This book discusses various aspects of real-world applications of optimization algorithms, presenting insights from the 5th International Conference on Harmony Search, Soft Computing and Applications, held at Kunming, China on July 20–22, 2019. The book focuses on the recent advances in soft computing techniques such as harmony search, PSO and DE and their application to solve engineering problems. Presenting research on various real-world engineering problems concerning crowd evacuation strategies, adaptive learning systems, economic impact analysis, cyber-attack detection, urban drainage systems, water management models, feature selection and inventory systems, it is a valuable resource for researchers wanting a state-of-the-art overview of the latest advances in soft computing and related areas.