In
computer science, a
sequential algorithm or
serial algorithm is an
algorithm that is executed sequentially – once through, from start to finish, without other processing executing – as opposed to
concurrently or in
parallel. The term is primarily used to contrast with
concurrent algorithm or
parallel algorithm; most standard computer algorithms are sequential algorithms, and not specifically identified as such, as sequentialness is a background assumption. Concurrency and parallelism are in general distinct concepts, but they often overlap – many
distributed algorithms are both concurrent and parallel – and thus "sequential" is used to contrast with both, without distinguishing which one. If these need to be distinguished, the opposing pairs sequential/concurrent and serial/parallel may be used.