Data structure/Algorithms course Dublin

Peck3277

Hey guys,

Are there any courses offered in Dublin that cover Data Structures and Algorithms?

I've a degree in Electronic Engineering and have been developing for a few years now but I feel like my lack of formal education in data structures/algorithms is holding me back.

If you've had some success with online courses please let me know but I'd be most interesting in hearing about physical courses based in Dublin that I could attend.

srsly78

Various Computer Science degree courses cover this. You want a shorter one?

Pretty much any programming course would cover these topics, as they pretty much define it.

What exactly is holding you back? If you know difference between list and dictionary then you are pretty sorted for most common stuff. Also a quick scan of this: https://rob-bell.net/2009/06/a-beginners-guide-to-big-o-notation/

edit: I support elecrical engineers and other scientists/engys that code in Matlab. They always complain their code is slow and blame Matlab (which sucks but is not at fault here). I reimplement their stuff in python and its x100 faster, this is nothing to do with Python however. It all comes down me using dictionaries, whereas their original code would be stuck iterating through lists.

Aswerty

https://www.coursera.org/learn/algorithms-part1

Did a few weeks of this a while back but gave up on it out of sheer laziness. Seemed very good. The course is starting on July 10th so it'd be perfect timing for yourself. I'd nearly be tempted to start this again but it starts alongside a new job so I don't want to split my priorities.

If you're not familiar with coursera - they do free online courses where assignments/tests are all automated. Tests are multiple choice or you put in a hard result (e.g. a number). Assignments have automated tests run against them to verify they're correct.

I'd be in a similar boat to yourself. I did mechatronic engineering in college so never formally learned algos and data structures.

14ned

Peck3277 wrote: »

I've a degree in Electronic Engineering and have been developing for a few years now but I feel like my lack of formal education in data structures/algorithms is holding me back.

As a seasoned C++ programmer, I can tell you all you really need to know to be effective is the standard library: (i) what algorithm is implemented by each of the standard library algorithms (ii) its min, max and mean complexity in time and space.

Both are given by the C++ language standard text, so that's one approach. Plenty of books also exist which hold the hand more.

So basically I wouldn't overthink it, 99% of the code you'll ever write in your career will use of one the precanned algorithm implementations from your language's standard library. If you ever are writing your own algorithm, you are doing it wrong.

Now, as to the wider "wouldn't it be wise if you did know lots of algorithms you'll never use in practice?" e.g. for a Google interview, I'd suggest go buy the Google interview preparation books and rote learn them. If you're super keen, apply to Google and take their interview to test yourself. You can even tell them you are using them purely for that, they don't mind.

Niall

topper_harley2

^^^ what he said. As a Java dev, you spend ages learning how to write bubble sort, merge sort, quick sort, tree sort etc, and then in the real world you just use Collections.sort(myList) and you don't really care how it works!

off.the.walls

https://www.udemy.com/algorithms-and-data-structures-in-python/learn/v4/overview

great course