Preface

Algorithmic ideas and notions are not just limited to long-standing, well-known problems. They span a wide range of topics and subject fields. Algorithms have many applications beyond computer science, but they do allow for a better view of computer science in general. Despite how essential they are to computer science, they do not always come in the form of a precise, mathematical question. Oftentimes, they are surrounded by complicated, problem-specific details that are sometimes superfluous. Because of this, there are two very important goals when it comes to approaching algorithms: 1) to get to the mathematically clean core of the problem and 2) to identify the appropriate algorithm design techniques. Once this happens, algorithms will not only provide the solutions to problems, they will form a language that allows you to cleanly express the underlying questions.

I found this section pretty interesting, as it gave a nice overview as to what algorithm analysis was and why we should study it. I would rate it a 10 (if 10 is the best).