Final Submission

SUBMISSION

The submission consists of 2 files, compressed into a .zip or .rar file and uploaded into Canvas.

• A document in format .pdf (preferred) with the solutions and justifications to ALL the
exercises. If you want to create documents by hand and scan/photograph them to add them
to the pdf document, please ensure the quality is good and readable.
o You must include a link to your shared git repository at the beginning of the
document. The code should be self-contained; i.e., done in a way such as if anyone
else wants to “download” your code and run it, they can. Assume everyone has the 4
basic libraries already installed (NumPy, Matplotlib, Pandas and NetworkX) – no need
to reinstall those.
o The document should also include the code for each exercise in a readable format.
You can include the code after each exercise or all together at the end. Please label
the code clearly.
• A video, preferably in format .mp4, no longer than 10 mins, with the explanation of your
solutions for questions 1 and 2.

WEIGHTING

This submission is worth 60% of your final mark. The deadline for submitting this is Friday the 08th
November 2024, at 6pm UK time. Please allow for time to submit and take into account the different
timezones if you are submitting from overseas.

As the final submission, in this assignment you will need to demonstrate your knowledge in all the
content related to the module: Units 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

The code must be your own; you might use functions of libraries such as “ones” or “randint” in NumPy,
but the main code must be your own work.

TASKS

1. (25 marks) Code a maze solver using the maze provided below.

The entrance is at the top, marked by a red arrow. The movement can only be orthogonal: diagonal
movements are not allowed. The instructions are as follows:

a. Save the maze into an appropriate variable/data structure and display it in your terminal.

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Hint: the .png file is provided. Matplotlib has some interesting functions to deal with images;
you are allowed to use them if needed.

b. Ask the user what approach they want to use (Backtracking or Las Vegas).

b.i) When applying a Las Vegas approach, the end conditions are either you found the
exit (successful) or you have completed 400 steps without finding the exit (unsuccessful).

b.ii) For the Backtracking approach, you MUST explain in the report what is your
rationale for choosing a particular direction and how you do the backtracking.

c. Give a visualization of all the visited “squares” (positions) when the program ends, regardless
of if it is successful or not.

Compare both approaches and answer the following questions in your report:

a) What are their differences?

b) Which data structure/s would you use to implement this problem? Give your reasoning.
c) What is the success rate of each of the algorithms after 10000 runs?

Record yourself going over your code and explaining the rationale.

Hint: To know the success rate, record which runs give a successful result. Then, divide the successful
number of runs over the total amount of runs.

2. (25 marks) Using the Python programming language, code one of the Minimum Spanning Tree (MST)
algorithms, either Prim’s or Kruskal’s, for the following graph:

Figure 1: Graph

You must:

a. Depict the original graph first.

b. State which MST algorithm you are following.
c. Show the creation of the MST step by step.
d. Depict the final MST.

Record yourselves explaining the MST algorithm that you selected, citing your sources. Then, explain
the rationale of your code and include a clip of your code running and building the MST step by step.

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3. (20 marks) Provide the pseudocode for an in-place quicksort algorithm that sorts words
alphabetically. The pivot must be always the middle element in the array. Implement that pseudocode
using Python.

Is there any other way to code a quicksort algorithm? Cite your sources to answer this question.

Hint: you can use auxiliar memory.

4. (10 marks) Palindrome.

A word is called a palindrome if it is read the same forwards and backwards. Examples of palindromes
are “gag”, “pop”, “hannah” or “rotator”.

You need to create a piece of code in Python that checks if a word is a palindrome or not using
recursion. To solve this question you must implement a boolean recursive function called
isPalindrome().

5. (20 marks) Please solve the following string alignment problem using Needleman-Wunsch (no
coding required). You need to use the optimal alignment algorithm with the strings CATGATAA and
ATACATA.

Please provide the alignment matrix, the traceback and the string alignment.

Remember that the penalty for both a substitution and a gap is -1. A match score is +1, but it needs to
come from the diagonal.

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MARKING SCHEME

The submission will be marked to a maximum of 100 marks. A breakdown of the marking scheme can
be found below. There is a rubric available as well.

Exercise Marks
Maze solver 25
Minimum Spanning Tree 25
Sorting 20
Palindrome 10
Needleman-Wunsch 20