NP–HARD AND NP-COMPLETE

PROBLEMS
Dr. J. Ujwala Rekha
 Deterministic Algorithms
• A deterministic algorithm is an algorithm which,
given a particular input, will always produce the
same output, with the underlying machine always
passing through the same sequence of states.
• Formally, a deterministic algorithm computes a
mathematical function; a function has a unique
value for any input in its domain, and the
algorithm is a process that produces this particular
value as output.
 Nondeterministic Algorithms
• A nondeterministic algorithm is an algorithm
that, even for the same input, can exhibit
different behaviors on different runs, as
opposed to a deterministic algorithm.
• The nondeterministic algorithms are often
used to find an approximation to a solution,
when the exact solution would be too costly
to obtain using a deterministic one.
 Nondeterministic Search

Time Complexity of nondeterministic search is O(1)

 Nondeterministic Sorting

Time complexity of nondeterministic sorting is O(n)

 Decision Problem Vs. Optimization Problem

• Any problem for which the answer is either

zero or one is called a decision problem.
• An algorithm for a decision problem is
termed a decision algorithm.
• Example: Whether given number is prime or
not.
• Any problem that involves the identification
of an optimal (either minimum or
maximum) value of a given cost function is
known as an optimization problem.
• An optimization algorithm is used to solve
an optimization problem
 Decision Problems Vs. Optimization Problems

• Many optimization problems can be recast

into decision problems with the property that
the decision problem can be solved in
polynomial time if and only if the
corresponding optimization problem can.
• In other words, if the decision problem cannot
be solved in polynomial time, then the
optimization problem cannot either
 Example: Maximum Clique
• A maximal complete subgraph of a graph
G=(V,E) is a clique. The size of the clique is the
number of vertices in it.
• The max clique problem is an optimization
problem that has to determine the size of a
largest clique in G.
• The corresponding decision problem is to
determine whether G has a clique of size at •
If the size of a max clique
least k.
can be determined in time
• Let DClique(G,K) be a deterministic decision g(n), then the decision
algorithm. problem can be solved in
• If the number of vertices in G is n, the size of a time g(n).
max clique in G can be found by making several • In other words, the max
applications of DClique, once for each k=n,n-1,n- clique problem can be
2,…, until the output from DClique is 1. solved in polynomial time if
• If the time complexity of DClique is f(n), then and only if the clique
the size of the max clique can be found in time decision problem can be
less than or equal to n*f(n). solved in polynomial time
Example: 0/1 Knapsack Decision Problem
 Satisfiability Problem (SAT)
Given a logical expression , find an assignment of values
(False, True) to variables xi that causes  to evaluate to True
 =x1   x2  x3   x4

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Nondeterministic Clique Algorithm
Nondeterministic Knapsack’s Algorithm
Nondeterministic Satisfiability
Algorithmic vs Problem Complexity
• The algorithmic complexity of a computation is some
measure of how difficult is to perform the computation
(i.e., specific to an algorithm)
• The complexity of a computational problem or task is the
complexity of the algorithm with the lowest order of
growth of complexity for solving that problem or
performing that task.
– e.g. the problem of searching an ordered list has at most O(log
n) time complexity.
• Computational Complexity: deals with classifying
problems by how hard they are.
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 Class of “P” Problems
• Class P consists of (decision) problems that are
solvable in polynomial time
• Polynomial-time algorithms
– Worst-case running time is O(nk), for some constant k
• Examples of polynomial time:
– O(n2), O(n3), O(1), O(n lg n)
• Examples of non-polynomial time:
– O(2n), O(nn), O(n!)

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 Tractable/Intractable Problems
• Problems in P are also called tractable
• Problems not in P are intractable or unsolvable
– Can be solved in reasonable time only for small
inputs
– Or, can not be solved at all

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Examples of Intractable Problems

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 Intractable Problems
• Can be classified into various categories based
on their degree of difficulty, e.g.,
– NP
– NP-complete
– NP-hard
• Let’s define NP algorithms and NP problems …

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 Nondeterministic and NP Algorithms

Nondeterministic algorithm = two stage procedure:

1) Nondeterministic (“guessing”) stage:
generate randomly an arbitrary string that can be
thought of as a candidate solution (“certificate”)
2) Deterministic (“verification”) stage:
take the certificate and the instance to the problem and
returns YES if the certificate represents a solution
NP algorithms (Nondeterministic polynomial)
verification stage is polynomial 19
 Class of “NP” Problems
• Class NP consists of problems that could be
solved by NP algorithms
– i.e., verifiable in polynomial time
• If we were given a “certificate” of a solution,
we could verify that the certificate is correct in
time polynomial to the size of the input
• Warning: NP does not mean “non-polynomial”

