Dynamic Programming Summary

1. Formulate answer as recurrence relation or recursive algorithm.
2. Show that number of values of recurrence are bounded by a polynomial function.
3. Specify order of evaluation for recurrence so have partial results when you need them.

Dynamic programming works particularly well for optimization problems with inherent left to right ordering among elements. The resulting global optimum often much better than solution found with heuristics. And once understood, dynamic programming is usually easier to work algorithm out from scratch than to look up algorithm.