Algorithmic Puzzles
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £4.50
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Algorithmic Puzzles for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £4.50, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Algorithmic Puzzles by Anany Levitin and Maria Levitin is an interesting and novel style of puzzle book. The emphasis lies in training the reader to think algorithmically and develop new puzzle-solving skills: the majority of puzzles are problems where we are asked to find the shortest distance or the fewest moves to get from A to B, or construct a proof that a puzzle has no solution. the book provides plenty of puzzles to keep even the most avid problem-solvers busy for a long time, all with varying levels of difficulty and different styles/contexts. The solutions provided are comprehensive and explain themselves in a friendly, constructive manner, complete with illustrations. In addition to questions and answers, a section of brief hints is also provided to assist the reader in their puzzle-solving endeavours." -- Graham Wheeler, Significance
Product Description
Algorithmic puzzles are puzzles involving well-defined procedures for solving problems. This book will provide an enjoyable and accessible introduction to algorithmic puzzles that will develop the reader's algorithmic thinking. The first part of this book is a tutorial on algorithm design strategies and analysis techniques. Algorithm design strategies -- exhaustive search, backtracking, divide-and-conquer and a few others -- are general approaches to designing step-by-step instructions for solving problems. Analysis techniques are methods for investigating such procedures to answer questions about the ultimate result of the procedure or how many steps are executed before the procedure stops. The discussion is an elementary level, with puzzle examples, and requires neither programming nor mathematics beyond a secondary school level. Thus, the tutorial provides a gentle and entertaining introduction to main ideas in high-level algorithmic problem solving. The second and main part of the book contains 150 puzzles, from centuries-old classics to newcomers often asked during job interviews at computing, engineering, and financial companies. The puzzles are divided into three groups by their difficulty levels. The first fifty puzzles in the Easier Puzzles section require only middle school mathematics. The sixty puzzle of average difficulty and forty harder puzzles require just high school mathematics plus a few topics such as binary numbers and simple recurrences, which are reviewed in the tutorial. All the puzzles are provided with hints, detailed solutions, and brief comments. The comments deal with the puzzle origins and design or analysis techniques used in the solution. The book should be of interest to puzzle lovers, students and teachers of algorithm courses, and persons expecting to be given puzzles during job interviews.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Frustrating Kindle Adaptation
25 April 2012
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book contains an excellent collection of algorithmic puzzles. There are lots (150) of puzzles in three difficulty categories. The book itself has 3 parts - the puzzle, the hint(s), and the solution explanation with references and a short history. The conversion to Kindle format was done poorly. You would have thought they could puzzle out that the three parts of the book should be linked so the reader can move back and forth. This is especially problematic as neither of the three sections can stand alone. The Pounstone books, Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?: Trick Questions, Zen-like Riddles, Insanely Difficult Puzzles, and Other Devious Interviewing Techniques You Need ... to Get a Job Anywhere in the New Economy and How Would You Move Mount Fuji?: Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle - How the World's Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers are referenced in the book and they got the connectivity correct. I would recommend the paper version of the book with 3 book marks. Fixing this frustration would raise my rating to 5 stars.
The above Poundstone books do have a small overlap with this book, however they are sufficiently different that purchasing all three books is not a bad idea.
The above Poundstone books do have a small overlap with this book, however they are sufficiently different that purchasing all three books is not a bad idea.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Good Read.
2 April 2012
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Good read. Where it could have been better is by giving related problems and in-line references. The strength of the book is in the diversity of problem, but bringing up real world examples of where this thing comes in play is a better approach ro 'educate common mathemtcian
7 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Great if you want a book of algorithmic puzzles
3 Feb 2012
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Book is written in three sections: puzzles, hints to puzzles and solutions to puzzles. The puzzles are categorized according to easy, medium and hard difficulty. It has all of the standard puzzles plus many others. I found it pretty useful - it was exactly what I was looking for.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Probability & Statistics
- Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Recreational
- Books > Science & Nature > Popular Science > Maths
- Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical
- Books > Sports, Hobbies & Games > Hobbies & Games > Puzzles & Quizzes > Mathematical Games
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
