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Discussion on: 10 Must-Read Books for Software Engineers

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brombaut profile image
Ben Rombaut

I'm curious if you have any other book suggestions for algorithms? I've considered getting Intro to Algorithms, but I'm worried it might be a little dense or heavy on the theory, like you said. I've read Grokking Algorithms, which I thought was pretty good.

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P1xt

To be fair, algorithms are, by their very nature, all about the theory.

Grokking Algorithms was a super light intro, so light that it almost hinted at maybe touching the surface. I understand wanting to ease into algorithms. However, when it comes down to it, to really leverage knowledge about data structures and algorithms day to day, in code you actually write, you'll need to embrace the heavy theory.

That said, A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms by Jay Wengrow and Algorithms Illuminated by Tim Roughgarden are both very approachable. And The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven Skiena covers much of Cormen in a fraction of the pages (but is even denser as a result.)