By Patrix Rembang 2 months ago Completed

Great lecture videos. The lecturer uses pictures and animations to teach the data structures and algorithms that make the explanations very clear. Some proofs of the algorithms' performance are included. The code presented in lectures is very clear and clean. The programming assignments are quite tough and fun, and only differ slightly than the Princeton's equivalent.

The downsides are the exercises, which require us to simulate some aspects of the algorithms by hand. On each try, the questions are new, so if you only have 1 mistake in previous try, you have to do it all over again, which is frustrating. The job interview questions are more interesting than the exercises, although they aren't graded. There's also no statement of accomplishment, and you even won't find your final points in your Coursera course records.

Definitely the course to take when you first tackle this subject.

By Dirk Meister 6 months ago Completed

A good introduction (or review) to the basic data structures and its implementation. It is focussed on the implementation in Java and the usage and not on format correctness proofs.

Good organization and material. Some treatments of Java details have been wrong or at least you can discuss if a experienced Java developer would do certain things the way they presented it.

By Sai from Tokyo 6 months ago Completed

This course is based on Chapters 1 to 3 of the textbook written by the same professors (http://algs4.cs.princeton.edu/home/). Frequent use of animations that simulate algorithms step by step made it so easy to understand how they work. I took this course mainly to learn about Java (I knew C++). All the 5 programming assignments were in Java and Coursera submission page gave you detailed feedback as to which tests passed or failed, etc. I found every assignment well thought out and often dealing with an interesting problem of its own, for example, percolation (using union-find tree) and 8 puzzle (using stack for solving a simple AI search problem). On the other hand, quizzes were very boring where you were asked to simulate the algorithms taught in the lecture by hand (e.g., what does the input array "SDHFIENCPV" look like after 5 swap operations in quicksort?). Since it is Princeton University's policy not to offer any kind of certificate in Coursera (at least up to now), it doesn't matter at all if you skip them, though. I believe Part II, which starts in November, will cover chapter 4 through 6 and am looking forward to it.

By Doug from Kansas City, Missouri 7 months ago Completed

Really well-done. Best of the online algorithm classes so far.
Great teacher, well-organized, homework supports material.
Feels like a top-notch, university level course. Course follows a very good textbook written by the instructor.