I started Phase 1 of the Software Engineer roadmap Gemini created for me by reading “Grokking Algorithms” by Aditya Bhargava. I bought the book from Amazon a few weeks ago, and after reading the first four chapters and completing the exercises I want to give a partial review.
So Far Reading “Grokking Algorithms” Is Easy
I’ve read several different programming books this year and reading “Grokking Algorithms” has been one of the easiest. The writing style is concise, but packed with great information. With the combination of the drawings for the various topics I’m able to learn about Binary Search and Quick Sort faster. That’s the main reason why Bhargava wrote the book. He said learning about algorithms is tough enough, and many of the books about the topic don’t make learning it easier. I’m fine with learning from text-only books because I have a great imagination and can picture the words and topics in my mind. Yet, with the easy reading style I don’t have to “think” as hard.
So Far Reading “Grokking Algorithms” Is Fun
It’s fun reading this book! Not only do I like the writing style, but the drawings are fun and fit well with the different topics. The drawings aren’t distracting, but they aren’t low-quality either. Finally, I like the exercises throughout each chapter. Those aren’t incredibly easy so I feel I’m not learning anything. Nor are they so difficult that I give up and feel dumb. As each chapter progresses the difficulty ramps up gradually. Those reasons are why I think the book is fun.
The Book Finally Helped Me Understand Recursion
Like many students I find recursion difficult. I tried different learning methods and media to understand it, but I couldn’t. I knew why programmers used it, but since I couldn’t get it to work in my code properly I decided against using it. So when the chapter about recursion came I was a little nervous, as I remembered my past failures. Yet, this book helped me understand why recursion is important in certain applications, and how to use it properly in code. Grokking Algorithms taught me how recursion uses the Call Stack to operate, and using the debugger in PyCharm I got to see that in action. Now I don’t feel any nervousness about recursion.