Markov Chains and Random Walks

Markov Chains and Random Walks#

A drunk stumbling along a number line, a gambler doubling down until broke, a frog hopping between lily pads at random. These look like three different puzzles. They're not. They're all the same mathematical object, and once you see that, an enormous class of interview problems collapses into a single toolkit.

The core idea is almost embarrassingly simple: the system has a current state, and where it goes next de...