Zstandard: Modern Compression Algorithm
Zstandard (zstd) emerged from Facebook in 2016, created by Yann Collet—the same engineer behind LZ4. The motivation was straightforward: existing compression algorithms forced an uncomfortable…
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Template Method Pattern: Algorithm Skeleton
The Template Method pattern is a behavioral design pattern that defines the skeleton of an algorithm in a base class, deferring some steps to subclasses. The base class controls the overall flow—the…
Read more →Tarjan's Algorithm: Strongly Connected Components
A strongly connected component (SCC) is a maximal subgraph where every vertex can reach every other vertex through directed edges. ‘Maximal’ means you can’t add another vertex without breaking this…
Read more →Selection Sort: Algorithm and Implementation
Selection sort is one of the simplest comparison-based sorting algorithms you’ll encounter. It belongs to the family of elementary sorting algorithms alongside bubble sort and insertion…
Read more →Rabin-Karp Algorithm: Rolling Hash Pattern Search
String pattern matching is one of those problems that seems trivial until you’re processing gigabytes of log files or scanning DNA sequences with billions of base pairs. The naive approach—slide the…
Read more →Prim's Algorithm: MST Using Priority Queue
A minimum spanning tree (MST) is a subset of edges from a connected, weighted, undirected graph that connects all vertices with the minimum possible total edge weight—without forming any cycles. If…
Read more →Moore's Voting Algorithm: Majority Element
The majority element problem asks a deceptively simple question: given an array of n elements, find the element that appears more than n/2 times. If such an element exists, it dominates the array—it…
Read more →Minimum Cut: Stoer-Wagner Algorithm
A minimum cut in a graph partitions vertices into two non-empty sets such that the total weight of edges crossing the partition is minimized. This fundamental problem appears everywhere in practice:…
Read more →Manacher's Algorithm: Longest Palindromic Substring
Given a string, find the longest substring that reads the same forwards and backwards. This classic problem appears everywhere: text editors implementing ‘find palindrome’ features, DNA sequence…
Read more →Line Sweep Algorithm: Computational Geometry
Line sweep is one of those algorithmic paradigms that, once internalized, makes you see geometry problems differently. The core idea is deceptively simple: instead of reasoning about objects…
Read more →Kosaraju's Algorithm: SCC Detection
A strongly connected component (SCC) in a directed graph is a maximal set of vertices where every vertex is reachable from every other vertex. In simpler terms, if you pick any two nodes in an SCC,…
Read more →Kruskal's Algorithm: Minimum Spanning Tree
A minimum spanning tree (MST) is a subset of edges from a connected, weighted, undirected graph that connects all vertices with the minimum possible total edge weight—and without forming any cycles….
Read more →KMP Algorithm: String Pattern Matching
String pattern matching is one of those fundamental problems that appears everywhere in software engineering. Every time you hit Ctrl+F in your text editor, run a grep command, or search through log…
Read more →Johnson's Algorithm: Sparse All-Pairs Shortest Path
The all-pairs shortest path (APSP) problem asks a straightforward question: given a weighted graph, what’s the shortest path between every pair of vertices? This comes up constantly in…
Read more →Hungarian Algorithm: Assignment Problem
You have five developers and five features to build. Each developer has different skills, so the time to complete each feature varies by who’s assigned to it. Your goal: assign each developer to…
Read more →Hopcroft-Karp Algorithm: Maximum Bipartite Matching
A bipartite graph consists of two disjoint vertex sets where edges only connect vertices from different sets. Think of it as two groups—employees and tasks, students and projects, or users and…
Read more →GCD and LCM: Euclidean Algorithm
The Greatest Common Divisor (GCD) of two integers is the largest positive integer that divides both numbers without leaving a remainder. The Least Common Multiple (LCM) is the smallest positive…
Read more →Ford-Fulkerson Algorithm: Maximum Flow
Network flow problems model how resources move through systems with limited capacity. Think of water pipes, internet bandwidth, highway traffic, or supply chain logistics. Each connection has a…
Read more →Floyd-Warshall Algorithm: All-Pairs Shortest Path
Sometimes you need more than the shortest path from a single source. Routing protocols need distance tables between all nodes. Social network analysis requires computing closeness centrality for…
Read more →Floyd's Algorithm: Cycle Detection and Entry Point
Cycles in data structures cause real problems. A circular reference in a linked list creates an infinite loop when you traverse it. Memory management systems that can’t detect cycles leak resources….
Read more →Edmonds-Karp Algorithm: BFS-Based Max Flow
Flow networks model systems where something moves from a source to a sink through a network of edges with capacity constraints. Think of water pipes, network packets, or goods through a supply chain….
Read more →Divide and Conquer: Algorithm Design Paradigm
Divide and conquer is one of the most powerful algorithm design paradigms in computer science. The concept is deceptively simple: break a problem into smaller subproblems, solve them independently,…
Read more →DFS: Depth-First Search Algorithm
Depth-First Search is one of the two fundamental graph traversal algorithms every developer should know cold. Unlike its sibling BFS, which explores neighbors level by level, DFS commits fully to a…
Read more →Dijkstra's Algorithm: Shortest Path in Weighted Graphs
Every time you ask Google Maps for directions, request a route in a video game, or send a packet across the internet, a shortest path algorithm runs behind the scenes. These systems model their…
Read more →Dinic's Algorithm: Efficient Maximum Flow
Maximum flow problems appear everywhere in computing, often disguised as something else entirely. When you’re routing packets through a network, you’re solving a flow problem. When you’re matching…
Read more →Bubble Sort: Algorithm, Implementation, and Complexity
Bubble sort is the algorithm everyone learns first and uses never. That’s not an insult—it’s a recognition of its true purpose. This comparison-based sorting algorithm earned its name from the way…
Read more →Boyer-Moore Algorithm: Efficient String Search
Every programmer has written a nested loop to find a substring. You slide the pattern across the text, comparing character by character. It works, but it’s O(nm) where n is text length and m is…
Read more →Boruvka's Algorithm: Parallel-Friendly MST
Otakar Borůvka developed his minimum spanning tree algorithm in 1926 to solve an electrical network optimization problem in Moravia. Nearly a century later, this algorithm is experiencing a…
Read more →BFS: Breadth-First Search Algorithm
Breadth-First Search is one of the foundational graph traversal algorithms in computer science. Developed by Konrad Zuse in 1945 and later reinvented by Edward F. Moore in 1959 for finding the…
Read more →Bellman-Ford Algorithm: Negative Weight Shortest Path
Dijkstra’s algorithm operates on a greedy assumption: once you’ve found the shortest path to a node, you’re done with it. This works beautifully when all edges are non-negative because adding more…
Read more →Aho-Corasick Algorithm: Multi-Pattern Matching
You need to scan a document for 10,000 banned words. Or detect any of 50,000 malware signatures in a binary. Or find all occurrences of thousands of DNA motifs in a genome. The naive approach—running…
Read more →A* Search Algorithm: Heuristic Pathfinding
A* (pronounced ‘A-star’) is the pathfinding algorithm you’ll reach for in 90% of cases. Developed by Peter Hart, Nils Nilsson, and Bertram Raphael at Stanford Research Institute in 1968, it’s become…
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