In this text, readers are able to look at specific problems and see how careful implementations can reduce the time constraint for large amounts of data from several years to less than a second. Class templates are used to describe generic data structures and first-class versions of vector and string classes are used. Included is an appendix on a Standard Template Library (STL). This text is for readers who want to learn good programming and algorithm analysis skills simultaneously so that they can develop such programs with the maximum amount of efficiency. Readers should have some knowledge of intermediate programming, including topics as object-based programming and recursion, and some background in discrete math.