Adventures in Advanced Algorithms

Adventures in Advanced Algorithms grew out of the development of open educational resources (OER) for the course Advanced Algorithms (CS 466/666) taught at the School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo. The goal of these notes is to present a series of modern algorithmic techniques in a mathematically rigorous manner to advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students, and anyone curious about algorithm design beyond the standard introductory curriculum.

The emphasis is not on cataloging problems, but on enhancing how we think about problems algorithmically, and on showcasing some of the key algorithmic and analytical techniques that have emerged throughout theoretical computer science (TCS) in the last half-century—advances that introductory courses, still largely centered on 1960s–70s material, tend to leave out. The notes assume familiarity with basic algorithm design and analysis and with discrete probability, and build toward more advanced techniques and proof methods. Each chapter is sized to be covered in roughly one lecture, and the material is intended to be read largely in the order presented, although after Part I the remaining parts can, for the most part, be read in any order.

Disclaimer: The choice of topics in this book is inherently biased—by the personal taste of the author, and by what could realistically be covered in his courses. The book does not attempt to provide a comprehensive survey of all techniques in algorithm design, nor does it in any way claim to cover the most “important” or “fundamental” topics; rather, the topics were chosen simply to introduce the reader to some advanced ideas in TCS and algorithm design.

This book is released as an open educational resource: freely available for instructors and students to use, adapt, and improve. See here for the copyright information and how to cite this book.

The full outline of the book, including chapters that are not yet released, is available in the table of contents:  TABLE OF CONTENTS (PDF)

Individual chapters are available below. Chapters still under construction are marked coming up soon and will be posted as they are finished.

If you use or adapt this book, please cite it as:

Sepehr Assadi. Adventures in Advanced Algorithms: A Guide for Curious Students. 2026. Open educational resource, sepehr.assadi.info/advanced-algorithms.

@book{assadi2026adventures,
  author = {Sepehr Assadi},
  title  = {Adventures in Advanced Algorithms: A Guide for Curious Students},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {Open educational resource. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
  url    = {https://sepehr.assadi.info/advanced-algorithms/}
}