I think the subject that most students dread to learn, at least among my friends, is algorithm. FIT2004: Algorithm and Data Structure requires more practical knowledge and experience to pass unlike most other units.
In some aspect, I think learning algorithms is harder than learning any other skills because it is a practical skill that can’t really be taught by just reading about it. In order to learn algorithms, one has to get into the nitty-gritty of it and go solves real problems. But, I’m sure for some, algorithm is really simple and I’m either just missing the point or overthinking it.
Learning about count sort, a kind of sort that doesn’t rely on comparison is really interesting. I also enjoy learning about the various partitioning methods in quick sort. DP is a very interesting yet simple concept. Tries and graph are some of my favourite data structures. Learning how to optimise the ways we look for data using quirky ways is really interesting even if I’m the kind of person that prefers doing dijkstra three times rather than pre process a graph so that it just needs to run once.
Overall, this isn’t one of my strongest units and I still have a lot to learn about algorithms and data structures in general. I won’t say I’m eager to learn but, it’s an interesting topic. Link to Repository