<story><title>Algorithms by Jeff Erickson</title><url>http://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/teaching/algorithms/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dkfjs</author><text>Not proving solutions to textbooks seems to be a common theme in mathematics and theoretical computer science. It makes it difficult for those outside of the traditional classroom to learn the material. Instead textbook writers seem to have this adversarial approach against readers, thinking they’ll “cheat themselves” if they look up solutions or attempt to verify their work. Experts make mistakes, beginners would presumably make even more mistakes. Without a feedback mechanism beginners can’t truly know whether their logic is impeccable or if they have a subtle error that they themselves cannot detect. They could easily fool themselves that they have correct understanding.&lt;p&gt;Due to that I will not recommend this current book to any colleagues.&lt;p&gt;If you want an example of a fellow hacker news member that did things right, check out 
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;joshua.smcvt.edu&amp;#x2F;linearalgebra&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;joshua.smcvt.edu&amp;#x2F;linearalgebra&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;He provides solutions and lecture videos... this is truly a democratization approach to learning and a model that other academics should follow.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>unishark</author><text>&amp;gt;  Instead textbook writers seem to have this adversarial approach against readers, thinking they’ll “cheat themselves” if they look up solutions or attempt to verify their work.&lt;p&gt;I agree that worked problems make a text much more valuable and useful; even students in a class may spend a lot of time doing self-study. And for  self-study, without worked problems the book is only useful as a reference while working problems from elsewhere. The author essentially agrees with this.&lt;p&gt;However, it&amp;#x27;s not &amp;quot;thinking&amp;quot; students will cheat themselves, it&amp;#x27;s knowing for a fact that many will. If you give homework that takes multiple hours each week, then for students who have gotten behind or don&amp;#x27;t know the background they should, it will take multiples of that time. Many, if not most, simply won&amp;#x27;t do it if there&amp;#x27;s a shortcut handy. Challenging people to do more than they would on their own is necessarily adversarial.</text></comment>
<story><title>Algorithms by Jeff Erickson</title><url>http://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/teaching/algorithms/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dkfjs</author><text>Not proving solutions to textbooks seems to be a common theme in mathematics and theoretical computer science. It makes it difficult for those outside of the traditional classroom to learn the material. Instead textbook writers seem to have this adversarial approach against readers, thinking they’ll “cheat themselves” if they look up solutions or attempt to verify their work. Experts make mistakes, beginners would presumably make even more mistakes. Without a feedback mechanism beginners can’t truly know whether their logic is impeccable or if they have a subtle error that they themselves cannot detect. They could easily fool themselves that they have correct understanding.&lt;p&gt;Due to that I will not recommend this current book to any colleagues.&lt;p&gt;If you want an example of a fellow hacker news member that did things right, check out 
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;joshua.smcvt.edu&amp;#x2F;linearalgebra&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;joshua.smcvt.edu&amp;#x2F;linearalgebra&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;He provides solutions and lecture videos... this is truly a democratization approach to learning and a model that other academics should follow.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>charlescearl</author><text>Thanks for the reference. Another algorithms text -- though Haskell centric -- that provides solutions is Algorithm Design With Haskell [1]. The exhaustive Combinatorial Mathematics by Douglas West [2] provides hints at least. These are advanced texts though. Another source of solved problems are &amp;quot;problems in&amp;quot; books. Dover offers affordable titles like Fifty Challenging Problems in Probability [3]. There are other 
classics like Combinatorial Problems and Exercises [4] or Proofs from the Book [5], all with solved exercises.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cambridge.org&amp;#x2F;core&amp;#x2F;books&amp;#x2F;algorithm-design-with-haskell&amp;#x2F;824BE0319E3762CE8BA5B1D91EEA3F52&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cambridge.org&amp;#x2F;core&amp;#x2F;books&amp;#x2F;algorithm-design-with-h...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;faculty.math.illinois.edu&amp;#x2F;~west&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;faculty.math.illinois.edu&amp;#x2F;~west&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;store.doverpublications.com&amp;#x2F;0486653552.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;store.doverpublications.com&amp;#x2F;0486653552.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[4] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ams.org&amp;#x2F;books&amp;#x2F;chel&amp;#x2F;361&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.ams.org&amp;#x2F;books&amp;#x2F;chel&amp;#x2F;361&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[5] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.springer.com&amp;#x2F;gp&amp;#x2F;book&amp;#x2F;9783642008566&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.springer.com&amp;#x2F;gp&amp;#x2F;book&amp;#x2F;9783642008566&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>