I'm currently in a Data Structures course at my university and did do some algorithm analysis in a prior class, but it was the section I had the most difficult time with in the previous course. We are now going over algorithm analysis in my data structures course and so I'm going back through my textbook from the previous course to see what it says on the matter.
In the textbook, it says "For every algorithm we want to analyze, we need to define the size of the prob- lem." Doing some Google searching, it's not entirely clear what "problem size" actually means. I'm trying to get a more concrete definition of what a problem size is so I can identify it in an algorithm.
I know that, if I have an algorithm that is sorting a list of numbers, the problem size is n, the size of the list. With that said, saying that doesn't clarify what "problem size" actually is, except for in that context. An algorithm is not just a process to sort numbers, so I can't always say that the problem size is the number of elements in a list.
Hoping someone out there can clarify things for me, and that you all are doing well.
Thank you