Studied by 5 peoplealgorithm
a finite set of instructions that completes a task
iteration
a repetitive portion of algorithm which repeats a specified number of times or until a given condition is met
problem
a general description of a task that can or cannot be solved with an algorithm
selection
deciding which steps to do next
sequencing
putting steps in an order
binary search
a search algorithm that starts at the middle of a sorted set of numbers and removes half the data, repeating the process until the desired element is found or all elements have been eliminated
efficiency
a measure of how many steps are needed to create an algorithm
linear search
a search algorithm which checks each element in a list, in order, until the desired value is found or all elements in the list have been checked
reasonable time
algorithms with a polynomial efficiency or lower (constant, linear, square, cube, etc.) are said to run in a reasonable amount of time
unreasonable time
algorithms with exponential or factorial efficiencies are examples of algorithms that run in an unreasonable amount of time
decision problem
a problem with a yes/no answer (ex. is there a path from A to B?)
heuristic
provides a “good enough” solution to a problem where an actual solution is impractical or impossible
optimization problem
a problem with the goal of finding the “best” solution among many (ex. what is the shortest path from A to B?)
undecidable problem
a problem for which no algorithm can be constructed that is always capable of providing a yes-no answer
distributed computing
a model in which programs are run by multiple devices
parallel computing
a model in which programs are broken into small pieces, some of which are run simultaneously
sequential computing
a model in which programs run in order, one command at a time
speedup
the time used to complete a task sequentially divided by the time to complete a task in parallel
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