Alan Zhan Blog

Live for nothing, or die for something

Binary Search Algorithm

Let’s play a number guessing game. Pick an integer between 1 and 100 — you have to guess the number in my head, and you must do it in the fewest guesses possible. How would you approach it? The …

Posted by Alan Zhan on Saturday, July 10, 2021

Linear Search Algorithm

When checking whether an element exists, what is the most common approach? The answer is a for or while loop. Congratulations — you’ve already learned Linear Search! Concept Linear Search: This …

Posted by Alan Zhan on Saturday, July 10, 2021

Divide and Conquer

Divide and Conquer As the name suggests, this approach breaks a complex problem into two or more identical or similar subproblems, solves the smaller problems, and then combines the results to produce …

Posted by Alan Zhan on Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Big O Notation

How to Choose an Algorithm to Solve a Problem The same problem can be solved using different algorithms, but which one is the best? There are two metrics for evaluating an algorithm: Time complexity …

Posted by Alan Zhan on Tuesday, July 6, 2021

Emotional Blackmail

What Is Emotional Blackmail? Before discussing emotional blackmail, we need to understand what it actually is. Emotional blackmailers may consciously or unconsciously use demands, threats, pressure, …

Posted by Alan Zhan on Saturday, June 26, 2021

Atomic Habits

Compound Interest The word “compound interest” runs throughout this entire book. We can say it is the eighth wonder of the world, and that would be no exaggeration. If you improve by just …

Posted by Alan Zhan on Sunday, June 13, 2021