Why do we study algorithm design? There are, of course, many reasons, and our motivations for learning something is very much dependent on our own circumstances. There are, without a doubt, important professional reasons for being interested in algorithm design. Algorithms are the foundation of all computing. We can think of a computer as being a piece of hardware, with a hard drive, memory chips, processors, and so on. However, the essential component, the thing that, if missing, would render modern technology impossible, is algorithms. Let's learn more about it in the upcoming sections.

In this chapter, we will look at the following topics:

• An introduction to algorithms
• Recursion and backtracking
• Big O notation