Here's my favorite Big O analogy:
Let's say you're making dinner for your family. O is the process of following a recipe, and n is the number of times you follow a recipe.
O - you make one dish that everyone eats whether they like it or not. You follow one recipe from top to bottom, then serve (1 recipe). <-- How I grew up
O(n) - you make individual dishes for each person. You follow a recipe from top to bottom for each person in your family (recipe times the number of people in your family).
O(n^2) - you make individual dishes redundantly for every person. You follow all recipes for each person in your family (recipe times the number of people squared).
O(log n) - you break people into groups according to what they want and make larger portions. You make one dish for each group (recipe times request)
christinehill
I might be too stupid to be a software developer. Unfortunately, I have learned this after 20 years of being a software developer. There are some things you need to know to impress people interviewing you that you may never touch on the job.
joe
Clicked this because it was 8 mins, straight to the point, no unnecessary knowledge. Loved it
extremeloco
Even though I've had to survive from programming for all sorts of clients for almost 15 years, I now find myself having to learn these things if I want to settle down, get a job with a six figure salary. Truly nothing wrong with this, even though I've been told that I'm not a senior programmer. Which is correct, but I'm a senior in relationship development, sales, customer support, tolerance, fixing programming issues, doing whatever it takes to get the job done, and building real world applications. It's hard to tell an interviewer that has no real world experience these things without telling them to F off.
I've disregarded my big Ego, and have been studying these things, taking online courses for Golang, and I now feel more confident that I can compete with my vocabulary and understanding of the computer science mumbo jumbo. It's truly an exciting step because after you learn just the bits and pieces, you indeed put yourself in a position to earn a wonderful living as a programmer.
Wish you all the best of luck on your endeavors.
swissmatteo
This makes me realize Colt Steele's a legend. I came here after watching his tuts on big O and I was surprised at how much I already knew
AfrovoStudios
Great explanation of Big(O). This is important for any programmer to understand the efficiency of the algorithm.
I know many excellent programmers who don't have CS degrees and may not know the academic description of Big(O). But they know it intuitively through experience. Having said that Bg(O) is an easy concept to understand, requires practice to know how to assess efficiency and scalability of the code.
changeorbeextinct
Thanks so much, this 8 minute video made it way more clear than several hours of lectures and readings
jameswon
oh my god for the first few minutes I thought it is an ad.
gpfrndw
What a simple but clear explanation on Big O. I finally found you. Many videos start off with even more complex mathematical terms that are difficult to understand by themselves. You start very simply. Magnificent! How about one on Tractability to help.
yongaisim
Good video. People say McDowell's lessons aren't important and are never used outside of interviews, but big O notation is actually important. I learned this the first time I used nested for loops.
milesofmichael
Big O explained using a pigeon! What the heck! It’s so simple yet so effective that I want to cry. Thank you, Gayle! You are a gift to all programmers!
msesbreno
so many videos to understand this concept....and here u are explaining the same topic in an easy way...❤️❤️
MrMukulpandey
“DON’T BE LAZY!!!” is right. I was lazy for my Google interview because of the low stakes (I already have a job I am happy with) and fumbled almost every BigO question. It came up in every round. I knew which was faster intuitively, but found it hard to represent the correct notation. Learn this as it is very very important to fully grasp it. Also, know the BigO notations for most of the built in functions for your chosen language.
daramolapraise
The easiest and simplest video to explain this to me on YouTube. That’s.
ndukaimo
that introduction really helped put this subject into perspective
volo
HackerRank: Hi, Im Gayle Laakmann McDowell, author of Cracking the Coding Interview.
me: i am aware
MrMrWazzaa
Me: Man, I'm so confused by this class. What the heck is Big O?
Gayle: Let's talk about one of my FAVOURITE things!
Me: *feels even worse about struggling*
Michael-AC
Gayle!!! I just started reading cracking the coding interview and what a pleasant surprise to stumble upon this channel. Great educator and author. Thanks for the video :-)
connergesbocker
1:35 Describing the pigeon transfer speed in Big O notation
2:00 What Big O is as an equation - scales linearly with respect to the amount of input
2:10 Summary of Big O
4:35 4 important rules for Big O Notation
4:40 Why Big O is related to factorial (I think)
latedeveloper
Although you left some other necessary o notations, your lectures are great! I'm glad i found your lectures, straight to the point and an understandable dialect.
