No of ways to walk M steps in a grid - algorithm

You are situated in an grid at position x,y. The dimensions of the row is dx,dy. In one step, you can walk one step ahead or behind in the row or the column. In how many ways can you take M steps such that you do not leave the grid at any point ?You can visit the same position more than once.
You leave the grid if you for any x,y either x,y <= 0 or x,y > dx,dy.
1 <= M <= 300
1 <= x,y <= dx,dy <= 100
Input:
M
x y
dx dy
Output:
no of ways
Example:
Input:
1
6 6
12 12
Output:
4
Example:
Input:
2
6 6
12 12
Output:
16
If you are at position 6,6 then you can walk to (6,5),(6,7),(5,6),(7,6).
I am stuck at how to use Pascal's Triangle to solve it.Is that the correct approach? I have already tried brute force but its too slow.
C[i][j], Pascal Triangle
C[i][j] = C[i - 1][j - 1] + C[i - 1][j]
T[startpos][stp]
T[pos][stp] = T[pos + 1][stp - 1] + T[pos - 1][stp - 1]

You can solve 1d problem with the formula you provided.
Let H[pos][step] be number of ways to move horizontal using given number of steps.
And V[pos][step] be number of ways to move vertical sing given number of steps.
You can iterate number of steps that will be made horizontal i = 0..M
Number of ways to move so is H[x][i]*V[y][M-i]*C[M][i], where C is binomial coefficient.
You can build H and V in O(max(dx,dy)*M) and do second step in O(M).
EDIT: Clarification on H and V. Supppose that you have line, that have d cells: 1,2,...,d. You're standing at cell number pos then T[pos][step] = T[pos-1][step-1] + T[pos+1][step-1], as you can move either forward or backward.
Base cases are T[0][step] = 0, T[d+1][step] = 0, T[pos][0] = 1.
We build H assuming d = dx and V assuming d = dy.
EDIT 2: Basically, the idea of algorithm is since we move in one of 2 dimensions and check is also based on each dimension independently, we can split 2d problem in 2 1d problems.

One way would be an O(n^3) dynamic programming solution:
Prepare a 3D array:
int Z[dx][dy][M]
Where Z[i][j][n] holds the number of paths that start from position (i,j) and last n moves.
The base case is Z[i][j][0] = 1 for all i, j
The recursive case is Z[i][j][n+1] = Z[i-1][j][n] + Z[i+1][j][n] + Z[i][j-1][n] + Z[i][j+1][n] (only include terms in the sumation that are on the map)
Once the array is filled out return Z[x][y][M]
To save space you can discard each 2D array for n after it is used.

Here's a Java solution I've built for the original hackerrank problem. For big grids runs forever. Probably some smart math is needed.
long compute(int N, int M, int[] positions, int[] dimensions) {
if (M == 0) {
return 1;
}
long sum = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) {
if (positions[i] < dimensions[i]) {
positions[i]++;
sum += compute(N, M - 1, positions, dimensions);
positions[i]--;
}
if (positions[i] > 1) {
positions[i]--;
sum += compute(N, M - 1, positions, dimensions);
positions[i]++;
}
}
return sum % 1000000007;
}

