Becoming a Better

Problem Solver:
A CS Perspective

Zhang Zhiyong Melvin

http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~melvin
School of Computing,
National University of Singapore

May 27, 2009

Becoming a Better Problem Solver:
A CS Perspective
Outline

What is problem solving?

Strategies and tactics

Getting started (Strategies)
Making progress (Tactics)

Summary
Pólya’s Mouse
Pólya’s Mouse

A good problem solver

doesn’t give up easily, but
don’t keep banging your
head on the same part of
the wall.

The key is to vary each

attempt.
References
References
What is problem solving?

Problem solving is the process of tackling

problems in a systematic and rational way.
Steps in problem solving
Understanding
the problem

Looking back Devising a plan

Carrying out
the plan
Outline

What is problem solving?

Strategies and tactics

Getting started (Strategies)
Making progress (Tactics)

Summary
Strategies, tactics and tools

Strategies
General approaches and psychological hints for
starting and pursuing problems.
Tactics
Diverse methods that work in many different
settings.
Tools
Narrowly focused techniques and ”tricks” for
specific situations.
Outline

What is problem solving?

Strategies and tactics

Getting started (Strategies)
Making progress (Tactics)

Summary
Strategy 1. Get your hands dirty
Example: Generating Gray codes
Named after Frank Gray, a researcher from Bell
Labs. Refers to a special type of binary code in
which adjacent codes different at only one position.

3-bit binary code

000
001
010
011
100
101
110
111
Example: Generating Gray codes

1-bit 2-bit 3-bit

0 00 000
1 01 001
11 011
10 010
110
111
101
100
Applications of Gray codes

Figure: Rotary encoder for angle-measuring devices

I Used in position encoder (see figure).

I Labelling the axis of Karnaugh maps.
I Designing error correcting codes.
Strategy 2. Restate the problem

The problem as it is stated may not have an obvious

solution. Try to restate the problem in a different
way.
Find the Inverse
Original Given a set of object, find an object
satisfying some property P.
Inverse Find all of the objects which does NOT
satisfy P.
Example: Invitation

You want to invite the

largest group of friends,
so that each person know
at least k others at the
party.
Invitation

Direct approach
1. For each subset of friends, check if everyone
knows at least k others.
2. Return the largest set of friends.

Looking back
Works but there are potentially 2n subsets to check,
where n is the number of friends.
Invitation

Find the Inverse

Instead of finding the largest group to invite, find
the smallest group that is left out.
Observation
A person with less than k friends must be left out.
Strategy 3. Wishful thinking

Make the problem simpler by removing the source

of difficulty!
1. Identify what makes the problem difficult.
2. Remove or reduce the difficulty.
Example: Largest rectangle

Find the largest white rectangle in an n × n grid.

There is an easy solution
which
checks all
rectangles. There are n2 × n2 ≈ n4 rectangles.
Example: Largest rectangle

2D seems to be difficult, how about 1D?

There are n2 segments in a row, but we can find

the longest white segment using a single scan of the
row. What is that so?
Example: Next Gray code
Given an n-bit Gray code, find the next code.

3-bit Gray code

000
001
011
010
110
111
101
100
Example: Next Gray code

Gray code is tough! What if we worked in binary?

Gray code Binary code

111 101

101 110
Outline

What is problem solving?

Strategies and tactics

Getting started (Strategies)
Making progress (Tactics)

Summary
Making progress
Record your progress
Any form of progress is good, record your workings
and keep track of interesting ideas/observations.

Sometimes, you might

have to sleep on it.
Story of RSA

Figure: Left to right: Adi Shamir, Ron Rivest, Len Adleman

Tactic 1. Extremal principle

Given a choice, it is useful to consider items which

are extreme.
I Tallest/shortest

I Leftmost/rightmost

I Largest/smallest
Example: Activity selection
Each bar represents an activity with a particular
start and end time. Find the largest set of activities
with no overlap.
Example: Activity selection
An intuitive approach is to repeatedly pick the
leftmost activity.

Does this produce the largest set of activities?

Example: Activity selection

This method may be fooled! Consider the following:

Example: Activity selection

How would you normally pick among a set of tasks?

Do the one with the earliest deadline first!
Tactic 2. Symmetry
Example: Gray code to binary code
3-bit Gray code 3-bit binary code
000 000
001 001
011 010
010 011
110 100
111 101
101 110
100 111
Some observations:
I The leftmost column is always the same.

I After a column of ones, the order flips

(reflection).
Example: Gray code to binary code

3-bit Gray code

000
001
Order 0 1 0
011
1 0 1
010
Gray code 1 1 0
110
Binary code 1 0 0
111
101
100
Tactic 3. Space/time trade-off

Instead of always computing an answer from

scratch, it may be worthwhile to precompute some
partial results.
Example: Computing segment sums

Given an array A of integers, compute the sum of

any segment A[i, j] efficiently.

6 4 -3 0 5 1 8 7

For example,
I A[1, 3] = 6 + 4 + −3 = 7

I A[3, 7] = −3 + 0 + 5 + 1 + 8 = 11
Example: Computing segment sums

Wishful thinking Computing for any segment A[i, j]

is difficult, what if we consider only
segments of the form A[1, j]?
Space/time trade-off Sums for A[1, j] can be
precomputed and stored in a another
array P

A 6 4 -3 0 5 1 8 7
P 6 10 7 7 12 13 24 31
Example: Computing segment sums

A 6 4 -3 0 5 1 8 7
P 6 10 7 7 12 13 24 31

Observation
The sum for A[i, j] can be computed as
P[j] − P[i] + A[i].
Example: Computing segment sums

Looking back
I What is special about sum?
I Does this work with max/min? If not, can the
idea be adapted?
Outline

What is problem solving?

Strategies and tactics

Getting started (Strategies)
Making progress (Tactics)

Summary
Strategies and tactics

Strategies Tactics
1. Get your hands dirty 1. Extremal principle
2. Restate the problem 2. Symmetry
3. Wishful thinking 3. Space/time trade-off
Duality of Problem and Solution

If we really understand the problem, the

answer will come out of it, because the
answer is not separate from the problem.

J. Krishnamurti