Question 1

When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?

Accepted Answer

Access to lectures and assignments depends on your type of enrollment. If you take a course in audit mode, you will be able to see most course materials for free. To access graded assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience, during or after your audit. If you don't see the audit option: The course may not offer an audit option. You can try a Free Trial instead, or apply for Financial Aid.The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.

Question 2

Do I need to pay for this course?

Accepted Answer

No. All features of this course are available for free.

Question 3

Can I earn a certificate in this course?

Accepted Answer

No. As per Princeton University policy, no certificates, credentials, or reports are awarded in connection with this course.

Question 4

I have no familiarity with Java programming. Can I still take this course?

Accepted Answer

Our central thesis is that algorithms are best understood by implementing and testing them. Our use of Java is essentially expository, and we shy away from exotic language features, so we expect you would be able to adapt our code to your favorite language. However, we require that you submit the programming assignments in Java.

Question 5

Which algorithms and data structures are covered in this course?

Accepted Answer

Part II focuses on graph and string-processing algorithms. Topics include depth-first search, breadth-first search, topological sort, KosarajuâSharir, Kruskal, Prim, Dijkistra, BellmanâFord, FordâFulkerson, LSD radix sort, MSD radix sort, 3-way radix quicksort, multiway tries, ternary search tries, KnuthâMorrisâPratt, BoyerâMoore, RabinâKarp, regular expression matching, run-length coding, Huffman coding, LZW compression, and the BurrowsâWheeler transform.Part I focuses on elementary data structures, sorting, and searching. Topics include union-find, binary search, stacks, queues, bags, insertion sort, selection sort, shellsort, quicksort, 3-way quicksort, mergesort, heapsort, binary heaps, binary search trees, redâblack trees, separate-chaining and linear-probing hash tables, Graham scan, and kd-trees.

Question 6

What kinds of assessments are available in this course?

Accepted Answer

Weekly programming assignments and interview questions.The programming assignments involve either implementing algorithms and data structures (graph algorithms, tries, and the Burrows-Wheeler transform) or applying algorithms and data structures to an interesting domain (computer graphics, computational linguistics, and data compression). The assignments are evaluated using a sophisticated autograder that provides detailed feedback about style, correctness, and efficiency.The interview questions are similar to those that you might find at a technical job interview. They are optional and not graded.

Question 7

I am/was not a Computer Science major. Is this course for me?

Accepted Answer

This course is for anyone using a computer to address large problems (and therefore needing efficient algorithms). At Princeton, over 25% of all students take the course, including people majoring in engineering, biology, physics, chemistry, economics, and many other fields, not just computer science.

Question 8

How does this course differ from Design and Analysis of Algorithms?

Accepted Answer

The two courses are complementary. This one is essentially a programming course that concentrates on developing code; that one is essentially a math course that concentrates on understanding proofs. This course is about learning algorithms in the context of implementing and testing them in practical applications; that one is about learning algorithms in the context of developing mathematical models that help explain why they are efficient. In typical computer science curriculums, a course like this one is taken by first- and second-year students and a course like that one is taken by juniors and seniors.

Algorithms, Part II

Course Features

Course Description

Module 1: Introduction

Module 2: Undirected Graphs

Module 3: Directed Graphs

Module 4: Minimum Spanning Trees

Course FAQs