Version: 0.3.38

Welcome!#

I am glad you join this course about Algorithms & Data Structures. I am preparing this course as well as I can with the time, resources and energy I have, and I do hope you will find it relevant. Many thanks to the students who took this course in the past: Their feedback has been very valuable. Let me know what you think!

Despite its official title, this course is first and foremost about solving “programming” problems. This is the most valuable tool a programmer has because it applies across technologies, languages and frameworks. The things I learned 15 years ago still apply to my daily engineering work. This is rock-solid. But it is also a competence that is hard to get.

Important

Anyone can join and succeed in this course: There is no prerequisite. I will use some high-school maths (functions, sets, probabilities, summations, boolean logic), which I recall in a separate appendix. The plan is to explain everything we need as we go. This is not a maths class.

What Can You Expect from Me?#

I am here to help. Please ask. I will do my best to support you. I am there three times a week for all lectures and lab sessions. Feel free to come and ask questions. I am paid to answer you!

Note

I am only an external resource in NTNU. I am a software engineer at Axbit so I don’t have an office where you can find me.

Feel free to reach out, by email work best for me franck.chauvel@ntnu.no Expect a reply in the next 12 hours.

What Do I Expect from You?#

This course is hard—I cannot stress this enough. Do not wait the last moment to start preparing for the final examination.This course is an opportunity, and here is how I would do the most it:

  • Attend the lecture physically. Even more, ask questions! Attending empower you to ask questions and to stop me if I am unclear. Please do so: I am happy to adjust or answer to the best of my knowledge.

  • Attend the lab sessions and go through the exercises. In my experience, exercises (whether on paper or on computer) is the only thing that really ground our understanding.

  • Go through the home examinations. I believe this is a good preparation to the final one and also a good way to see where we stand.

  • Reach out if you need any help.

  • Practice. practice, practice.