<commit_before>---
layout: post
title: Algorithms 101 Big O Notation
---
I presented at the Nashville Women Programmers meetup on algorithms, giving an introduction to Big O notation.

My slides are on my [google drive] (https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1z45j6-zuiF4Iy67n23t_FqDqXICoccsZhNPoNY7nJTQ/edit?usp=sharing)  

Many whiteboard examples supplemented the slides that introduced Big O notation. These examples illustrated why big O ignores constants, and why smaller elements are irrelevant for large values. We started with various function formulas, and worked our way up to analyzing the algorithm for solving the handshake problem. 

A few observations after presenting on this topic for the first time:

+ Everyone was so eager to learn, and it was wonderful to teach something I enjoy so much. 
+ The group was so supportive and helpful to one another - everyone wanted everyone else to understand the concepts in the lecture, and to be able to follow every step of the problem solving and analysis.<commit_msg>Update 2015-2-9-Algorithms-101.md<commit_after>---
layout: post
title: Algorithms 101 Big O Notation
---
I presented at the Nashville Women Programmers meetup on algorithms, giving an introduction to Big O notation.

Slides:

<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1z45j6-zuiF4Iy67n23t_FqDqXICoccsZhNPoNY7nJTQ/embed?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000" frameborder="0" width="960" height="569" allowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" webkitallowfullscreen="true"></iframe>

Many whiteboard examples supplemented the slides that introduced Big O notation. These examples illustrated why big O ignores constants, and why smaller elements are irrelevant for large values. We started with various function formulas, and worked our way up to analyzing the algorithm for solving the handshake problem. 

A few observations after presenting on this topic for the first time:

+ Everyone was so eager to learn, and it was wonderful to teach something I enjoy so much. 
+ The group was so supportive and helpful to one another - everyone wanted everyone else to understand the concepts in the lecture, and to be able to follow every step of the problem solving and analysis.
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