For the general case, the CLRS book is recommended, but I personally found Algorithm Design by Jon Kleinberg and Eva Tardos to be the best introduction in undergrad: https://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/032...

The good thing about Algorithm Design & Analysis as a topic is that there is no lack of great resources to learn from! And even better, a large portion of them are freely available online (in forms of lecture notes, or entire books, video lectures, programming challenges with online judging, etc).

In addition to what others have mentioned, here are some example resources you might prefer for a beginner-intermediate level intro:

1. (free online) Algorithms by Dasgupta, Papadimitriou, and Vazirani http://algorithmics.lsi.upc.edu/docs/Dasgupta-Papadimitriou-...

2. (free online) Algorithms by Jeff Erickson https://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/teaching/algorithms/

3. Algorithm design by Kleinberg & Tardos https://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/032...

4. Another one specifically for more applied view (esp., how they are used in programming contests such as ICPC) is Skiena & Revilla's "Programming Challenges" book (https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Challenges-Contest-Traini...). Note that this is different than Skiena's other popular book (Algorithm Design manual) which is also pretty good and has a "war story" based perspective to design of algorithms.

5. There are also several resources where lecture notes from university Algorithm & DS courses are very useful. Here is an example from my previous Professor, David Kempe: http://david-kempe.com/teaching/DataStructures.pdf

6. Several programming competition specific tutorials can be found on Topcoder: https://www.topcoder.com/thrive/tracks?track=Competitive%20P... (individual SRM archives are also good place to try problems first hand and then learn from other's approach). In general, if you search for ACM-ICPC resources, you will find a lot more targeted information/problems which will apply not only for leetcode, but also for detailed understanding of the theory too.

I studied this topic mainly from Algorithms text by Kleinberg/Tardos[1]. Like everything else, if you interested in proving problems NPC, read few examples from book and practice some on your own. Proving problems NPC of some common problems isn't very hard once you get hang of it.

http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321...

i prefer tardos/kleinberg{http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321...} for algorithms, at least for self study. The book has solutions, doesnt leave any proofs incomplete and has a little bit more focus on real world examples. its also half as long, but still covers 3/4 of the material.

Both solid choices. Having used CLRS (the Intro the Algorithms book), I would say it's a fantastic reference, but I found some of the presentation rather terse. It is nothing that a motivated reader can't power through, but some people have also suggested Kleinberg and Tardos's algorithms book for better pedagogical development http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321...

What's wrong with less cryptic books like these?

http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321...

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Third-Thomas-C...

I'd suggest Algorithm Design by Kleinberg and Tardos: http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321... , it's more readable than either CLRS or Dasgupta/Papadimitriou/Vazirani.

Ah, apologies:

  Algorithm Design
  by Jon Kleinberg & Éva Tardos
  ISBN: 978-0-321-29535-8

Or an Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321...

If you are really interested in the math involved you can look at any algorithms book. I used this one in my undergrad: http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321...

Its a good introduction, but it will require you to be decent at math and know how to do proofs.

On the other hand, if you are interested in how programs can express things, then maybe you want to learn about some CS theory. Specifically, some lambda calculus would be good to learn, but I don't have any good suggestions.

Note: All of these will be easier to read if you are pretty good at programming, so I'd say follow at least the first piece of advise above.

I recommend the Kleinberg/Tardos textbook: http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321...

It is a really enjoyable read and has a nice narrative that I think other algorithm books are lacking. CLR, for instance, just reads like a handbook to me. The goal Kleinberg/Tardos book, OTOH, is to teach you how to design and analyze algorithms. They will actually follow false starts on certain problems and uncover where they break.

Kleinberg is the rebel king!

I dunno about this. Of the books under "books most programmers have actually read," the only one I've read is the C programming language (K&R). But I think I'm probably more likely to read the GoF design patterns book or the rest of my college algorithms book ( http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321... ) than Programming Pearls or Effective Java.

Some books to read:

http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321...

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Object-Oriented-Addiso...

http://www.amazon.com/Refactoring-Improving-Existing-Addison...

http://www.artima.com/shop/forsale

Good introductory text: Cormen/Leiserson/Rivest/Stein: Introduction to Algorithms (2nd edition)

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Thomas-H-Corme...

Good advanced text: Jon Kleinberg/Eva Tardos: Algorithm Design

http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321...

For routine programming, the GoF Design Patterns book will be more helpful to you than algorithms books.

But if you really want to learn more about algorithms, check out this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Jon-Kleinberg/dp/0321...

As for programming languages, the java + eclipse combination is excellent.