CS Online Learning Journal

  Week 3 – CST370 – Design and Analysis of Algorithms This week we learned about Brute Force String Matching and Exhaustive Search. We also learned about Depth-First search and Breadth-First search. Brute Force String Matching is an algorithm used to match a pattern against a string. You align the pattern against the first m characters from left to right until either all the m pairs of the characters match or a mismatching pair is encountered. If a mismatch happens, you simply shift the pattern one character to the right and begin the process again. Exhaustive search is a brute-force approach to combinatorial problems. Some of these problems include the traveling salesman problem, knapsack problem, and assignment problem. The traveling salesman problem is an algorithm that finds the shortest route through a given number of cities that visits all cities and ends up at the starting city. This problem is ideal when dealing with weighted graphs. The knapsack problem involves it...

  Week 2 – CST370 – Design and Analysis of Algorithms This week we covered asymptotic notations, non-recursive algorithms, and recursive algorithms. We use the order of growth to determine an algorithm’s efficiency. We also use three notations to rank the order of growth: big oh, big omega, and big theta. Big oh, is the set of all functions with a lower or same order of growth as g(n), a simple function to compare the count with. Big omega is the set of all functions with a higher or same order of growth as g(n). Lastly, big theta is the set of all functions that have the same order of growth as g(n). Non-recursive algorithms solve problems by repetition through loops to execute instructions until a condition is met. An example of a non-recursive algorithm is a Max Element algorithm where you must find the value of the largest number in an array. A recursive algorithm calls itself with smaller values and returns the result for the current input by carrying out basic operati...

  Week 1 – CST370 – Design and Analysis of Algorithms This week was a combination of week 0 and week 1. We were required to set up a GitHub account, if we did not have one already, to complete our homework assignments with GitHub Classroom. Homework 0 required us to write a program that reads two integer numbers from a user and displays the sum and difference of the two numbers. We also needed to make sure that the difference between the two numbers is always 0 or positive. The purpose of Homework 0 was to get familiar with GitHub Classroom, set up our IDE environment, and submitting to Canvas. The topics covered this week included Euclid’s Algorithm for GCD calculation, important problem types, fundamental data structures, and algorithm analysis framework. Euclid’s Algorithm for GCD calculation is an algorithm that takes two numbers and finds the greatest common divisor by repeating the equality gcd(m, n) = gcd(n, m mod n) until m mod n is equal to zero. The last value of m wi...