You have to study computer science if you want to become a successful programmer, and if you don't understand computer science, you won't get hired. Ready for a career in programming and willing to embrace an "always be learning" mindset? The Self-Taught Computer Scientist is for you.

The Self-Taught Computer Scientist: The Beginner's Guide to Data Structures & Algorithms

Preface

What Is an Algorithm?

To understand recursion, one must first understand recursion. Anonymous

Recursion

An algorithm must be seen to be believed. Donald Knuth 

Search Algorithms

I think the bubble sort would be the wrong way to go. Barack Obama

Sorting Algorithms

One of the most important skills any entrepreneur should learn is to program a computer. This is a critical skill if you want to start a tech startup, but a basic knowledge of code is useful even in traditional fields, because software is changing everything. Redi Hoffman

String Algorithms

Do not worry too much about your difficulties in mathematics, I can assure you that mine are still greater. Albert Einstein

Math

All of my friends who have younger siblings who are going to college or high school—my number-one piece of advice is: you should learn how to program. Mark Zuckerberg

Self-Taught Inspiration: Margaret Hamilton

What Is a Data Structure?

We salute the coders, designers, and programmers already hard at work at their desks, and we encourage every student who can't decide whether to take that computer science class to give it a try. Michael Bloomberg, former mayor, New York City 

Arrays

Learning to write programs stretches your mind and helps you think better [and] creates a way of thinking about things that I think is helpful in all domains. Bill Gates, Co-founder, Microsoft 

Linked Lists

If you want to create and be a visionary, you're probably going to be working with technology in some way. Steph Curry

Stacks

All students should have the opportunity to learn how to program. Computer science is the basis for modern day creativity and expression. The computer programmers of tomorrow will revolutionize medicine. Anne Wojcicki 

Queues

For self-educated scientists and thinkers such as Charles Darwin, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Faraday, myself, and many others, education is a relentless voyage of discovery. To us, education is an everlasting quest for knowledge and wisdom. Abhijit Naskar

Hash Tables

The most powerful people are the ones who never stop learning. Rejoice Denhere 

Binary Trees

The rise of Google, the rise of Facebook, the rise of Apple, I think are proof that there is a place for computer science as something that solves problems that people face every day. Eric Schmidt 

Binary Heaps

Learning to code will be a huge booster for your future, no matter what your professional plans may be. Learning to code will also make you extremely cool! Max Levchin 

Graphs

Today, Elon Musk is best known for founding Tesla, Space X, and PayPal, which revolutionized their industries. But long before he became an entrepreneur and one of the richest men on the planet, Musk was driven by a simpler idea: he wanted to design video games. How did self-taught programmer Musk go from a kid playing games to a billionaire? In this chapter, you will learn about Musk's education and how his interest in gaming led him to learn to program.

Self-Taught Inspiration: Elon Musk

For most people on Earth, the digital revolution hasn’t even started yet. Within the next 10 years, all that will change. Let’s get the whole world coding! Eric Schmidt

Next Steps

A abstract data type, 84, 87, 127, 163 acyclic graph, 174, 187 add_adj method, 179 add_edge method, 180 add_vertex method, 179 adjacency list, 177, 187 adjacent vertices, 176, 187 algorithm analyzing of, 4–8 average-case complexity of, 15 best-case complexity of, 15 big O notation within, 7, 10, 11, 13–14, 15, 17 binary search of, 27–32, 34 brute-force, 14 constant time complexity of, 8–9 cubic time complexity of, 13–14 defined, 3, 17 exponential time of, 14–15 iterative, 19 linear search, 25–26 linear time of, 10 logarithmic time of, 9 log-linear time of, 11 polynomial time of, 14 quadratic time of, 11–13 run time of, 4–5 search, 25 sorting, 53–54 space complexity of, 15–16 steps within, 5–7 tortoise-and-the-hare, 110–111 worst-case complexity of, 15

Community Questions