The document discusses randomized algorithms. Randomized algorithms employ randomness as part of their logic, using random bits to guide their behavior. This allows them to achieve good average performance over many trials. The output or running time of a randomized algorithm is a random variable. Advantages include simplicity, efficiency through testing many possibilities, and better complexity bounds than deterministic algorithms. Disadvantages include potential for hardware failures from long runtimes, high memory usage for repeated processes, and longer runtimes as operations split into many parts.