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Algorithmic Problem Solving

Algorithmic problem solving involves formulating algorithms to solve specific problems, with a focus on understanding inputs and ensuring correctness for all legitimate cases. Key considerations include selecting appropriate data structures, algorithm design techniques, and methods for specifying algorithms, such as pseudocode and programming languages. Additionally, proving an algorithm's correctness and analyzing its efficiency and simplicity are crucial steps before coding the algorithm into a program.

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anbumani
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15 views

Algorithmic Problem Solving

Algorithmic problem solving involves formulating algorithms to solve specific problems, with a focus on understanding inputs and ensuring correctness for all legitimate cases. Key considerations include selecting appropriate data structures, algorithm design techniques, and methods for specifying algorithms, such as pseudocode and programming languages. Additionally, proving an algorithm's correctness and analyzing its efficiency and simplicity are crucial steps before coding the algorithm into a program.

Uploaded by

anbumani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ALGORITHMIC PROBLEM

SOLVING
4.ALGORITHMIC PROBLEM
SOLVING
• Algorithmic problem solving is solving
problem that require the formulation of an
algorithm for the solution.
Understanding the Problem
• It is the process of finding the input of the
problem that the algorithm solves.
• It is very important to specify exactly the set
of inputs the algorithm needs to handle.
• A correct algorithm is not one that works most
of the time, but one that works correctly for all
legitimate inputs.
• Ascertaining the Capabilities of the
Computational Device
• If the instructions are executed one after
another, it is called sequential algorithm.
• If the instructions are executed concurrently, it
is called parallel algorithm.
• Choosing between Exact and Approximate
Problem Solving
• The next principal decision is to choose
between solving the problem exactly or
solving it approximately.
• Based on this, the algorithms are classified as
exact algorithm and approximation algorithm.
Deciding a data structure
• Data structure plays a vital role in designing
and analysis the algorithms.
• Some of the algorithm design techniques also
depend on the structuring data specifying a
problem’s instance
• Algorithm+ Data structure=programs.
Algorithm Design Techniques
• An algorithm design technique (or “strategy” or
“paradigm”) is a general approach to solving
problems algorithmically that is applicable to a
variety of problems from different areas of
computing.
• Learning these techniques is of utmost importance
for the following reasons.
• First, they provide guidance for designing
algorithms for new problems,
• Second, algorithms are the cornerstone of
computer science
Methods of Specifying an Algorithm
• Pseudocode is a mixture of a natural language
and programming language-like constructs.
• Pseudocode is usually more precise than
natural language, and its usage often yields
more succinct algorithm descriptions.
• In the earlier days of computing, the dominant
vehicle for specifying algorithms was a
flowchart, a method of expressing an
algorithm by a collection of connected
geometric shapes containing descriptions of
the algorithm’s steps
Methods of Specifying an Algorithm
• Programming language can be feed into an
electronic computer directly.
• Instead, it needs to be converted into a
computer program written in a particular
computer language.
Proving an Algorithm’s Correctness
• Once an algorithm has been specified, you have to prove its
correctness.
• That is, you have to prove that the algorithm yields a
required result for every legitimate input in a finite amount
of time.
• A common technique for proving correctness is to use
mathematical induction because an algorithm’s iterations
provide a natural sequence of steps needed for such proofs.
• It might be worth mentioning that although tracing the
algorithm’s performance for a few specific inputs can be a
very worthwhile activity, it cannot prove the algorithm’s
correctness conclusively.
• But in order to show that an algorithm is incorrect, you need
just one instance of its input for which the algorithm fails.
Analysing an Algorithm
• 1. Efficiency.
• Time efficiency, indicating how fast the algorithm
runs,
• Space efficiency, indicating how much extra
memory it uses
• 2. simplicity.
• An algorithm should be precisely defined and
investigated with mathematical expressions.
• Simpler algorithms are easier to understand and
easier to program.
• Simple algorithms usually contain fewer bugs.
Coding an Algorithm
• Most algorithms are destined to be ultimately
implemented as computer programs.
• Programming an algorithm presents both a
threat and an opportunity.
• A working program provides an additional
opportunity in allowing an empirical analysis
of the underlying algorithm.
• Such an analysis is based on timing the
program on several inputs and then analysing
the results obtained.

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