CLRS Solution Checking

I have started a sporadic effort on checking the solutions of my own work.  Of course, it is done in a very slow pace given my schedule.

I tend to believe that many people abuse homework solutions because I saw a lot of my College classmates did that.  It is probably the least honorable thing to do though many people did that to survive college.

At the same time,  I think posting solutions will probably not make this situation of plagarism better or worse.   In our work, copying a solution but not understanding it will always make one suffer.   For good and bad, many of my classmates didn't end up going deep in technical job.  For those who copied without thinking, they probably won't generate too much of deep thought neither.

Saying so, I would be more circumspect when I post my solutions.  For example, I hope to cross check my work with couple of other sources before I put them out.   I also want to release them slowly such that it gives me some time to churn on it and discover mistakes and alternative solution.

So after some thoughts, I still decide to release solutions but it would be 5 chapters at a time.  It has to be good work and has reasonable degree of scholarship. 

33_F

Solution sets of CLRS

It comes to a point there is some exercises I can't answer on top of my head.  It's ok. Sometimes this is just the way it is.  As long as I had tried, I think it doesn't matter that much.

There are few solution sets floating around the net.  Notable ones are
1, The authors web site:  http://mitpress.mit.edu/algorithms/ , this is a must read because the exercise usually teach you something extra.
2, Partial solutions from Bill Pille.  A reference.  I think it only gives partial solutions.
3, The instructor guide.  I never have access of it.  I think it contains useful insight as well.  If I had it, I would only read it as a last resort.

(Update at 20110911)  After working out exercises of several chapters, I found that the above sources may not have the highest coverage.   Here are couple of others you should consider,
a, Course solution sets.  This is a pretty good source.   CLRS was used in many data structure course in the world.   Some tough (or tedious) problem was actually solved in the past.
b, Pay service such as Cramster has around 80% of CLRS 2nd and 67% of CLRS exercises finished.   I never look at it but it seems to be reasonable.
c, Blogs.  As it turns out, I am not the only person who try to read CLRS page-by-page.  I recommended 壊れた計算機. It is in Japanese but Google Translate would help you understand most of what's going on.

(Update at 20120408)  I saw some traffic drifted to this blog.  Some of the readers requested posting of a particular exercise.  I just hope to add that I am only going to post my own solutions after I finish every 5 chapters.   At this point, it is far from even half of it. (I only finished Chapter 2 and 3 at this point. Chapter 4 doesn't count.)

So good luck with your study.

(Update at 20130120) I have not much time to update this blog.  Unfortunately, Google has direct quite a bit of traffic to this post.    Look at my previous updates to see my stand on writing solutions.

Also my advice to all of you: only look at the solutions when you at least attempt a problem once.  Even it is a failed attempt, it's okay.   Write down your attempted solution on a piece of paper.  This will genuinely help your career rather than just take the solution as it is.

33_P