What part do algorithms play in modern web development, specifically, user based web sites?
For your typical website, algorithms are mostly not necessary. You might find hash tables and other caching methods helpful, but usually it doesn't make a huge difference.
Algorithms become important in web development when you have a lot of data that you have to process or when you are performing complicated transformations on that data. For example, consider the Quora search engine. You could probably develop a similar search engine without much algorithms experience. However, once your site gained thousands or millions of users, your search engine would not be able to handle the large bandwidth of requests. There would simply be too many users requesting to search too many documents. And that is when algorithms help you. Algorithms let you figure out efficient ways to handle large amounts of data.
Algorithms also let you handle complicated transformations on data. For example, maybe you want to develop a CAPTCHA. You could generate an image and output wavy letters with basic programming skills. However, if you learn algorithms, you will be better equipped to generate images with blur, ripples, reflection, noise, etc. Or, for instance, consider Google documents. Without algorithms, it would be impossible to create collaborative real-time text editing. The problem is just too large and too complex to bust out a solution in a single coding session. You need to have a process to get you from one state to another. Algorithms help you create solutions to these problems.
Are algorithms becoming an essential characteristic of modern user populated web apps?
Yes. The nature of user-populated web apps is that they have the potential to grow very big. In order to grow big, you have to support a lot of data searching, browsing, updating, and deleting. These operations have to be extremely efficient on the average case. The only way to address these issues is to use advanced data structures and algorithms.
What sources would you recommend for learning more about algorithms and creating your own equations?
Books
- Introduction to Algorithms: Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, Clifford Stein: 9780262033848: Amazon.com: Books
- Algorithm Design: Jon Kleinberg, Éva Tardos: 9780321295354: Amazon.com: Books
- The Art of Computer Programming, Volumes 1-4A Boxed Set (Box Set): Donald E. Knuth: 9780321751041: Amazon.com: Books
Online Courses
- Coursera: Algorithms: Design and Analysis I
- Coursera: Algorithms: Design and Analysis II
- Coursera: Algorithms: I
- Coursera: Algorithms, II
- MIT OpenCourseWare: Introduction to Algorithms
- MIT OpenCourseWare: Introduction to Algorithms (SMA 5503)
Websites