This is an extremely high quality formal academic textbook on the subject of algorithms in computer science. This book likely gets assigned in many upper division or graduate level classes on the subject. For example, it has formal academic proofs of all of its claims about algorithms up front, and it is filled with exercises that are clearly intended to be completed by students. This is a formal and rigorous high level academic textbook, really serious stuff.
The pseudo code is excellent, top notch, it makes even very complex algorithms readable. The pseudo code is close-ish to python in style, but the discussion of the algorithms more broadly is clearly written by people coming from a background in C/C++ since they reference pointers frequently during their explanations. The pseudo code is good enough that it could likely be used as is.
The book I got was clearly freshly printed, it smelled as though the ink had just dried and one of the pages still needed to be separated at the bottom from another. So if you buy new, you might get a book that has just been printed, which is pretty cool. The printing (at least the hard cover) is very high quality, full color, glossy pages. There are some minor printing mistakes, but this is like a 1000+ page book, so the fact that 99% of it is perfect is pretty awesome.
This covers virtually every common algorithm, and even includes mention and brief discussion of rare algorithms and variations of common algorithms. It's 1000+ pages, and I get the feeling that they packed in as much as they possibly could.
I would love if they would release a second volume because they just didn't have room here to discuss everything. Like they mention a ton of variations of algorithms that they just don't have the time to explore. For example, I'd love to have a whole section dedicated to self balancing binary trees. They cover the most common self balancing binary tree algorithms, but they briefly mention and discuss at least 5-10 other related algorithms that I would love to see covered in depth.
Likewise, I would love for a second volume to cover computational geometry, which is absent from this book. I totally get why they didn't include it, it's a whole field in and of itself, and this book is already 1000+ pages, and this book covers almost literally every other major algorithm and problem. That's why I hold out hope, not for a revised edition, but for a second volume that covers the stuff that this one didn't have time for.
This book is a formal academic textbook. It's not an intro level text. You need to know your stuff before reading it. It doesn't try to be particularly easy to read, but nor does make the subjects seem overly complex. It's just a rigorous academic look at algorithms, like you'd expect in an upper level college course. Could it be written in a simpler style? Sure, but I feel like the market for this book is classrooms and academics, that kind of thing. It's still very readable as long as you know your stuff, just don't go in expecting intro level material. This is the opposite of intro level.
If you are a software engineer, you pretty much owe it to yourself to own this book. This is the definitive textbook on the subject of algorithms. I really, really hope they release a second volume that covers all the algorithms that they only mention in this work. This work is very comprehensive, don't get me wrong. It covers pretty much every major algorithm that you'd want to know, with the obvious exception of computational geometry. It even covers the NP-Hard problems, it really is comprehensive. I just want all the more obscure algorithms too!
Publishers and authors if you're listening, please release a second volume of this awesome book that covers everything you couldn't fit in this one!
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Popular Highlights in this book
A data structure is a way to store and organize data in order to facilitate access and modifications.Highlighted by 104 Kindle readers- The running time of an algorithm on a particular input is the number of instructions and data accesses executed.Highlighted by 97 Kindle readers
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About the author
Amazing quality and quantity. (
Truly like doctors reference book for programming and understanding algorithms form my few days with it so far. Terrible shipping practices, my book has a rip in the cover :( idk what to do with that but it sucks for such a great book and so expensive to be thrown in an envelope. Considering a replacement. Whats not relevant to algorithmic studies? politics or virtue signaling.(last image is my reference on waisted time finding words to replace them... a lot of us are scientists, we shouldn't need to participate in this political madness "regretfully uncles", let's just stick to science, and being good to others and let's use our discoverys to help others in need, what your all doing is demeaning to me and others like me and a huge waist of time.)
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2024
- Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2025
- Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2023
- Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2023
Top reviews from other countries
- Nuno C. InácioReviewed in Spain on September 13, 2022
One of the greats
This book is often hailed as "The" algorithm book, and with good reason. It has been on my wish list ever since I saw it at my uni's library some 20+ years ago. With the 4th edition having been recently launched I finally decided to buy it.Nuno C. InácioOne of the greats
Reviewed in Spain on September 13, 2022
It combines a good variety of algorithms with rigorous mathematical analysis of said algorithms. It will teach you how algorithms are developed and how to analyze an algorithm's performance.
I would not recommend this for someone who is beginning their programming journey. There are other books and online resources which are more suited for a beginner who just wants to learn some algorithm programming without all the math stuff.
This works great as a reference, although nothings stop you from reading it back to back. But it will take a long time, particularly if you invest yourself into understanding all the underlying details.
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- Priyanshu PatidarReviewed in India on April 11, 2025
A Must-Read for Anyone Interested in Algorithms
- mikael englundReviewed in Sweden on July 10, 2024
Illegal print
Do not buy this is illegal product much smaller than it supposed to be less pages and lots of weird fonts and double print and bad pages.mikael englundIllegal print
Reviewed in Sweden on July 10, 2024
This is stolen from mit press and Amazon should be ashamed to sell this. I asked for a legitimate copy but Amazon refuses
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- elcinReviewed in Germany on April 22, 2022
It is an amazing book but this edition printed wrong
The book just arrived. There is a problem with the printing of the book. I will return it.elcinIt is an amazing book but this edition printed wrong
Reviewed in Germany on April 22, 2022
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