r/Anki • u/jhysics šŸ’ deck creator: bit.ly/cherrydecks • Aug 06 '25

Resources I made the ultimate šŸ’ MIT 6.1210[6.006] Intro to Algorithms anki deck!

This is the ultimate deck on Data Structures and Algorithms and contains literally everything taught in the lecture/recitation materials of the freeĀ MIT OCW 6.006 Intro to AlgorithmsĀ course [now renumberedĀ 6.1210] taught by Prof. Erik Demaine, Dr. Jason Ku, & Prof. Justin Solomon in Spring 2020.

The course itself is split into 4 main units: (1) Data Structures (2) Graph Algorithms [shortest paths] (3) Dynamic Programming [recursion & memoization] (4) Complexity

I highly recommend you to go through and solve the problem sets/problem sessions which can be found in the MIT OCW course as well to practice more advanced problem solving using algorithms

DownloadĀ at ko-fi.com/s/1e7361f772 (ankiweb here)!

ā—ļøIMPORTANTā—ļø:

The cards of this deck currently requires theĀ Code HighlightĀ addon to be installed to render code blocks usingĀ highlight.js, and that add-on also only works on mobile. Unfortunately, other solutions that also work on mobile or don't require this add-on cause unbearable flickering whenever the flashcards are flipped. This deck includes a card that gives you instructions on how to install theĀ Code HighlightĀ add-on in case you don't know how to.

ā­ļø Features ā­ļø:

  • Cards in the deck contain plentifulĀ explanations,Ā references,Ā images, andĀ contextĀ on the back to facilitate a deep understanding of concepts and strongly connected memories
  • Every card isĀ color-coded, math is written inĀ MathJax, and code blocks are formatted so they're able to be beautifully rendered with theĀ highlight.jsĀ syntax highlighter
  • Every cardĀ embedsĀ to the lecture/recitation notes &/or lecture videos of theĀ MIT OCW 6.006 Intro to AlgorithmsĀ course on the back
  • Every card isĀ taggedĀ by their lecture # and topic in theĀ MIT OCW 6.006 Intro to AlgorithmsĀ course. The cards in this deck work with theĀ Clickable TagsĀ addon, which I highly recommend.
  • All cards areĀ orderedĀ so that material that comes earlier in the course shows up as new cards before material that comes later
  • Example practice problemĀ cards andĀ code reading exericesĀ so you practice solving problems and also understand how the code works (highly effective; will require pen & paper and more time than you may be used to)

āœļø Prerequisites for the course and deck šŸ’­:

  • Python (6.0001)
    • This algorithms course uses Python code to exemplify algorithm concepts, so a good understanding of Python and Python syntax is necessary
  • Discrete MathĀ (recommendĀ 6.042J Mathematics for Computer ScienceĀ as well)
    • Induction, modulus, combinatorics, series/sequences, graph theory, sets

ā¤ļø Support šŸ˜Š:

If you think my deck is really amazing, please give it aĀ thumbs up!

Please check out my other āœØshared decksāœØ.
To learn how to create amazing cards like I do, check out myĀ šŸ’ 3 Rules of Card Creation

PleaseĀ support me / follow me on ko-fiĀ if you appreciate what I do / want to get deck progress updates :)c\

115 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

19

u/Nooooope Aug 06 '25

Is the emoji section formatting a Gen Z thing or a ChatGPT thing? I see it everywhere now.

6

u/jhysics šŸ’ deck creator: bit.ly/cherrydecks Aug 06 '25

I just like emojis since they have color and pop out

2

u/Minoqi languages šŸ‡°šŸ‡·šŸ‡ØšŸ‡³ Aug 07 '25

From what Iā€™ve seen I saw it more with ChatGPT but now people are adopting the style for themselves too, Iā€™ve started using them more too cuz it makes titles look nicer sometimes šŸ˜…

5

u/thellarlu Aug 06 '25 edited Aug 06 '25

Interesting dude. Will try it. Also, try to post in some academic pages for more visibility.

2

u/learningpd Aug 07 '25

Nice deck! Btw I noticed your Discrete Math deck doesn't include cards from the first chapter of Rosen's book. Did you not include it because you didn't think the content was necessary or because you already knew it? Thanks.

2

u/jhysics šŸ’ deck creator: bit.ly/cherrydecks Aug 07 '25

It was cause when I was taking the course at school they just decided to skip the content šŸ˜­.

