Best book for algorithms in computer sciene

[rboeck]

To all experts and insiders: What is the 'must have" book for all young computer sciene starters - is it
'Donald Knuth - The Art of Computer Programming' or are there better or more compressed alternatives?

 

[Erel]

While I haven't read it myself I don't think that you will find any "better" book about computer science, unless you are interested in a more specific topic.

On the other hand, computer science students will learn data structures and algorithms as part of their studies anyway so it might be a bit redundant.

 

[rboeck]

My son, 16 yrs., is currently preparing for the next International Olympiad in Informatics. All his knowledge is from the web, so he is looking for a book, which compresses this knowledge. And he cannot and doesn't want to wait for years to learn this in his study.

 

[eps]

He's going to need to know C, C++ or Java inside out for that. I would look for a book which specifically covers one of those languages.

 

[udg]

Another must-read: "Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs" by prof. N. Wirth

Written back in mid-70' it's something you should know about.

 

[rboeck]

I found it too!

 

[udg]

Congrats for your son!
Have you handy any test from past editions? It will be interesting to see how Forum's members would solve them.

 

[klaus]

Another must-read: "Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs" by prof. N. Wirth

Just as a reminder, Professor Niklaus Wirth is the father of the Pascal language.

 

[rboeck]

I started with computers 1982 and Niklaus Wirth was already known. In this time he created Modula2, but today i think its history.

@udg: For all - here are the contest examples from august 2017 in teheran - the tasks are translated in many languages.

http://ioi2017.org/contest/tasks/

The contestants have two days with 5 hours a day; on each day they have to make tree tasks. For each task you can get 100 points. The winner, a japanese boy, got a score of 589 points from 600, and was also the winner of the mathematical olympia this year! Japan had 3 contestants in the first five.

To qualify in austria, you have to solve tree samples, which are much harder than the samples in teheran; but you have month of time to make your program.
The best 16 contestants are invited for two training camps. After this two weeks there is the next qualification award and the best four are qualified as austrian team.
This four students now get a third week of education in not so well known algorithms and programming tipps and tricks for the competition.

 

[ilan]

I started with computers 1982 and Niklaus Wirth was already known. In this time he created Modula2, but today i think its history.

@udg: For all - here are the contest examples from august 2017 in teheran - the tasks are translated in many languages.

http://ioi2017.org/contest/tasks/

The contestants have two days with 5 hours a day; on each day they have to make tree tasks. For each task you can get 100 points. The winner, a japanese boy, got a score of 589 points from 600, and was also the winner of the mathematical olympia this year! Japan had 3 contestants in the first five.

To qualify in austria, you have to solve tree samples, which are much harder than the samples in teheran; but you have month of time to make your program.
The best 16 contestants are invited for two training camps. After this two weeks there is the next qualification award and the best four are qualified as austrian team.
This four students now get a third week of education in not so well known algorithms and programming tipps and tricks for the competition.

i guess there was no team from israel, right?

 

[eps]

I think they worked remotely from Russia