The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Sometime in the fall of 2021, Andrew Krapivin, an undergraduate at Rutgers University, encountered a paper that would change his life.

A young computer scientist and two colleagues show that searches within data structures called hash tables can be much faster than previously deemed possible. Sometime in the fall of 2021, Andrew ...

Seventy years after the invention of a data structure called a hash table, theoreticians have found the most efficient possible configuration for it. About 70 years ago, an engineer at IBM named Hans ...

The first time I heard about hash tables was after taking a compilers course during my BSc. The truth is, I was not able to understand and appreciate their usefulness fully back then. Now that I know ...