GopherCon 2018: Binary Search Tree alGOrithms - Kaylyn Gibilterra

Learning algorithms can be overwhelming and demoralizing. Go’s simplicity enables you to focus on the concepts, not fight with your code. Kaylyn’s tutorial session will dive into binary tree algorithms to demystify them and show how surprisingly fun they can be to work with in Go. If you are new to the programming language, you will be comforted to learn that you can quickly follow along and read some of the code in these algorithms. If you are new to algorithms, you will be comforted to learn that you often do not need to spend much time debating what data structures to use for your code. In many cases, there is only one option in Go, which allows you to spend more time on the algorithmic concepts, and less time fighting your code. This talk will center on binary search trees - what they are, their applications, and why you would use them. We will create our own algorithm to rank and categorize a set of gophers, and learn how we can use testing and benchmarking to be confident it is correct. Go’s friendliness towards writing algorithms will be stressed throughout this presentation. These fundamentals can be applied to all algorithms that could be encountered during algorithmic adventures and will make the experience much more enjoyable.