In this paper, we develop efficient exact and approximate algorithms for computing a maximum independent set in random graphs. In a random graph G, each pair of vertices are joined by an edge with a probability p, where p is a constant between 0 and 1. We show that a maximum independent set in a random graph that contains n vertices can be computed in expected computation time . In addition, we show that, with high probability, the parameterized independent set problem is fixed parameter tractable in random graphs and the maximum independent set in a random graph in n vertices can be approximated within a ratio of in expected polynomial time.