[derengel]

Looking at the table of contents from amazon, it looks like the book covers the basic data structures, but the book's website says the following:

"I assume the reader has completed the equivalent of a second programming course, typically titled Data Structures or Computer Science II."

So its confusing to know the target audience. To me it looks like someone with one language under his belt and some basic math(algebra/precalculus?) can do alright.

[keeperofdakeys]

The book is designed to teach you where and how to use data-structures and algorithms to solve problems. While it does talk about many of them, the explanations are a bit spotty, and are not a great introductory read. You'd want to read a better introductory book before this if you aren't comfortable with them.

[jacques_chester]

The ACM and IEEE-CS joint curricula for Computer Science suggests that there is a preliminary Data Structures & Algorithms course, followed by an Algorithms course. Many universities follow that pattern.

Look on google and you'll find a noticeable difference in the books on offer for each.

[metaobject]

In my experience, the Data Structures and Algorithms course was more applied. You're writing code (in my case C++) that uses linked lists, stacks, etc to solve problems. This work is done in the context of building more solid programming my skills in the language being used.

Then, in the Algorithms course, it is much more math intensive, and you cover more complicated algorithms and data structures. I didn't have to write one line of code in my Algorithms class (although I did so that I could understand some of the concepts surrounding Red Black Trees, AVL trees, etc)

[jcurbo]

When I went to college (late 90's) my CS curriculum was: intro to programming 1 & 2, data structures, algorithm analysis. That order is what I bet the book is referring to.