Most computers perform their operations on a very primitive level.
The basic operations of a computer system is called the computer's instruction set . In order to solve a problem using a computer, we must express the solution to that problem in a language that the computer can understand - through the instruction set. A computer program is just a collection of the instructions necessary to solve a specific problem. The approach or method that we use to solve the problem is called an algorithm . To develop a program to solve a particular problem, we first express the solution to the problem in terms of an algorithm.