This is a test I failed because I thought this complexity would be O(n), but it appears i'm wrong and it's O(n^2). Why not O(n)?
First, notice that the question does not ask what is the time complexity of a function calculating f(n), but rather the complexity of the function f(n) itself. you can think about f(n) as being the time complexity of some other algorithm if you are more comfortable talking about time complexity.
This is indeed O(n^2), when the sequence a_i is bounded by a constant and each a_i is at least 1.
By the assumption, for all i, a_i <= c for some constant c.
Hence, a_1*1+...+a_n*n <= c * (1 + 2 + ... + n). Now we need to show that 1 + 2 +... + n = O(n^2) to complete the proof.
1 + 2 + ... + n <= n + n + ... + n = n * n = n ^ 2
and
1 + 2 + ... + n >= n / 2 + (n / 2 + 1) + ... + n >= (n / 2) * (n / 2) = n^2/4
So the complexity is actually Theta(n^2).
Note that if a_i was not constant, e.g., a_i = i then the result is not correct.
in that case, f(n) = 1^2 + 2^2 + ... + n^2 and you can show easily (using the same method as before) that f(n) = Omega(n^3), which means it's not O(n^2).
Preface, not super great with complexity-theory but I'll take a stab.
I think what is confusing is that its not a time complexity problem, but rather the functions complexity.
So for easy part i just goes up to n ie. 1,2,3 ...n , then for ai all entries must be above 0 meaning that a could be something like this 2,5,1... for n times. If you multiply them together n*n = O(n2).
The best case would be if a is 1,1,1 which drop the complexity down to O(n) but the average case will be n so you get squared.
Unless it's mentioned that a[i] is O(n), it's definitely O(n)
Here an another try to achieve O(n*n) if sum should be returned as result.
int sum = 0;
for(int i = 0; i<=n; i++){
for(int j = 0; j<=n; j++){
if(i == j){
sum += A[i] * j;
}
}
return sum;
Related
Here's some code segment I'm trying to find the big-theta for:
i = 1
while i ≤ n do #loops Θ(n) times
A[i] = i
i = i + 1
for j ← 1 to n do #loops Θ(n) times
i = j
while i ≤ n do #loops n times at worst when j = 1, 1 times at best given j = n.
A[i] = i
i = i + j
So given the inner while loop will be a summation of 1 to n, the big theta is Θ(n2. So does that mean the big theta is Θ(n2) for the entire code?
The first while loop and the inner while loop should be equal to Θ(n) + Θ(n2) which should just equal Θ(n2).
Thanks!
for j = 1 to n step 1
for i = j to n step j
# constant time op
The double loop is O(n⋅log(n)) because the number of iterations in the inner loop falls inversely to j. Counting the total number of iterations gives:
floor(n/1) + floor(n/2) + ... + floor(n/n) <= n⋅(1/1 + 1/2 + ... + 1/n) ∼ n⋅log(n)
The partial sums of the harmonic series have logarithmic behavior asymptotically, so the above shows that the double loop is O(n⋅log(n)). That can be strengthened to Θ(n⋅log(n)) with a math argument involving the Dirichlet Divisor Problem.
[ EDIT ] For an alternative derivation of the lower bound that establishes the Θ(n⋅log(n)) asymptote, it is enough to use the < part of the x - 1 < floor(x) <= x inequality, avoiding the more elaborate math (linked above) that gives the exact expression.
floor(n/1) + floor(n/2) + ... + floor(n/n) > (n/1 - 1) + (n/2 - 1) + ... + (n/n - 1)
= n⋅(1/1 + 1/2 + ... + 1/n) - n
∼ n⋅log(n) - n
∼ n⋅log(n)
This question already has answers here:
Time complexity for dependant nested for loop?
(3 answers)
Closed 5 years ago.
Suppose I have a code with two for-loops:
int sum = 0;
for (int i = 1; i < N; i *= 2)
for(int j = 0; j < i; j++)
sum++;
How would I find the worst-case time complexity of this code? I've looked at many tutorials on finding time complexity and I understood them. But this one just seems a bit different from those in the tutorials.
Lets do simple maths.
Value of i in each iteration goes as 1,2,4,8... (log N + 1) terms. In each iteration, the inner loop goes i times. Adding up the values of i
T(N) = 1 + 2 + ... + (log N + 1) terms i.e. GP with a = 1 and r = 2 and n = (log N + 1)
T(N) = a[(rn-1)/(r-1)]
= 1[(2(logN+1) - 1)/(2-1)]
= 2N - 1
= O(N)
So the complexity is O(N) in all scenarios.
First consider a simpler case when N=2^k+1 for some integer k. In this case the outer loop has k iterations and the overall number of operations is
T(N) = 1 + 2 + 4 + ... + 2^k = 2^(k+1) - 1 = 2N - 3.
So the worst case complexity is at least O(2N - 3) = O(N).
Now suppose 2^k + 1 < N <= 2^(k+1) for some k. Then
T(N) = 1 + 2 + 4 + ... + 2^k = 2^(k+1) - 1 < 2N = O(N)
Therefore T(N) = O(N).
What is the time complexity of this algorithm, and why?
int count = 0;
for (int i = N; i > 0; i /= 2) {
for (int j = 0; j < i; j++) {
count += 1;
}
}
The correct answer is O(n), but I am getting O(nlogn). Can anyone tell me why it's O(n)?
