Algorithms are everywhere and have many applications within computer science and beyond. We must look through at computer science through the lens that algorithms provide us, as algorithms are central to computer science as a whole. Because problems that can be solved by algorithms are rarely clear and cleanly packaged, the “algorithmic enterprise” has two major tasks: getting to the mathematical core of the problem and identifying the appropriate algorithm design techniques. Throughout the book, we will explore the motivations of algorithms, how to properly design an algorithm, and how to recognize the appropriate design principles for different problems. The goal of the textbook is to show students how to create to a clean algorithmically-solvable problem from a complex issue, and, hence, how to make the algorithms used to solve this problem as efficient as possible.

When first reading the preface, I was confused on how exactly the book was going to walk us through how to think about an algorithm and how to down a problem because everyone thinks differently. However, after reading 1.1, 2.1, and 2.2, the goal of the book became more clear to me. The book is giving us the tools on how to think through and analyze algorithms to solve problems with many different strategies. In section 1.1, we saw our first look at how to walk through formulating a clear problem, constructing an algorithm, and analyzing an algorithm start to finish. In 2.1 and 2.2, we were given some new tools on how to analyze algorithms. Hence, it seems that the book's approach (at least thus far) is to both give us practice with walk-throughs of algorithms and give us new tools to try out later, so that by the end of the course we can really think for ourselves in designing algorithms and analyzing them.

Is the most sophisticated algorithm used to solve an algorithm always the best?

How do we measure efficiency? What makes an algorithm efficient?

What does the book mean by “issues that motivate these problems”? How can we identify motivations?

On a scale of 1 to 10, this section was a 10 because it was mainly talking about applications and big concepts about why the book is written. As a result, there were no difficult concepts that I had to try to wrap my brain around.