midData Mining
What is the Apriori algorithm in association rule mining?
Updated May 15, 2026
Short answer
Apriori finds frequent itemsets using a bottom-up approach.
Deep explanation
Apriori uses the property that all subsets of a frequent itemset must also be frequent. It iteratively generates candidate itemsets and prunes those below a support threshold. This reduces computational complexity in market basket analysis.
Real-world example
Supermarkets identifying that bread and butter are often bought together.
Common mistakes
- Ignoring support threshold leading to explosion of candidate sets.
Follow-up questions
- What is support pruning?
- What is FP-Growth?