Since the publication of the first edition, Introduction to Algorithms has become a widely used text in universities worldwide as well as the standard reference for professionals.

This fourth edition has been updated throughout, with new chapters on matchings in bipartite graphs, online algorithms, and machine learning, and new material on such topics as solving recurrence equations, hash tables, potential functions, and suffix arrays. Each chapter is relatively self-contained, presenting an algorithm, a design technique, an application area, or a related topic, and can be used as a unit of study. The algorithms are described in English and in a pseudocode designed to be readable by anyone who has done a little programming.

The explanations have been kept elementary without sacrificing depth of coverage or mathematical rigor. The fourth edition has 140 new exercises and 22 new problems, and colour has been added to improve visual presentations. The writing has been revised throughout, and made clearer, more personal, and gender neutral. The book's website offers supplemental material.