On the first iteration, the inner loop executes N times, and then N/2 times, and then N/4 times, and so on. This can be expressed as an infinite sum:
N + N/2 + N/4 + N/8 + N/16 + N/32 + ...
If you factor out the N from each term, you get:
N * (1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + 1/32 + ...)
The infinite sequence in parentheses converges on the value 2 (more info on Wikipedia). Therefore, the number of operations can be simplified to:
N * 2
In terms of Big-O, the asymptotic value is within:
O(N)
You can check this by observing that the relationship in the output between N and count is linear: Ideone Demo
I'm trying to figure out the exact big-O value of algorithms. I'll provide an example:
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) // 2N + 2
{
for (int x = i; x < n; x++) // N * 2N + 2 ?
{
sum += i; // N
}
} // Extra N?
So if I break some of this down, int i = 0 would be O(1), i < n is N+1, i++ is N, multiply the inner loop by N:
2N + 2 + N(1 + N + 1 + N) = 2N^2 + 2N + 2N + 2 = 2N^2 + 4N + 2
Add an N for the loop termination and the sum constant, = 3N^2 + 5N + 2...
Basically, I'm not 100% sure how to calculate the exact O notation for an algorithm, my guess is O(3N^2 + 5N + 2).
What do you mean by exact? Big O is an asymptotic upper bound, so it's by definition not exact.
Thinking about i=0 as O(1) and i<n as O(N+1) is not correct. Instead, think of the outer loop as doing something n times, and for every iteration of the outer loop, the inner loop is executed at most n times. The calculation inside the loop takes constant time (the calculation is not getting more complex as n gets bigger). So you end up with O(n*n*1) = O(n^2), quadratic complexity.
When asking about "exact", you're running the inner loop from 0 to n, then from 1 to n, then from 2 to n, ... , from (n-1) to n, each time doing a constant time operation. So you do n + (n-1) + (n-2) + ... + 1 = n*(n+1)/2 = n^2/2 + n/2 iterations. To get from the exact number of calculations to big O notation, omit constants and lower-order terms, and you'll end up with O(n^2) (the 1/2 and +n/2 are omitted).
Big O means Worst case complexity.
And Here worst case will occur only if both the loops will run for n numbers of time i.e n*n.
So, complexity is O(n2).
I have a short program here:
Given any n:
i = 0;
while (i < n) {
k = 2;
while (k < n) {
sum += a[j] * b[k]
k = k * k;
}
i++;
}
The asymptotic running time of this is O(n log log n). Why is this the case? I get that the entire program will at least run n times. But I'm not sure how to find log log n. The inner loop is depending on k * k, so it's obviously going to be less than n. And it would just be n log n if it was k / 2 each time. But how would you figure out the answer to be log log n?
For mathematical proof, inner loop can be written as:
T(n) = T(sqrt(n)) + 1
w.l.o.g assume 2 ^ 2 ^ (t-1)<= n <= 2 ^ (2 ^ t)=>
we know 2^2^t = 2^2^(t-1) * 2^2^(t-1)
T(2^2^t) = T(2^2^(t-1)) + 1=T(2^2^(t-2)) + 2 =....= T(2^2^0) + t =>
T(2^2^(t-1)) <= T(n) <= T(2^2^t) = T(2^2^0) + log log 2^2^t = O(1) + loglogn
==> O(1) + (loglogn) - 1 <= T(n) <= O(1) + loglog(n) => T(n) = Teta(loglogn).
and then total time is O(n loglogn).
Why inner loop is T(n)=T(sqrt(n)) +1?
first see when inner loop breaks, when k>n, means before that k was at least sqrt(n), or in two level before it was at most sqrt(n), so running time will be T(sqrt(n)) + 2 ≥ T(n) ≥ T(sqrt(n)) + 1.
Time Complexity of a loop is O(log log n) if the loop variables is reduced / increased exponentially by a constant amount. If the loop variable is divided / multiplied by a constant amount then complexity is O(Logn).
Eg: in your case value of k is as follow. Let i in parenthesis denote the number of times the loop has been executed.
2 (0) , 2^2 (1), 2^4 (2), 2^8 (3), 2^16(4), 2^32 (5) , 2^ 64 (6) ...... till n (k) is reached.
The value of k here will be O(log log n) which is the number of times the loop has executed.
For the sake of assumption lets assume that n is 2^64. Now log (2^64) = 64 and log 64 = log (2^6) = 6. Hence your program ran 6 times when n is 2^64.
I think if the codes are like this, it should be n*log n;
i = 0;
while (i < n) {
k = 2;
while (k < n) {
sum += a[j] * b[k]
k *= c;// c is a constant bigger than 1 and less than k;
}
i++;
}
Okay, So let's break this down first -
Given any n:
i = 0;
while (i < n) {
k = 2;
while (k < n) {
sum += a[j] * b[k]
k = k * k;
}
i++;
}
while( i<n ) will run for n+1 times but we'll round it off to n times.
now here comes the fun part, k<n will not run for n times instead it will run for log log n times because here instead of incrementing k by 1,in each loop we are incrementing it by squaring it. now this means it'll take only log log n time for the loop. you'll understand this when you learn design and analysis of algorithm
Now we combine all the time complexity and we get n.log log n time here I hope you get it now.