Chapter 21. Random and Combinatorial
While sorting and searching are two very fundamental problems in computer science, they are far from the only ones. In fact, those problems have been thoroughly solved by people who deeply specialize in such things. In today's world, it is more likely that a solution to a real-world problem involves generating random numbers, the best possible combination of several items (combinatorics) , "rolling up" several time periods into single numbers, and visualizing the results. Random number generation algorithms and solving combinatorial problems efficiently have become very important. Especially for the latter, the implementation will be specific to the solution, but there are fundamental approaches that remain. In this chapter, we will discuss a few of these fundamental approaches and learn about the following:
- Implementing backtracking algorithms
- Utilizing dynamic programming techniques
- How a pseudo-random number generator works
