuable course for me. I learned a lot and I enjoyed both the lectures, the quizzes and the assignments. The only caveat is that it does require quite a time commitment. I spent at least 10 hours a week on the course. All in all a great course!

This was my very first course of algorithms, I had had some experience with programming before. The course was moderately challenging - I would say right at my limits but not overwhelming thus making the most out of its content - I wish I would learn with this efficiency on every course.
The content was much broader compared to syllabuses of other similar courses and has always been clear and to the point (no unnecessary prolonging empty words) so it made me thing about it and learn giving me only a little chance of the so-called 'illusion of competence.'
The assignments (programming and quizzes) were very appropriate and have solidified the knowledge.

So I can't wait for its second part, hope it will be as good as this one :)

The teacher is pretty good – I actually enjoyed watching the lectures and wasn't bored, which is unusual with me when it comes to lectures. I really liked the "optional" videos (watched them all). Not sure whether they would have been taught in the real course, but they add a lot.

It took me, on average, 15-30 minutes per week for the "dry" (problem sets) part, and another 15-30 minutes per week for the "wet" (programming questions) part. This is way, way too little. The exam was extremely easy. It took me less than an hour to solve (out of 3 allotted hours), and the handful of points I lost are due to pure sloppiness (mis-reading one of the questions).

To conclude, I really enjoyed taking the course, and big thanks to Tim Roughgarden and the course staff for offering it and investing effort into making it enjoyable. I will be seriously considering enrolling in the follow-up Part II in late summer.

This a good intro to algorithms course for those who already have some exposure to programming.
The aim of the course is to introduce some classic algorithms and show us the toolbox of algorithms design and analysis by giving very detailed analysis on them. With what is taught in this course in mind, it is much more easier to learn other new algorithms since I now know how to think about them and how to do the analysis( or at least have a basic idea on how analysis should be carried out).
Quizzes and programming assignments are not trivial. Cracking them requires solid understand of the course content. Since no specific codes are provided, how hard the programming assignments are really depends on the previous coding experience.
The book written by the professor is also good. Clear and organized.
Five Star. Highly recommended!