About this course

The world and internet are full of textual information. We search for information using textual queries and read websites, books and e-mails.

These are all strings from a computer science point of view. To make sense of all this information and make search efficient, search engines use many string algorithms. Moreover, the emerging field of personalized medicine uses many search algorithms to find disease-causing mutations in the human genome.

In this course, part of the Algorithms and Data Structures MicroMasters program, you will learn about:

• suffix trees;
• suffix arrays;
• how other brilliant algorithmic ideas help doctors to find differences between genomes;
• power lightning-fast Internet searches.

What you’ll learn

• Key ideas for pattern matching and suffix trees
• Suffix arrays
• Burrows-Wheeler Transform for compression
• Applications of string algorithms in bioinformatics

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of at least one programming language. Successful completion of the Algorithmic Designs and Techniques and Data Structures Fundamentals courses.

Who can take this course?

Unfortunately, learners from one or more of the following countries or regions will not be able to register for this course: Iran, Cuba and the Crimea region of Ukraine. While edX has sought licenses from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to offer our courses to learners in these countries and regions, the licenses we have received are not broad enough to allow us to offer this course in all locations. EdX truly regrets that U.S. sanctions prevent us from offering all of our courses to everyone, no matter where they live.