Description
Introduction Welcome to your first programming assignment of the Algorithms on Graphs class! In this and the next programming assignments you will be practicing implementing the basic building blocks of graph algorithms: computing the number of connected components, checking whether there is a path between the given two vertices, checking whether there is a cycle, etc. Such building blocks are used practically in all applications working with graphs: for example, finding shortest paths on maps, analyzing social networks, analyzing biological data. In this programming assignment, the grader will show you the input and output data if your solution fails on any of the tests. This is done to help you to get used to the algorithmic problems in general and get some experience debugging your programs while knowing exactly on which tests they fail. However, for all the following programming assignments, the grader will show the input data only in case your solution fails on one of the first few tests (please review the questions 5.4 and 5.5 in the FAQ section for a more detailed explanation of this behavior of the grader).
Learning Outcomes Upon completing this programming assignment you will be able to: 1. find an exit from a maze; 2. find the number of exits needed for a maze;
Passing Criteria: 1 out of 2 Passing thisprogramming assignmentrequires passingat least1out of2code problemsfrom thisassignment. In turn, passing a code problem requires implementing a solution that passes all the tests for this problem in the grader and does so under the time and memory limits specified in the problem statement.
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Contents 1 Graph Representation in Programming Assignments 3
2 Problem: Finding an Exit from a Maze 4
3 Problem: Adding Exits to a Maze 6
4 General Instructions and Recommendations on Solving Algorithmic Problems 7 4.1 Reading the Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4.2 Designing an Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4.3 Implementing Your Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4.4 Compiling Your Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4.5 Testing Your Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4.6 Submitting Your Program to the Grading System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4.7 Debugging and Stress Testing Your Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
5 Frequently Asked Questions 10 5.1 I submit the program, but nothing happens. Why? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5.2 I submit the solution only for one problem, but all the problems in the assignment are graded. Why? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5.3 What are the possible grading outcomes, and how to read them? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5.4 How to understand why my program fails and to fix it? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 5.5 Why do you hide the test on which my program fails? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 5.6 My solution does not pass the tests? May I post it in the forum and ask for a help? . . . . . 12 5.7 My implementation always fails in the grader, though I already tested and stress tested it a lot. Would not it be better if you give me a solution to this problem or at least the test cases that you use? I will then be able to fix my code and will learn how to avoid making mistakes. Otherwise, I do not feel that I learn anything from solving this problem. I am just stuck. . . 12
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1 Graph Representation in Programming Assignments In programming assignments, graphs are given as follows. The first line contains non-negative integers n and m — the number of vertices and the number of edges respectively. The vertices are always numbered from 1 to n. Each of the following m lines defines an edge in the format u v where 1 ≤ u,v ≤ n are endpoints of the edge. If the problem deals with an undirected graph this defines an undirected edge between u and v. In case of a directed graph this defines a directed edge from u to v. If the problem deals with a weighted graph then each edge is given as u v w where u and v are vertices and w is a weight. It is guaranteed that a given graph is simple. That is, it does not contain self-loops (edges going from a vertex to itself) and parallel edges. Examples: ∙ An undirected graph with four vertices and five edges: 4 5 2 1 4 3 1 4 2 4 3 2
1 2
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∙ A directed graph with five vertices and eight edges. 5 8 4 3 1 2 3 1 3 4 2 5 5 1 5 4 5 3
1 3
2 5 4
∙ A weighted directed graph with three vertices and three edges. 3 3 2 3 9 1 3 5 1 2 -2
1 2
3
−2
5 9
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2 Problem: Finding an Exit from a Maze Problem Introduction A maze is a rectangular grid of cells with walls between some of adjacent cells. You would like to check whether there is a path from a given cell to a given exit from a maze where an exit is also a cell that lies on the border of the maze (in the example shown to the right there are two exits: one on the left border and one on the right border). For this, you represent the maze as an undirected graph: vertices of the graph are cells of the maze, two vertices are connected by an undirected edge if they are adjacent and there is no wall between them. Then, to check whether there is a path between two given cells in the maze, it suffices to check that there is a path between the corresponding two vertices in the graph.
Problem Description Task. Given an undirected graph and two distinct vertices u and v, check if there is a path between u and v. Input Format. An undirected graph with n vertices and m edges. The next line contains two vertices u and v of the graph. Constraints. 2 ≤ n ≤ 103; 1 ≤ m ≤ 103; 1 ≤ u,v ≤ n; u ̸= v. Output Format. Output 1 if there is a path between u and v and 0 otherwise. Time Limits. language C C++ Java Python C# Haskell JavaScript Ruby Scala time in seconds 1 1 1.5 5 1.5 2 5 5 3
Memory Limit. 512Mb. Sample 1. Input: 4 4 1 2 3 2 4 3 1 4 1 4 Output: 1 Explanation:
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In this graph, there are two paths between vertices 1 and 4: 1-4 and 1-2-3-4. Sample 2. Input:
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4 2 1 2 3 2 1 4 Output: 0 Explanation:
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In this case, there is no path from 1 to 4.
