“Introduction to Algorithms” by Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest and Clifford Stein.
Algorithms is the type of subject that can make you put your hand on your head in frustration due to the technical nature of the subject. This book does a terrific job of demystifying topics and giving you a clear and concise notion of the fundamentals which make the algorithm work. In turn, the authors have gotten me to love learning about algorithms.
Every chapter is a new challenge. and the authors are there to help guide you the whole way. Cormen’s Algorithms book is highly regarded as one of the best algorithms books out there, and though I have no experience with any other algorithms texts, it’s fairly obvious to me now why that is true. Cormen’s book is mostly well-organized, easily readable (especially with all the great pictures and examples!), and is best used as a workbook text.
Pretty much all of the chapters rely on chapters previous to some degree, and the exercises especially reflect this behavior as many of them require you to you optimization learned in previous chapters to modify current algorithms.
