Sequence Alignment (Needleman-Wunsch, Smith-Waterman, BLAST)

The algorithms for comparing DNA, RNA, and protein sequences — global vs. local alignment, and the heuristics that make searching billions of bases practical.

Read

47 min

Practice MCQs

25

Interview QA

25

Edition

v7

Editorial status

Reviewed

Relevant for

Computational Biologist

Scope: Needleman-Wunsch and Smith-Waterman algorithms; NCBI BLAST+ documentation and statistical guidance; BLOSUM and PAM source publications reviewed 2026-09-04.