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 Is P = NP?
• The P versus NP problem is a major
unsolved problem in computer science.
• It asks whether every problem whose P

solution can be quickly verified can also be NP

solved quickly. That is whether P=NP or P ≠
NP. Commonly believed
relationship between
• Since deterministic algorithms are just a P and NP
special case of nondeterministic ones, we
conclude that P⊆NP. That is, any problem
in P is also in NP:

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 NP-Completeness (informally)
P NP-complete
• NP-complete problems are
NP
defined as the hardest
problems in NP
• Most practical problems turn out to be either P
or NP-complete.
• Study NP-complete problems …
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 Reductions
• Reduction is a way of saying that one problem is
“easier” than another.
• We say that problem A is easier than problem B,
(i.e., we write “A  B”)
if we can solve A using the algorithm that solves B.
• Idea: transform the inputs of A to inputs of B

yes
yes
 
f Problem B no
no
Problem A
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 Polynomial Reductions

• Given two problems A, B, we say that A is

polynomially reducible to B (A p B) if:

1. There exists a function f that converts the input of A

to inputs of B in polynomial time

2. A(i) = YES  B(f(i)) = YES

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 NP-Completeness (formally)
P NP-complete
• A problem B is NP-complete if:

(1) B  NP NP

(2) A p B for all A  NP

• If B satisfies only property (2) we say that B is NP-hard

• No polynomial time algorithm has been discovered for an NP-
Complete problem
• No one has ever proven that no polynomial time algorithm can
exist for any NP-Complete problem

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 Implications of Reduction
yes
yes
 
f Problem B no
no
Problem A

- If A p B and B  P, then A  P

- if A p B and A  P, then B  P

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 Proving Polynomial Time
yes
yes
  Polynomial time
f algorithm to decide B no
no
Polynomial time algorithm to decide A

1. Use a polynomial time reduction algorithm to

transform A into B
2. Run a known polynomial time algorithm for B
3. Use the answer for B as the answer for A

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 Proving NP-Completeness In Practice

• Prove that the problem B is in NP

– A randomly generated string can be checked in
polynomial time to determine if it represents a solution

• Show that one known NP-Complete problem can

be transformed to B in polynomial time
– No need to check that all NP-Complete problems are
reducible to B

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 Revisit “Is P = NP?”
P NP-complete

NP

Theorem: If any NP-Complete problem can be

solved in polynomial time  then P = NP.

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 P & NP-Complete Problems
• Shortest simple path
– Given a graph G = (V, E) find a shortest path from a source to all
other vertices
– Polynomial solution: O(VE)

• Longest simple path

– Given a graph G = (V, E) find a longest path from a source to all
other vertices
– NP-complete

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 P & NP-Complete Problems
• Euler tour
– G = (V, E) a connected, directed graph find a cycle that traverses
each edge of G exactly once (may visit a vertex multiple times)
– Polynomial solution O(E)
• Hamiltonian cycle
– G = (V, E) a connected, directed graph find a cycle that visits
each vertex of G exactly once
– NP-complete

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 NP-naming convention
• NP-complete - means
problems that are
'complete' in NP, i.e. the
most difficult to solve in
NP
• NP-hard - stands for 'at
least' as hard as NP (but
not necessarily in NP);

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Examples NP-complete and
NP-hard problems
NP-complete

NP-hard

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 Why should we care?
• Knowing that they are hard lets you stop beating
your head against a wall trying to solve them…
– Use a heuristic: come up with a method for solving a
reasonable fraction of the common cases.
– Solve approximately: come up with a solution that
you can prove that is close to right.
– Use an exponential time solution: if you really have
to solve the problem exactly and stop worrying
about finding a better solution.

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 COOK’S Theorem
• Cook’s theorem states that the Boolean satisfiability problem is NP-
complete.
• That is, any problem in NP can be reduced in polynomial time to the
problem of determining whether a Boolean formula is satisfiable.
• An important consequence of this theorem is that if there exists a
deterministic polynomial time algorithm for solving Boolean
satisfiability, then every NP problem can be solved by a
deterministic polynomial time algorithm.
• The question of whether such an algorithm for Boolean satisfiability
exists is thus equivalent to the P vs. NP problem, which is widely
considered the most important unsolved problem in theoretical
computer science.
Thank You