ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Viterbi algorithm

The Viterbi algorithm is like an amazing detective. It looks at a bunch of clues to figure out the most likely answer to a question. The "clues" are pieces of data or information in a sequence. It uses these clues to come up with a sequence that it thinks is the best one.

To make it easier to understand, let's use an example. Let's say you have three friends and you want to figure out who ate all of the cookies in the kitchen. You might ask them all separately what they did, and that's like getting clues. But how do you know who's telling the truth?

That's where the Viterbi algorithm comes in. It looks at all the clues and figures out which order of events is most likely to be true. The algorithm looks at the clues and finds the most likely sequence of events (for example, Friend 1 ate the cookies, then Friend 2, then Friend 3).

The Viterbi algorithm is used in a lot of different ways, from speech recognition to DNA sequencing. It's a really useful tool for figuring out the most likely answer to a question.