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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Data Structures and Performance by University of California San Diego

4.8
stars
2,210 ratings

About the Course

How do Java programs deal with vast quantities of data? Many of the data structures and algorithms that work with introductory toy examples break when applications process real, large data sets. Efficiency is critical, but how do we achieve it, and how do we even measure it? This is an intermediate Java course. We recommend this course to learners who have previous experience in software development or a background in computer science, and in particular, we recommend that you have taken the first course in this specialization (which also requires some previous experience with Java). In this course, you will use and analyze data structures that are used in industry-level applications, such as linked lists, trees, and hashtables. You will explain how these data structures make programs more efficient and flexible. You will apply asymptotic Big-O analysis to describe the performance of algorithms and evaluate which strategy to use for efficient data retrieval, addition of new data, deletion of elements, and/or memory usage. The program you will build throughout this course allows its user to manage, manipulate and reason about large sets of textual data. This is an intermediate Java course, and we will build on your prior knowledge. This course is designed around the same video series as in our first course in this specialization, including explanations of core content, learner videos, student and engineer testimonials, and support videos -- to better allow you to choose your own path through the course!...

Top reviews

DB

Oct 12, 2017

Great into to Java, instructors have clearly put thought in to the format with the choose your own learning style videos, and additional coverage where it may be needed. These have been very helpful.

SS

Dec 18, 2015

The course curriculum is well designed and teaches students the basic data structures needed to be a successful software engineer. The project is good, and the weekly assignments are challenging.

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26 - 50 of 444 Reviews for Data Structures and Performance

By Anurag G

•

Sep 14, 2017

A very informative course which lies at the heart of Computer Science. Gives you not just the fundamentals behind all the data structures, but also makes you implement Linked Lists and Custom Tree data structures for specific problems. All programming assignments are great, fun, and challenging, and really make you practice the newly learnt data structures in real time. The faculty teaching this course is really very thorough in their teachings and are simply awesome.

By yumeka h

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Dec 28, 2018

Many thanks to all the people who created this course! I really learned a lot about data structure (LinkedList, tree, etc) and I am feeling much more confidence in programming after taking this course.

Although some of the assignments were difficult for me (I stucked a lot), but I am really happy and proud when I got full score from the grader :) Really recommend if you have programming experience but new to data structure!!

By Alex D

•

Dec 17, 2015

I liked everything about this course: the theory, the programming assignments, the consistency and clarity in explaining complex things. The material was structured, well-organized, valuable and helpful. I really liked the lecturers. Mia Minnes, Leo Porter and Christine Alvarado are the ones of the best I've seen in my whole life! A Huge Thank You for your hard work and your strong dedication to what you do!

By Siddharth S

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Aug 9, 2016

Since my majors was bioengineering, whenever my computer science friends discussed about data structures and their importance, I always wondered what data structures are and why they hold so much importance. The course and the instructors who have beautifully designed and developed it, gave me really good insights into data structures. Thank you Coursera, UCSD, Mia Minnes, Christine Alvarado, Leo Porter!

By Peter A

•

May 9, 2017

Excellent course! I truly recommend this course. Christine Alvarado, Mia Minnes and Leo Porter have created a great course on performance and data structures. You get to learn about regular expressions, Big-O notation and searching data structures such as trees and tries. I especially enjoyed the programming assignments that Christine, Mia and Leo had prepared for us, fascinating real life examples.

By huzefa s

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Jul 23, 2022

Efficient opportunities to practice and review the materials through quizzes and assignments. The level of difficulty for the assignment was sufficient to make the learners learn about the concepts of Data Structures and algorithms. The question in the quizzes also made sure that the learner has an appropriate level of understanding of the weeks material.

By Aleksandar A

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Jun 27, 2018

This course provided me with the understanding of necessity for implementation of various data structures. It was a bit more challenging, but fun at the same time because it helped me understand underlying algorithms that are implemented in many text processing applications. If you want to learn "serious stuff" this is the course to take.

By Vivek B

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Jul 24, 2016

It was really a very good course, you can learn many data structures and its implementations along with programing assignments and quizes which are quite challenging. The idea of concept challenge was awesome. You could learn performing efficiency of the algorithms, benchmarking, linked lists trees hashmaps and other data structures.

By Oliver E A B

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Apr 3, 2021

I loved this, everything is well explained. The graders are a fantastic thing to have in Coursera because obviously the instructors cannot grade everyone. It is actually a lot of fun.

