Randomized Algorithms

A mathematician at heart in the world of software engineering, this is one of those few books that I take out from time to time and leave beside my bed. With it's wide scope it is sometimes terse and needs careful reading. Yet the world of randomized algorithms comes through with strength on a good formal basis. It is an entertaining and yet highly educational book.

This book is a jewel. It demonstrates how clever and beautifully simple probabilistic ideas can lead to the design of very efficient algorithms. I like its very verbal intuitive style, with proof strategies being always transparently explained. For computer scientists, this is *the* reference work in randomized algorithms, by now a major paradigm of algorithms design. For classical probabilists, this could serve as an eye-opener on unsuspected applications of their field to important areas of computer science.

The book has an exoustive amount of algorithms. Not everything is proved. Sometimes the proof contains to few steps to be understood. There are many algorithms explained well. After reading this book it is easy to create your own randomized algorithms.

I've taken two CS classes that use this book and I always felt like this book was very informative. The algorithms and concepts that Motwani brings forth are extremely insightful and interesting. However, the presentation of the proofs has a lot of room for improvement. Notation is carried over from previous chapters and is sometimes unexplained, which makes it very difficult for someone who does not have a lot of familiarity with the material presented. The book presents very interesting topics and leaves a lot of open (unresolved) questions to the reader's curiosity and challenge.

I have just completed a graduate course using this book. At times the book is a bit terse (not necessarily a negative!) and overall I can highly recommend it.Wolf Bein, UNLV