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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Algorithms on Graphs by University of California San Diego

4.7
stars
2,231 ratings

About the Course

If you have ever used a navigation service to find optimal route and estimate time to destination, you've used algorithms on graphs. Graphs arise in various real-world situations as there are road networks, computer networks and, most recently, social networks! If you're looking for the fastest time to get to work, cheapest way to connect a set of computers into a network or efficient algorithm to automatically find communities and opinion leaders in Facebook, you're going to work with graphs and algorithms on graphs. In this online course, you will first learn what a graph is and what are some of the most important properties. Then you'll learn several ways to traverse graphs and how you can do useful things while traversing the graph in some order. We will then talk about shortest paths algorithms — from the basic ones to those which open door for 1000000 times faster algorithms used in Google Maps and other navigational services. You will use these algorithms if you choose to work on our Fast Shortest Routes industrial capstone project. We will finish with minimum spanning trees which are used to plan road, telephone and computer networks and also find applications in clustering and approximate algorithms....

Top reviews

CS

Jun 30, 2019

Excellent Course for anyone looking to expertise Graph Algorithm. Professor's explained each problem and algorithm in a very easy to learn approach. Grades are tough and yet func to get challenged.

CC

Oct 6, 2018

Good balance between theory and practice. The assignments are well thought to measure the understanding of videos, which I had to watch many times to grasp the hidden tips from the instructor.

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26 - 50 of 359 Reviews for Algorithms on Graphs

By Christopher B

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Feb 20, 2017

This was a really excellent little unit. I really appreciate going over all the algorithms in this course and I have a better understanding of how we explore graphs to find valuable information. I really enjoyed the challenge optional week as well. I felt less stress to complete it since it was optional, but it was still very challenging and I couldn't complete it (even though I really tried). I feel the challenge optional week may need to be made slightly easier though to give people who are normally busy to get a chance to try and solve the problems in it (it did eat up a lot of my spare time). Excellent work, great course (wish I knew contraction hierarchies better, been reading some papers but still unsure of how to best implement it).

By Patrick G

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Oct 6, 2023

This class was a good introduction to graphs and graph algorithms - I came in already having completed the Stanford Coursera Graph Algorithms course, and some of the material was review, but a lot was also new. Some of the algorithms developed for that earlier course that allowed me to pass would not work on all test cases in this course (like finding SCC's), and the stricter grading makes sense because this is a graduate-level course and the Stanford Algorithms course is more of a junior/senior/pre-graduate school course. If you find this course too difficult on your first pass, I recommend working through the Stanford Graph Algorithms course to build up and prepare for this course!

By Abhijith A

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Dec 29, 2020

It was fantastic. Lectures were great and assignments were enlightening. While I was tempted to remove a star due to poor (actually 0) response on the Forum to any of the questions I have asked, I realized that most of the questions I had were already answered before by someone else on the forum. However, I do suggest the team to please make it a point to respond to questions on the Forum. It seems like it is dead for now, and you might as well remove the Forum and archive the older content to something like FAQ.

By A_43_Rahul R

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Sep 17, 2020

I have always been enthusiastic about the Various Data Structures and their Real Life Apllications, and the concepts of Graphs were amonst my key interests. The mission is accomplised as I completed this course, I feel more confident in exploring the Vast concepts of Graphs. A GREAT HEADSTART to my ventures of learning graphs , cannot be better than this course if u had always struggled to find the Best Teachers to teach u amamzing concepts

By Lee Z Y

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Oct 8, 2017

Great material! The 6th week is tough though (I think that was the first time in the course they grade your solution with real world datasets - graphs that goes by millions of nodes) - I only managed to finish bidirectional Dijkstra before bailing out (for the record up until now I had finished every single programming assignment before this). I won't say it's a bad thing, cause I cruise through week 1-5, so having week 6 is rather humbling.

By nick

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Oct 28, 2016

Fantastic course! I am new on graph algorithms and this course totally mesmerized me. The course material is just right for me , neither too difficult nor too easy. And the programming task is challenging and I like the way the test cases not shown to us because it pushed me to think of strange or rare case on which my program may fail. I really learned a lot from this course! Thanks to the instructors!

By Nandan K

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Jun 18, 2019

This was one of the more challenging course in the specialization. Learnt a lot about graphs, traversing, running time, shortest paths, minimum spanning trees etc., Most of all the problem statement gradually became challenging and we had to actually model the problem statement to fit the algorithm. Do not leave the course in between because it becomes a lot harder to quickly resume where you left.

By Ashish S

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Jul 19, 2017

This is my first course on Coursera. Not only that this is first time I have learned any algorithms course officially. I was little afraid first to directly jump to third course in 6 course package. The instructors are very good and the assignments are superb. I am looking forward to complete the remaining all extra assignments in the course to make maximum utilization of learning.

