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Some Interesting Algorithm Questions
1. Here's a problem that occurs in automatic program analysis. For a set of v
ariables x1; ...... ; xn, you are given some equality constraints, of the form "
xi = xj" and some dis equality constraints, of the form "xi != xj" Is it possibl
e to satisfy all of them? Give an efficient algorithm that takes as input m cons
traints over n variables and decides whether the constraints can be satisfied.
2. What are the running times of each of these algorithms, and which would yo
u choose?
* Algorithm A solves problems by dividing them into 5 subproblems of h
alf the size, recursively solving each subproblem, and then combining the soluti
ons in linear time.
* Algorithm B solves problems of size n by recursively solving two sub
problems of size n-1 and then combining the solutions in constant time.
* Algorithm C solves problems of size n by dividing them into nine sub
problems of size n=3, recursively solving each subproblem, and then combining th
e solutions in O(n2) time.
3. You are given two sorted lists of size m and n. Give an O(log m+log n) tim
e algorithm for computing the kth smallest element in the union of the two lists
.
4. An array A[1....n] is said to have a majority element if more than half of
its entries are the same. Given an array, the task is to design an efficient al
gorithm to tell whether the array has a majority element, and, if so, to find th
at element.
The elements of the array are not necessarily from some ordered domain lik
e the integers, and so there can be no comparisons of the form "is A[i] > A[j]?"
.
However you can answer questions of the form: "is A[i] = A[j]?" in constan
t time.