Design and Analysis of Algorithms

Stanford University, Winter 2024

Instructors: Nima Anari and Moses Charikar

Time: Mon & Wed 10:30 am - 12:00 pm

Location: Skilling Auditorium

Course Description: This course will cover the basic approaches and mindsets for analyzing and designing algorithms and data structures. Topics include the following: Worst and average case analysis. Recurrences and asymptotics. Efficient algorithms for sorting, searching, and selection. Data structures: binary search trees, heaps, hash tables. Algorithm design techniques: divide-and-conquer, dynamic programming, greedy algorithms, amortized analysis, and randomization. Algorithms for fundamental graph problems: minimum-cost spanning tree, connected components, topological sort, and shortest paths. Possible additional topics: network flow and string searching.

Prerequisites: CS 106B or CS 106X; CS 103 or CS 103B; CS 109 or STATS 116.

Course Grade: The course grade will be based on the following components.

• 8 Homework assignments: 50% (that is 7.143% per homework, see below)
  • The lowest homework score will be dropped, so each of your 7 graded homework assignments comprises 7.143% of the course grade.
• Midterm exam: 20%
• Final exam: 30%

Staff Contact

• The best way to reach the staff is by making a private post on Ed.
• You may also reach us by email at cs161-staff-win2324@cs.stanford.edu (the Student Liaison monitors this mailing list) with any questions or concerns that you do not wish to post on Ed.