Protocols for verifiable computation enable a computationally weak verifier to offload computations to a powerful but untrusted prover, while providing the verifier with a guarantee that the prover performed the computations correctly. Asymptotically efficient protocols for verifiable computation have been known for several decades in the form of interactive proofs, PCPs, and their brethren. However, it is only very recently that these protocols have grown efficient enough for plausible use in the real world. In this talk, I will give a crash course on interactive proofs and the algorithmic techniques underlying their efficient implementation.