Unlock Jeff Erickson’s Free ‘Algorithms’ Textbook – A Deep Dive into Core CS Techniques

Today I share an algorithm book.

A veteran professor who has been teaching since 1998, Jeff Erickson, organized his two‑decades of UIUC lecture material into a book simply titled Algorithms . The book’s electronic version is provided for free.

Book Content

The book totals 448 pages (excluding the foreword and introduction) and contains 12 chapters covering the following algorithms:

Recursion

Backtracking

Dynamic programming

Greedy algorithms

Basic graph algorithms

Depth‑first search

Minimum spanning tree

Shortest path, all‑pairs shortest path

Maximum flow and minimum cut

Applications of flow and cut

NP‑hard problems

Jeff calls this the “0th edition” before formal publication; besides the printed version, the electronic version will remain freely available.

The book is a compilation of his lecture notes, including exercises and exams that are updated yearly. Answers to the exercises are intentionally not provided to encourage students to work through the solutions themselves.

Jeff believes that providing answer keys can create a conflict between university teaching and self‑learners, leading to rote memorization rather than understanding the underlying logic.

How to Get the Electronic Version

Follow the WeChat public account SpringForAll社区 and send the keyword “算法2022” to receive the free electronic copy.