Among the most interesting problems in competitive programming involve maximum
flows. However, efficient algorithms for solving these problems are often difficult for students to understand at an intuitive level. One reason for this difficulty may be a lack of suitable metaphors relating these algorithms to concepts that the students already understand. This paper introduces a novel maximum flow algorithm, Tidal Flow, that is designed to be intuitive to undergraduate andpre-university computer science students.
On Teaching Discrete Mathematics to Freshman Computer Science Students
