Fundamental Algorithms for Software Engineers

As a software engineer, it's crucial to have a strong understanding of fundamental algorithms. Here's a list of essential algorithms that every software engineer should be familiar with:

Sorting Algorithms

Bubble Sort

• Insertion Sort
• Selection Sort
• Merge Sort
• Quick Sort
• Heap Sort
• Counting Sort
• Radix Sort

Bucket Sort

Searching Algorithms

Binary Search

- Depth-First Search (DFS) - Breadth-First Search (BFS)

Graph Algorithms

• Dijkstra's Algorithm (Shortest Path)
• Bellman-Ford Algorithm (Shortest Path with Negative Weights)
• Floyd-Warshall Algorithm (All Pairs Shortest Path)
• Kruskal's Algorithm (Minimum Spanning Tree)
• Prim's Algorithm (Minimum Spanning Tree)
• Topological Sorting
• Tarjan's Algorithm (Strongly Connected Components)

Tree Algorithms

• Binary Search Tree (BST)
• AVL Tree (Self-balancing BST)
• Red-Black Tree (Self-balancing BST)
• Trie (Prefix Tree)
• Huffman Coding (Optimal Prefix Encoding)
• Fenwick Tree (Binary Indexed Tree)

Dynamic Programming

• Fibonacci Series
• Knapsack Problem
• Longest Common Subsequence (LCS)
• Matrix Chain Multiplication
• Edit Distance
• Coin Change Problem

String Algorithms

• String Matching (Naive, KMP, Rabin-Karp)
• Longest Palindromic Substring
• Longest Common Substring
• String Compression (Run-length Encoding)
• Levenshtein Distance (Edit Distance)

Numerical Algorithms

• Euclidean Algorithm (GCD, LCM)
• Primality Testing (Sieve of Eratosthenes)
• Fast Exponentiation (Binary Exponentiation)
• Newton-Raphson Method (Root Finding)
• Monte Carlo Method (Randomized Algorithms)

Miscellaneous

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• Backtracking Algorithms
• Divide and Conquer Strategies
• Greedy Algorithms
• Randomized Algorithms
• Parallel and Concurrent Algorithms

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See also

• Algorithms study cheatsheets