Congratulations! You have successfully completed the “Elegant by Design” module.
Summary#
In this module, we learned how to leverage the power of dissecting a problem in detail to figure out the least expensive operations required to solve it. In the Bitwise Manipulation pattern, we learned how to use bit-level operators to deliver more efficient solutions than would otherwise be possible. With the Sliding Window pattern, we gained practice in various techniques that ensure that a solution, which seems to require nested loops, actually executes in linear time. Using the Union Find pattern, we learned to solve a diverse set of problems using the disjoint-set data structure.
Takeaways#
We learned how to use efficient linear traversal techniques for problems featuring linked lists and arrays.
We learned the use of the algorithms and problem-solving techniques closely tied to basic data structures such as linked lists, stacks, and matrices.
We got hands-on experience with the two basic tree traversal techniques to solve problems featuring hierarchical data.
We learned how to use hash maps and other techniques to track the key features of a problem that were needed to solve it efficiently.
We learned how to use heaps to efficiently track the top K elements in a stream, to use two heaps to speed up complex algorithms, and to merge sorted data from multiple sources.
We got hands-on experience with manipulating and analyzing time interval data for scheduling and resource allocation.
We learned to recognize problems whose solution requires exhaustive search and got hands-on experience with using the backtracking pattern to develop such solutions.
We learned how to exploit greedy techniques for problems where selecting local optima leads to globally optimal solutions.
We learned how to optimize solutions by storing and reusing recurring subproblems where the problem was composed of nested subproblems.
We learned to use graphs, tries, and the disjoint-set data structure to implement optimal solutions to problems from various domains.
We got hands-on experience with designing and implementing our own custom data structures to solve specific problems that cannot be handled using standard data structures.
We learned to identify when Cyclic Sort could be applied and got hands-on experience with using it to implement efficient solutions.
We learned to recognize the presence of partial order in the input data and got hands-on experience with using Topological Sort to solve hard problems.
We learned to recognize opportunities for optimization using bitwise operators and got hands-on experience with using them to improve solutions.
We learned how to use the Sliding Window pattern to improve the efficiency of solutions.
We practiced and improved our ability to analyze the time and space complexity of algorithms and learned to use it as an objective measure to compare multiple solutions to the same problem.
Solution: Minimize Malware Spread