Complexity classes
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Optimization & Decision Problems
• Decision problems
– Given an input and a question regarding a problem,
determine if the answer is yes or no
• Optimization problems
– Find a solution with the “best” value
• Optimization problems can be cast as decision
problems that are easier to study
– E.g.: Shortest path: G = unweighted directed graph
• Find a path between u and v that uses the fewest
edges
• Does a path exist from u to v consisting of at most k
edges? 2
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 lgn 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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Polynomial and Exponential
Polynomial Time Exponential Time
Linear Search 0/1 Knapsack
Binary Search Travelling Salesman
Problem
Matrix Multiplication Hamiltonian Cycle
Sorting Graph Colouring
Fractional Knapsack Sum of Subset
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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
• Are non-polynomial algorithms always worst than
polynomial algorithms?
- n1,000,000 is technically tractable, but really impossible -
nlog log log n is technically intractable, but easy
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Example of Unsolvable Problem
• Turing discovered in the 1930’s that there are
problems unsolvable by any algorithm.
• The most famous of them is the halting
problem
– Given an arbitrary algorithm and its input, will that
algorithm eventually halt, or will it continue forever in
an “infinite loop?”
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Examples of Intractable Problems
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Intractable Problems
• Can be classified in 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
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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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E.g.: Hamiltonian Cycle
• Given: a directed graph G = (V, E), determine a
simple cycle that contains each vertex in V
– Each vertex can only be visited once
• Certificate:
– Sequence: v1, v2, v3, …, v|V| hamiltonian
not
hamiltonian
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Is P = NP?
• Any problem in P is also in NP: P
P NP NP
• The big (and open question) is whether NP P
or P = NP
– i.e., if it is always easy to check a solution, should it
also be easy to find a solution?
• Most computer scientists believe that this is
false but we do not have a proof …
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NP-Completeness (informally)
• NP-complete problems are P
NP-complete
defined as the hardest NP
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)
• A problem B is NP-complete if:
P NP-complete
(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
Polynomial time
yes
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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Satisfiability Problem (SAT)
• Satisfiability problem: given a logical
expression , find an assignment of values
(F, T) to variables xi that causes to evaluate
to T
=x1 x2 x3 x4
• SAT was the first problem shown to be NP-
complete!
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CFN Satisfiability
• CFN is a special case of SAT
is in “Conjuctive Normal Form” (CNF)
– “AND” of expressions (i.e., clauses)
– Each clause contains only “OR”s of the variables and
their complements
E.g.: = (x1 x2) (x1 x2) ( x1 x2)
clauses
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3-CNF Satisfiability
A subcase of CNF problem:
– Contains three clauses
• E.g.:
= (x1 x1 x2) (x3 x2 x4)
(x1 x3 x4)
• 3-CNF is NP-Complete
• Interestingly enough, 2-CNF is in P!
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Clique
Clique Problem:
– Undirected graph G = (V, E)
– Clique: a subset of vertices in V all connected to each
other by edges in E (i.e., forming a complete graph)
– Size of a clique: number of vertices it contains
Clique(G, 2) = YES
Optimization problem: Clique(G, 3) = NO
– Find a clique of maximum size
Decision problem:
Clique(G, 3) = YES
– Does G have a clique of size k? Clique(G, 4) = NO
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Clique Verifier
• Given: an undirected graph G = (V, E)
• Problem: Does G have a clique of size k?
• Certificate:
– A set of k nodes
• Verifier:
– Verify that for all pairs of vertices in this set there
exists an edge in E
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3-CNF p Clique
• Idea:
– Construct a graph G such that is satisfiable only if
G has a clique of size k
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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);
• NP-easy - stands for 'at most' as hard as NP
(but not necessarily in NP);
• NP-equivalent - means equally difficult 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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Difference
NP-hard NP-Complete
NP-Hard problems(say X) can NP-Complete problems can be
be solved if and only if there is a solved by a non-deterministic
NP-Complete problem(say Y) Algorithm/Turing Machine in
that can be reducible into X in polynomial time.
polynomial time
To solve this problem, it do not To solve this problem, it must be
have to be in NP . both NP and NP-hard problems.
Not all NP-hard problems are All NP-complete problems are
NP-complete. NP-hard
Example: Halting problem, Example: Determine whether a
Vertex cover problem, etc. graph has a Hamiltonian cycle,
Determine whether a Boolean
formula is satisfiable or not,
Circuit-satisfiability problem, etc.
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Examples NP-complete
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_NP-
complete_problems
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