Let us consider the problem of preparing an omelet. For preparing omelet, general steps we follow are:
1.>Get the frying pan.
2.>Get the oil.
->Do we have oil?
*If yes, put it in the pan.
*If no, do we want to buy oil?
#If yes, then go out and buy oil.
#If no, then we can terminate.
3.>Turn on the stove, etc…
What we are doing is, for a given problem (preparing an omelet), giving step by step procedure for solving it. Formal definition of an algorithm can be given as:-
An algorithm is the step-by-step instructions to solve a given problem.