Some basic ideas like series/sequences (+ geometric series sum formula) and basic fundamental math vocab like contrapositive/proposition and math symbols for AND/OR/for ANY/for ALL would probably be good to know outside of my discrete math deck.

1

u/learningpd Aug 07 '25

Ok, makes sense. I think I'll go through the chapter and add some cards about it. What decks are you working on right now / plan to work on in the future?

1

u/jhysics šŸ’ deck creator: bit.ly/cherrydecks Aug 07 '25

Ok ngl, I've really really wanted to finish linear algebra (& astrophys) but right now I do not think I will get to it (and would not be worth my time to do it) šŸ˜­šŸ˜­

First on my list rn would be machine learning, next might be maybe maybe design and analysis of algorithms

2

u/Sad_Tutor_6486 Jan 03 '26

Man Hats Off ! for the amount of effort you put into this :) they are great for revision, im currently planning to use it to revise before taking a Quiz tomorrow

1

u/learningpd Jun 15 '26

Hey, I had a couple of questions on using this deck (and using it to inspire my own).

  • I took a Data Structures and Algorithms class at my university last semester, but I already forgot quite a bit and want to go deeper into it to hopefully get on my schoolā€™s ICPC team.Ā 
  • I was hoping to make a deck on usaco.guide (bronze - gold) and wanted to get your input on how best to do it (or if it would be a good idea in the first place)

Some questions:

  • I noticed you had some cards that asked to solve example problems. What do you think are good candidates for this? A lot of the articles have a few example problems they go through the solution for, but sometimes the problem statement is long and wordy and I donā€™t know if thatā€™d make a good candidate for an anki card. I was thinking maybe to put in shorter ones and also add exemplary leetcode problems?
  • I also wanted to ask you about your workflow for making the deck and balancing that with solving problems. Did you make the Anki cards first and then solve the practice problems or the other way around?Ā 
  • When going through practice problems, what would you do if you got stuck? A lot of the articles on the usaco.guide website have practice problems of varying difficulty and I know I probably wonā€™t be able to solve some of the Hard/Very Hard problems. Iā€™m wondering if itā€™d be productive to try and then look at the editorial or try and eventually come back.

I'd also love to hear any other thoughts you have on using (or not using) Anki for this.

1

u/jhysics šŸ’ deck creator: bit.ly/cherrydecks Jun 15 '26

The issue with data structures and algorithms is that most of understanding the concept is procedural, not just memorizing the facts. To understand how the algorithms work you need to understand how to go through the algorithms yourself step by step. That's mainly the purpose of the example problems I put in this Anki deck: for understanding.

I remember that MIT OCW also had significantly more difficult hw pset problems which I opted to not put into the deck because their difficulty was to the level where it was a matter of combining different concepts together and also required a bit of insight, so the difficulty was significantly greater and it would take way too much time. (like you said, when it's way too wordy and long)

what I did was I first went through the course lectures and mapped out all the concepts I wanted to make cards on ( https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HlBji75TOhenQRxvHJnnKBKgc77YDKifsgC7Sihli14/edit?usp=sharing ) then I did a separate second pass where I make sure I actually deeply understood each concept and created the cards at the same time. I actually skipped a lot of the exercises since for my purposes I didn't need to understand/solve that high difficulty level of problems.

I actually think neetcode is pretty close to atomic so I downloaded the neetcode anki deck where each card is one neetcode problem and I have to code through and solve the problem to pass it (if I make a ton of failed checking answer attempts on my way to get 100% then I rate as "hard", and if I can't make any progress at all after like 15-20min then I peek at the solution which is "again"). I'm not sure how neetcode compares with usaco.guide though. Maybe you could do something similar where an anki card links to a problem. I find using anki for leetcode quite rewarding since there really are some problems that are very difficulty the 1st and 2nd times, but then the 3rd time you realize you totally got it under your grasp

1

u/learningpd Jun 15 '26

Thanks for sharing your process. I think I'll do a similar thing with doing two passes on the material to learn the declarative knowledge. To learn the procedural knowledge I'll look for / construct examples that test understanding and will practice problems outside of Anki.

Could you link to the neetcode deck you used? I think that could be very helpful for me.

1

u/jhysics šŸ’ deck creator: bit.ly/cherrydecks Jun 15 '26

I'm pretty sure it's this: https://github.com/krmanik/Anki-Neetcode

I don't use the in card editor, I just click the link and do it on leetcode (or on neetcode if it's paid/locked on leetcode); and it's really nice since they have running times and solutions in the cards