Starter Files The starter solutions for this problem read the input data from the standard input, pass it to a blank procedure, and then write the result to the standard output. You are supposed to implement your algorithm in this blank procedure if you are using C++, Java, or Python3. For other programming languages, you need to implement a solution from scratch. Filename: reachability
What To Do Tosolvethisproblem, itisenoughtoimplementcarefullythecorrespondingalgorithmcoveredinthelectures.
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3 Problem: Adding Exits to a Maze Problem Introduction Now you decide to make sure that there are no dead zones in a maze, that is, that at least one exit is reachable from each cell. For this, you find connected components of the corresponding undirected graph and ensure that each component contains an exit cell.
Problem Description Task. Givenanundirectedgraphwith n verticesand m edges,computethenumberofconnectedcomponents in it. Input Format. A graph is given in the standard format. Constraints. 1 ≤ n ≤ 103, 0 ≤ m ≤ 103. Output Format. Output the number of connected components. Time Limits. language C C++ Java Python C# Haskell JavaScript Ruby Scala time in seconds 1 1 1.5 5 1.5 2 5 5 3
Memory Limit. 512Mb. Sample 1. Input: 4 2 1 2 3 2 Output: 2 Explanation:
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There are two connected components here: {1,2,3} and {4}. Starter Files The starter solutions for this problem read the input data from the standard input, pass it to a blank procedure, and then write the result to the standard output. You are supposed to implement your algorithm in this blank procedure if you are using C++, Java, or Python3. For other programming languages, you need to implement a solution from scratch. Filename: connected_components
What To Do To solve this problem, it is enough to implement carefully the corresponding algorithm covered in the lectures.
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4 General Instructions and Recommendations on Solving Algorithmic Problems Your main goal in an algorithmic problem is to implement a program that solves a given computational problem in just few seconds even on massive datasets. Your program should read a dataset from the standard input and write an answer to the standard output. Below we provide general instructions and recommendations on solving such problems. Before reading them, go through readings and screencasts in the first module that show a step by step process of solving two algorithmic problems: link.
4.1 Reading the Problem Statement You start by reading the problem statement that contains the description of a particular computational task as well as time and memory limits your solution should fit in, and one or two sample tests. In some problems your goal is just to implement carefully an algorithm covered in the lectures, while in some other problems you first need to come up with an algorithm yourself.
4.2 Designing an Algorithm If your goal is to design an algorithm yourself, one of the things it is important to realize is the expected running time of your algorithm. Usually, you can guess it from the problem statement (specifically, from the subsection called constraints) as follows. Modern computers perform roughly 108–109 operations per second. So, if the maximum size of a dataset in the problem description is n = 105, then most probably an algorithm with quadratic running time is not going to fit into time limit (since for n = 105, n2 = 1010) while a solution with running time O(nlogn) will fit. However, an O(n2) solution will fit if n is up to 103 = 1000, and if n is at most 100, even O(n3) solutions will fit. In some cases, the problem is so hard that we do not know a polynomial solution. But for n up to 18, a solution with O(2nn2) running time will probably fit into the time limit. To design an algorithm with the expected running time, you will of course need to use the ideas covered in the lectures. Also, make sure to carefully go through sample tests in the problem description.
4.3 Implementing Your Algorithm When you have an algorithm in mind, you start implementing it. Currently, you can use the following programming languages to implement a solution to a problem: C, C++, C#, Haskell, Java, JavaScript, Python2, Python3, Ruby, Scala. For all problems, we will be providing starter solutions for C++, Java, and Python3. If you are going to use one of these programming languages, use these starter files. For other programming languages, you need to implement a solution from scratch.
4.4 Compiling Your Program For solving programming assignments, you can use any of the following programming languages: C, C++, C#, Haskell, Java, JavaScript, Python2, Python3, Ruby, and Scala. However, we will only be providing starter solution files for C++, Java, and Python3. The programming language of your submission is detected automatically, based on the extension of your submission. We have reference solutions in C++, Java and Python3 which solve the problem correctly under the given restrictions, and in most cases spend at most 1/3 of the time limit and at most 1/2 of the memory limit. You can also use other languages, and we’ve estimated the time limit multipliers for them, however, we have no guarantee that a correct solution for a particular problem running under the given time and memory constraints exists in any of those other languages. Your solution will be compiled as follows. We recommend that when testing your solution locally, you use the same compiler flags for compiling. This will increase the chances that your program behaves in the
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same way on your machine and on the testing machine (note that a buggy program may behave differently when compiled by different compilers, or even by the same compiler with different flags). ∙ C (gcc 5.2.1). File extensions: .c. Flags: gcc -pipe -O2 -std=c11
