Chevron Left
Back to Graph Search, Shortest Paths, and Data Structures

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Graph Search, Shortest Paths, and Data Structures by Stanford University

4.8
stars
1,973 ratings

About the Course

The primary topics in this part of the specialization are: data structures (heaps, balanced search trees, hash tables, bloom filters), graph primitives (applications of breadth-first and depth-first search, connectivity, shortest paths), and their applications (ranging from deduplication to social network analysis)....

Top reviews

DS

Mar 29, 2020

Awesome course! Professor Roughgarden is fantastic. The material was appropriately challenging. Perfect amount of rigor. Only one minor squabble: the hash problem set is terribly misleading.

OK

Oct 30, 2021

The course was very interesting. As a person who struggles with problem-solving, I found this course very helpful because the professor's ideas are well explained. It makes me to learn more.

Filter by:

201 - 225 of 238 Reviews for Graph Search, Shortest Paths, and Data Structures

By Sergey T

•

May 30, 2020

This course was useful to me, thanks. As usual, I liked lectures and programming assignments provided, except for week 4.

I didn't like week 4 materials. It was a huge disappointment to me when the theory about hashing appeared to be too 'theoretical' with absolutely no code at all. It's just some high concept maths and nothing more. It is a real disaster if you are a 'doer' because you'll probably get almost nothing from 4th-week lectures and will be ought to learn about hashing somewhere else. This comes to a question of whether you need to learn hash tables here (and pay your money) or not. So if you have never encountered hash tables in your life, you might want to learn it before you take this course. In that case, consider it as a requirement for your enrollment.

By Christopher E

•

Sep 21, 2019

The only reason this is not a 5-star review is because of the Week 4 programming assignment. The point of Week 4 is to demonstrate the usefulness of using a hash table when frequent look-ups are necessary. However, the constants inherent to the assignment problem make the suggested algorithm take anywhere from 30 min to hours. Meanwhile, there is another algorithm that can accomplish the task in mere seconds, but this is not apparent without scouring the message boards for help. I feel it would be better to either rethink the assignment to bring it more in line with the point of the teaching material, or deliver some instruction on the actually useful algorithm, which is fascinating in its own right.

Otherwise, this course is excellent as usual.

By Gonzalo G A E

•

Apr 21, 2020

In general, the specialization is great (it's challenging, full of interesting material, and the Prof. is interesting yet light to watch for hours in video). However, two of the programming exercises in this course seemed required solutions that were not related to the covered topics and for which the week's material provided sub-optimal (hence ultra slow) solutions. That was a bit frustrating. Nonetheless, it forced me to explore more about the algorithms, data structures and other solutions.

Still a great and challenging course!

By Sivaramakrishnan S

•

May 11, 2020

Algorithms part of the course was phenomenal as always. But the Data Structure side of the course was (a bit of shuffling around the point?) little less engaging. I realize that DS is as important as Algorithms but is certainly not as fun to teach as Algorithms. Maybe the assignments and Quizzes could be restructured to make DS lessons more engaging. Just my 2 cents, otherwise Prof. Tim was cool as always!

By A.Bashar E

•

Jun 2, 2017

Great course for computer scientists. It is easy to understand but it takes too much time to be completed. The video lectures were long and full of too much explanation. And the week 4 programming assignment took very long running time to complete using the algorithm specified in the course but less time using other algorithms.

By Li-Pu C

•

May 27, 2020

I would say it would be a little bit too hard for people that do not major in computer science, and programmed less before.

Even though the professor gives the lecture well, but the input size of the text file is often too large. I think it'd be better to provide the assignment easier.

By Bianca D

•

Feb 23, 2019

Great course; especially on Data Structures and when certain ones are appropriate. I do wish the final exam solutions would be posted after completing the exam successfully in the same way the problem set solutions, hints and comments are provided.

By Jingxuan W

•

Aug 24, 2019

the later graph algorithms are implemented rather cursory. It is quite hard for us to implement it at home using a "big idea" as given in the video. I wish the instructor could give us some intuitions of how Java, C++, or Python handle the case.

By Nikola G

•

Jul 25, 2018

Great course but needs restructuring. The videos of how an algorithm works come after extensive discussion on what its action's running times are. If this were flipped and we learned how it works before running times it would be more intuitive.

By Marcus H

•

Oct 19, 2017

Great course! The programming assignment for Week 4 was a bit demoralizing, though. I am very certain I had the right answer, but had to implement another solution that did not involve Hash Tables in order for it to process in < 24 hours.

By Georgios K

•

Dec 29, 2019

Great course, the first exercise was a little bit hard but the material is useful, if you read the relevant book then the course is even easier.

Last I want to mention that writing the code in Python makes the course easier.

By Sai R

•

Dec 11, 2016

The material was a little light and far fewer video quiz questions to test our understanding of the material. I also tried to test myself on BFS and DFS by doing online quizzes like geeksforgeeks - bombed really hard.

By L H

•

Mar 2, 2021

There is very little hand-holding in this course and no code provided. This really challenges you to implement the ideas taught in the most efficient and appropriate manner possible.

By Garrett M

•

May 22, 2018

assignments didn't seem as interesting or complex as class 1, besides week 1 of class 2. Lecture material was high quality however, and the advanced optional material is appreciated

By Songmao L

•

Nov 3, 2019

Hope the professor could teach more about hashing and give a detailed implementation of some data structures or supply some interface template code.

By Derrick W

•

Mar 23, 2021

The first programming assignment is most challenging, while the rest are easier. I expect the assignments are designed in a more consistent way.

By Joseph B

•

Aug 9, 2018

This course was much harder than the first one. Plan to spend extra time doing the assignments. However, it is totally worth it!

By PLN R

•

Jun 17, 2018

Great course! Best one for refreshing concepts! Can act as a starting point too! Absolutely love the explanation.

By Marko D

•

Jan 15, 2020

Great coverage of graphs and basic implementations. Wish hash implementation was discussed in more details.

By Manu A

•

Feb 9, 2020

more examples of hashing algorithms could have been introduced (like consistent hashing, Murmur hash etc.)

By Rudransh J

•

May 4, 2020

An exhaustive and engaging course. Recommended if you can work hard with dedication. Overall very nice

By Fan Y

•

May 1, 2018

The optional components seem to be important to answer the quizzes and questions for some weeks.

By Utsav S

•

Jul 27, 2020

it helped me a lot specially the hash table content portion..Thanks a lot

By ALLA K R

•

Jan 15, 2020

i understand algorithms very well thank u for learning me more detail

By Sandeep P

•

Sep 8, 2018

Very nice introduction to Graph Search. Thanks to the instructors!