By Gael H

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Apr 8, 2018

Great course! Even though I am not a programmer and didn't do the other courses in the specializations, I could still go through this course with only a small amount of personal research on data structures (which are covered in previous courses of the specialization). Assignments are fun and challenging. Strongly recommended for anyone interested in graphs. Thank you guys.

By Deepak M

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Mar 4, 2020

This course is enough for a beginner to actually understand what a graph is and how to think a problem solving approach for problems with the help of graphs. It not only tells a detailed knowledge about graphs and algorithms but also develop thinking of problems in a graphical way which is very impressive. I am fully satisfied with this course.

By Kevin K

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Aug 31, 2016

This is an interesting course, which is closely related to the graph theory in mathematics. As the previous courses, programming assignments are given every week but it is slightly harder than before. Some pseudo codes are not that easy to convert into the programming language. Yet, it is one of the excellent courses in Coursera.

By Kamran M

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Jun 17, 2017

Very useful and thorough course for computer scientists and serious software engineers. The assignments are excellent requiring deep understanding of the subject matter. The instructors are very competent and their approach in mathematical proofing of the underlying algorithms is perhaps what sets this course apart from others.

By Abhishek M

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Mar 11, 2017

It was one of the best course. The problems in the programming weekly assignments were very carefully designed. All the mentors were really amazing and having in-depth knowledge in algorithms. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and I feel I am much more comfortable tacking graph problems and solving them efficiently. Thank you!

By MohammadReza H

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Apr 15, 2023

Maybe there are lot's of graph courses out there but this course is one of the best ones because it's main focus is on intution and give you the ideas behind the algorithm I think if you wanna make a solid foundation this course is for you go through it explore the content and enjoy the way which it is designed

By Matt H

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Dec 19, 2016

Outstanding. I highly recommend paying for this course instead of auditing it, so you have access to the graded homework assignments. The problems are ingenious, and so much fun I wish I could do them again. Without doing the assignments, I wouldn't have learned as much as I did. It's well worth the money.

By Rashim N T

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Feb 29, 2020

This course is very informative and gives an amazing experience learning about graphs and their uses.

It covers alot of topics like BFS, DFS, Djikstra, Prim, Kruskal, astar which are VERY IMPORTANT to understand for any CS student.

I am highly grateful to the teachers for making such a wonderful course.

By Aishwarya R

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May 8, 2021

Excellent course! I am happy that I got an amazing opportunity to fill all the knowledge gaps and become more confident to solve a wide variety of graph related problems! Assignment were super useful to develope problem solving, debuggin skills. Kudos to the organizers and lecturers!!

By Jenna W

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Sep 17, 2016

Fun course, well done. Overall I felt the class materials were very handled in this course. Further, it was tightly focused on a related set of algorithms where knowledge of each built on preceding knowledge well. Everything I need from a distance/on-line course and presented well.

By Wendell H

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Mar 15, 2019

Great content, great problem sets.

Minor issue. sometimes transcript at the bottom of video were incorrect or says [INAUDIBLE]

Link for Week 5 instructions were missing from Instructions page, and students need to hunt for it from the forums where other students posted the link.

By H.M F R

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Sep 24, 2019

Good course with clear explanation on core concept. The pseudo code can be easily translated to language of choice. The proof of the algorithm help build core understanding of graph theory and can be used to create custom algorithms for different industrial implementation.

By Shubham B

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May 31, 2017

The lectures and materials were very good. This sets a concrete foundation to Graph Algorithms though it might be a bit steep for a complete starter. But the course is highly recommended. The assignments are amazing and helps to build confidence in building graph problems.

By Yasir E

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Aug 14, 2019

All the concepts and ideas in the course were explained very clearly and briefly. Furthermore, the proofs were less mathematical and explained very intuitively. So overall its a nice course to take both for newbies and also for ones looking for refresher of the concepts.

By Tamilarasu S

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Nov 24, 2017

Very good course. Starts with gentle introduction to graphs followed by various traversal schemes.

Shortest path problems and minimum spanning tree problems are covered in great detail.

Advanced graph algorithms such as A* are also covered.

Very well organized course.

By Joseph T

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May 27, 2017

This course was a lot of fun. The word load is spot on. My strategy was to start from the assignment then go back to the videos and notes for tips and clues. This allowed me to do easy assignments fast and then not spend unnecessary time on harder assignments.

By Basma A

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Jan 11, 2020

This Course is delivering an extensive amount of information that will boost your problem-solving skills as a developer. It enabled me to solve many problems on platforms like leetcode.

yet it is delivering that content in a simple and clear way to understand.