What Are Algorithms and Flowcharts?. Algorithms and flowcharts are two tools a software developer uses when creating new programs. An algorithm is a step-by-step recipe for processing data; it ...

Here's what algorithms do behind the scenes and why they're important. Okay, what's an algorithm? A computer algorithm is a set of instructions that tell computers how to handle and interpret data.

So, an algorithm is the process a computer uses to transform input data into output data. A simple concept, and yet every piece of technology that you touch involves many algorithms.