Computational thinking is a mental process for solving problems through an ordered series of precise instructions, the algorithm. Every time we use a smartphone to make a phone call, take a picture, listen to music or access the Internet, we put a very complicated «computation» into action, allowing us to work on sounds, images and character sequences. The book introduces to computational thinking proposing and solving problems more and more complex, and illustrates some of the most important applications in the society of our time, from the management of big data to the compression of texts, cryptography and the operation of search engines.

Book presentation by Paolo Ferragina.