This serves as a guide for students preparing for the Graduate Comprehensive Exam in Data Structures and Algorithms. Below are the topics covered in the exam.

Books:

• Sedgewick (1998) Algorithms in C++ (Third Edition) - Parts 1-4 [Part 5 on Graph Algorithms (2002)] (current main text)
• Headington and Riley (1994). Data Abstraction and Structures Using C++. Heath. (previous main text)
• Standish (1994). Data Structures, Algorithms & Software Principles in C. Addison Wesley. (trees and graphs supplement)
• Any data structures and algorithms book will cover most of the topics.

Topics:

• Basic data structures: records, arrays, sets, stacks, queues, lists
  (Sedgewick: Ch 3, Ch 4) or
  (Headington and Riley: Ch 4, Ch 5)
• Programming concepts and techniques: recursion, pointers, dynamic allocation
  (Sedgewick: Ch 5) or
  (Headington and Riley: Ch 6, Ch 7)
• Analysis of algorithms: Big-O notation, time complexity
  (Sedgewick: Ch 2) or
  (Headington and Riley: Ch 12)
• Array search algorithms: Linear Search, Binary Search
  (Sedgewick: Ch 2) or
  (Headington and Riley: Ch 12)
• Sorting algorithms: Bubble Sort, Insertion Sort, Selection Sort, Quicksort, Mergesort, Heapsort, Treesort
  (Sedgewick: Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10) or
  (Headington and Riley: Ch 12)
• Hashing: Hash tables, hash functions
  (Sedgewick: Ch 14) or
  (Headington and Riley: Ch 12)
• Trees: Binary Search Trees, AVL-trees, B-trees
  (Sedgewick: Ch 5, Ch 12, Ch 13) or
  (Headington and Riley: Ch 13)
• Binary tree traversal: inorder, preorder, postorder
  (Sedgewick: Ch 5) or
  (Headington and Riley: Ch 13)
• Graph concepts: undirected graphs, directed graphs, paths, cycles, connectivity
  (Standish: Ch 10) or
  (Sedgewick: Ch 17)
• Graph algorithms: Depth-first Search, Breadth-first Search, Shortest Path, Minimal Spanning Trees, Topological Sort
  (Standish: Ch 10) or
  (Sedgewick: Ch 18-21)