The problem of interpolating a sparse polynomial has always been one of the central objects of research in the area of computer algebra. It is the key part of many algorithms such as polynomial GCD computation. We present a probabilistic algorithm to interpolate a sparse multivariate polynomial over a finite field, represented with a black box. Our algorithm modifies the Ben-Or/Tiwari algorithm from 1988 for interpolating polynomials over rings with characteristic zero to positive characteristics by doing additional probes. To interpolate a polynomial in n variables with t non-zero terms, Zippel's algorithm interpolates one variable at a time using O(ndt) probes to the black box where d bounds the degree of the polynomial. Our new algorithm does O(nt) probes. We provide benchmarks comparing our algorithm to Zippel's algorithm and the racing algorithm of Kaltofen/Lee. The benchmarks demonstrate that for sparse polynomials our algorithm often makes fewer probes. A key advantage in our new algorithm is, unlike the other two algorithms, it can be parallelized efficiently. Our main application for an efficient sparse interpolation algorithm is computing GCDs of polynomials. We are especially interested in polynomials over algebraic function fields. The best GCD algorithm available is SparseModGcd, presented by Javadi and Monagan in 2006. We further improve this algorithm in three ways. First we prove that we can eliminate the trial divisions in positive characteristic. Trial divisions are the bottleneck of the algorithm for denser polynomials. Second, we give a new (and correct) solution to the normalization problem. Finally we will present a new in-place library of functions for computing GCDs of univariate polynomials over algebraic number fields. Furthermore we present an efficient algorithm for factoring multivariate polynomials over algebraic fields with multiple field extensions and parameters. Our algorithm uses Hensel lifting and extends the EEZ algorithm of Wang which was designed for factorization over rationals. We also give a multivariate p-adic lifting algorithm which uses sparse interpolation. This enables us to avoid using poor bounds on the size of the integer coefficients in the factorization when using Hensel lifting. We provide timings demonstrating the efficiency of our algorithm.