Algorithms

• A recipe for a computer to follow
• Has an input and an output
• Algorithms need to be deterministic so that the output is consistent and not stochastic

Time Complexity

• The amount of the time the algorithm needs to run relative to the input size
• As the input size grows, how much longer does the algorithm need to complete

Space Complexity

• The amount of memory the algorithm needs relative to the input size
• As the input size grows, how much more memory does the algorithm take

Calculating the complexity

• In the context of time, you are calculating the number of operations the algorithm performs relative to the input size
• In the context of space, you are calculating the amount of memory the algorithm takes relative to the input size

Example

nums = [array]
max_num = 0
for num in nums:
	if num > max_num:
		max_num = num