What Are Algorithms and Flowcharts?. Algorithms and flowcharts are two tools a software developer uses when creating new programs. An algorithm is a step-by-step recipe for processing data; it ...

So, an algorithm is the process a computer uses to transform input data into output data. A simple concept, and yet every piece of technology that you touch involves many algorithms.

“An algorithm, written in code, does all its work invisibly,” software developer Danilo Campos explained in an email. “The implementation of an algorithm is hidden from view.

In his book The Master Algorithm, Pedro Domingos offers a masterfully simple definition: “An algorithm is,” Domingos writes, “a sequence of instructions telling a computer what to do.” ...