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What does "greedy algorithm" mean in programming?
greedy algorithm is one of the most common terms in software development. This guide explains what it means, how it is used in practice, and why it matters, with real examples from the developer world.
Definition
An algorithm that makes the locally optimal choice at each step with the hope of finding a global optimum. Greedy algorithms are simple and fast but do not always produce the best solution. Examples include Dijkstra's shortest path and Huffman encoding.
Example
"A greedy coin-change algorithm always picks the largest coin: for 36 cents it picks 25, then 10, then 1."
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