Data Structures and Algorithms Specialization Program (Coursera)

The University of California, San Diego and the National Research Institute Higher School of Economics also offer this algorithm and data structure expertise. Students learn the theory underlying algorithms, implement them in a programming language of their choice, and use them to solve actual problems in this curriculum, which offers a nice blend of theory and practice. The program consists of six courses, beginning with theory and basic algorithmic approaches and progressing to sophisticated algorithms and complexity. It includes the following topics:

• Using data structures in various computational problems
• Graph data structure
• Algorithms on graphs
• Algorithms on strings
• Advanced algorithmic concepts like Network flows, linear programming and NP-complete problems

This data structures and algorithms course is based on the principle of learning by doing. Each module has 1-2 hours of video lectures, some embedded quizzes, and code answers to the problem set. The program's main focus is a particularly designed 100 algorithmic coding challenges that enable a learner become an expert in algorithmic design. The solutions to these difficulties are automatically validated against 15+ test cases. These teach students how to create, test, and debug fast algorithms that solve huge and challenging problems in seconds.

Another noteworthy feature is that this program is language-independent. Every lesson contains pseudocode, and students must transform what is conceptually set out into code. This significantly improves their competence and learning. Big Networks (which involves finding Shortest Paths in Road Networks and Social Networks using algorithms that are thousands of times quicker than traditional ones) and Genome Assembly are two real-world projects included in the specialization (which involves bioinformatics algorithms to assemble a genome from millions of short DNA fragments).

Key Highlights

• Most popular data structures and algorithms course on Coursera with more than 142,000 students enrolled at the time of writing
• Understand basic algorithmic techniques such as greedy algorithms, binary search, sorting and dynamic programming and how to use them to solve programming problems
• Learning how to design test cases and automate them
• Learn how assembly algorithms fuel recent developments in personalized medicine
• Learn to apply graph and string algorithms to solve real-world challenges
• Understand data structures such as stack, queue, hash table, priority queue, binary search tree, graph and string and use them to solve problems
• Explore advanced techniques such as maximum flow, linear programming, approximate algorithms, SAT-solvers, streaming
• Flexibility to code problems in one of the following programming languages: Java, C, C++, Python2, Python3, C#,
• Haskell, Javascript, Ruby, Scala

Duration : 6-8 months, 6 hours per week

Google Rating : 4.6/5.0

Enroll here: coursera.org/specializations/data-structures-algorithms