Of course the content is pretty good too, i have taken many, many courses by now and this is one of the best (if not the best) in almost every aspect.

By Jipeng C

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Nov 4, 2018

Very good courses. It introduces some basic ideas of Java. Even though some contents are very basic, I learned some useful knowledge regarding computer compiler associated with Java which is really helpful for me to have a better understand of programming. These knowledge also offer me an edge learning harder content. Thank you!

By Ali S

•

Feb 21, 2016

A very useful and instructive course. The difficult abstract ideas are explained very clear way. You learn the basic theory, learn to develop understading why and where use a specific Data Structure and the porjects and examples are real world problem.

I am very happy that i had found this course and finished it. Thanks a lot

By Labib M R

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Dec 4, 2015

The data structures are basic in this course. But I loved working on the project. I had first hand experience on how to use Java to code these structures and I think this will help me a lot in the future. The course is well designed and I would recommend it to anybody who wants to learn Basic Data Structures with Java well.

By Satyam P

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Dec 27, 2015

Truly exceptional course for any beginner who wants to learn data structures from the basics. Everything is explained in detail. Loved learning things like asymptotic notations, calculating rate of growth of an algorithm. Also I liked the way the pseudo code is presented in the class made complex algorithms too easy.

By Alexey K

•

Aug 10, 2022

This course is just great. Material is on-point. Multiple tracks for beginner/intermediate/advanced learners. High quality auto-graders and no peer-review nonsense. Top notch!

Will keep teaching you more and more advanced Java programming principles with a gentle introduction to Algorithms and Data Structures.

By Omar L

•

May 9, 2017

This is one of the most comprehensive and engaging computer science courses I ever took. The content is well explained and very useful. The idea of working on a real-world project and finishing it is what made this course really great. You will have more to show off than a grade after you finish this course!

By Jason A

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Feb 1, 2016

The work load in this course is more intense than the preceding course in the specialization, especially on week 3. Other than that, I think this was an excellent course. I'm definitely glad I took it, it taught me a lot of the things that I was looking to learn as an intermediately experienced programmer.

By Bin Z

•

Aug 24, 2021

I couldn't believe I can build a program of word suggestion. It looked impossible to me in the beginning, because I have no CS background. But the course broke the problem into small pieces and each piece is easy to learn. With all the pieces adding together, it turns an impossible mission to possible.

By Basant S

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Aug 21, 2018

Professors, mentors and staff are really nice and helpful, doing a great job. This course offers a great deal of knowledge and provides a really good quality of education.

It was a great course, I had a lot of fun and enjoyed a lot.

Thanks for the wonderful introduction to Algorithms and Data Structures.

By Windesson

•

Dec 21, 2016

I usually do not review courses, but this is far better than my expensive college java classes. I can not express enough my gratitude for the great quality putted into this program by the instructors. Thank so much for presenting the course in easy, challenge but fun way. you guys are the best :)

By sivid w

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Feb 15, 2016

Presented in an easy to understand format, videos are short which helps keep focus, assignments are well prepared which keeps student on the learning material. This course really helped me understand things more clearly.

disclaimer: I have previously enrolled in Algorithms Part I (from Princeton).

By H Y

•

Dec 20, 2015

The instructors were engaging and most charming in the videos.

Most suitable for programming learners taking the step from beginner to intermediate level. The material was divided into fun bite-sized videos, quizzes, and assignments; but still thorough with the details that were necessary.

By Ahmed M A H

•

Oct 29, 2015

This courser deserves 10 stars and not just 5. I hoped that the team have started the series from the very beginning as to replicate the course 8A. I am perfering their style than from the very short Duke's course.

Still Many topics to come from this extremely successful team

thanks

Ahmed

By Sergio

•

Feb 7, 2016

Awesome! Excellent methodology and contents! It goes to the point. Assignments are cool and help to understand the concepts. Perhaps, I found it a little bit easy, but this is also good because I can adapt my tight schedule to follow the deadlines while also remain motivated. ;-)

By Patrick M

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May 19, 2016

Great course to introduce intermediate level data structures to the person learning Java. I have previously used these structures in other languages, but this was a good way to knock the rust off my Java skills and update myself on Java implementations. Instructors are great!

By Evan V

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Jan 23, 2020

I audited this course and it was very good. I loved the complexity of the exercises and problems that the instructors give. Their lectures are not lengthy and very informative. The assignment is really nice and let me have a look at what a good Java program should be like