Related

How many possible way for barcode to appear with limitation constrain

This is one of homeworks from a grader I've got. I've been struggling on this question for two days now. The topic is about Dynamic programming and I have no idea how to make sense of it.
The detail is the following.
A barcode consists of black and white vertical lines in different arrangement. For simplicity, we use a string of “0” and “1” to identify a barcode such that “0” represents a black line while “1” represents a white line.
A barcode is designed to be robust to error thus it has to follow some specific rules:
1) A barcode must consists of exactly N lines
2) There can be no more than M consecutive lines of same color. For example, when M=3, the barcode “01100001” is illegal because it consists of four consecutive white lines. However, 1001100 is legal.
3) We define “color changing” as follows. Color changing occurs when two
consecutive lines have different colors. For example, 1001100 has 3 color
changing. A barcode must have exactly K color changing.
4) The first line is always a black line.
We interest in knowing the number of possible barcode with respect to given
values of N, M and K.
Input
There are only one line contains 3 integers N, M and K where 1 <= N,M <= 30 and 0 <= K <= 30
Output
The output must contain exactly one line giving the number of possible barcodes.
For example
Input
4 3 1
Output
3
Input
5 2 2
Output
3
Input
7 9 4
Output
15
At each step ( the i barcode ) we have 2 options: either choose it white or black, then depend on that update your state (m and k).
here a pseudo Java code with comments, don't hesitate to ask if something is not clear:
static int n,m,k,memo[][][][];
static int dp(int i,int mm,int kk,int last) {
if(mm > m || kk > k) return 0; // limitation constrains
if(i==n) return kk==k?1:0; // if we build our barcode ( i == n ), we need to check color changing if it's ok return 1 else return 0
if(memo[i][mm][kk][last] != -1) return memo[i][mm][kk][last]; // momoization
int ans = 0;
ans += dp(i+1,last==1?mm+1:1,kk+(last!=1?1:0),1); // choose black as a color of this one and update state ( mm, kk )
ans += dp(i+1,last==0?mm+1:1,kk+(last!=0?1:0),0); // choose white as a color of this one and update state ( mm, kk )
return memo[i][mm][kk][last] = ans;
}
public static void main (String[] args) throws java.lang.Exception {
n = 4; m = 3; k = 1;
memo = new int[n+1][m+1][k+1][2];
for(int i=0;i<n;i++) for(int j=0;j<=m;j++) for(int l=0;l<=k;l++) Arrays.fill(memo[i][j][l], -1);
System.out.print(dp(1,1,0,1));
}
There is a quite simple recurrence relation, if T(N, M, K) is the output :
T(N, M, K) = T(N - 1, M, K - 1) + T(N - 2, M, K - 1) + ... + T(N - M, M, K - 1)
A valid barcode (N, M, K) is always a smaller valid barcode plus one new colour, the size of this new colour could be anything from 1 to M.
Thanks to this relation you can create for each M, a N x K table and solve the problem in O(NMK) with dynamic programming.
These rules should be enough to initialize the recurrence:
T(N, M, K) = 0 if (K >= N) and 1 if (K = N - 1)
T(N, M, K) = 0 if ((K+1) * M < N)

Print the elements which making min cost path from a start point to end point in a grid

We can calculate min cost suppose take this recurrence relation
min(mat[i-1][j],mat[i][j-1])+mat[i][j];
0 1 2 3
4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11
for calculating min cost using the above recurrence relation we will get for min-cost(1,2)=0+1+2+6=9
i am getting min cost sum, that's not problem..now i want to print the elements 0,1,2,6 bcz this elements are making min cost path.
Any help is really appreciated.
Suppose, your endpoint is [x, y] and start-point is [a, b]. After the recursion step, now start from the endpoint and crawl-back/backtrack to start point.
Here is the pseudocode:
# Assuming grid is the given input 2D grid
output = []
p = x, q = y
while(p != a && q != b):
output.add(grid[p][q])
min = infinity
newP = -1, newQ = -1
if(p - 1 >= 0 && mat[p - 1][q] < min):
min = matrix[p -1][q]
newP = p - 1
newQ = q
if(q - 1 >= 0 && mat[p][q - 1] < min):
min = mat[p][q - 1]
newP = p
newQ = q - 1
p = newP, q = newQ
end
output.add(grid[a][b])
# print output
Notice, here we used mat and grid - two 2D matrix where grid is the given input and mat is the matrix generated after the recursion step mat[i][j] = min(mat[i - 1][j], mat[i][j - 1]) + grid[i][j]
Hope it helps!
Besides computing the min cost matrix using the relation that you mentioned, you can also create a predecessor matrix.
For each cell (i, j), you should also store the information about who was the "min" in the relation that you mentioned (was it the left element, or is it the element above?). In this way, you will know for each cell, which is its preceding cell in an optimal path.
Afterwards, you can generate the path by starting from the final cell and moving backwards according to the "predecessor" matrix, until you reach the top-left cell.
Note that the going backwards idea can be applied also without explicitly constructing a predecessor matrix. At each point, you would need to look which of the candidate predecessors has a lower total cost.

Find final square in matrix walking like a spiral

Given the matrix A x A and a number of movements N.
And walking like a spiral:
right while possible, then
down while possible, then
left while possible, then
up while possible, repeat until got N.
Image with example (A = 8; N = 36)
In this example case, the final square is (4; 7).
My question is: Is it possible to use a generic formula to solve this?
Yes, it is possible to calculate the answer.
To do so, it will help to split up the problem into three parts.
(Note: I start counting at zero to simplify the math. This means that you'll have to add 1 to some parts of the answer. For instance, my answer to A = 8, N = 36 would be the final square (3; 6), which has the label 35.)
(Another note: this answer is quite similar to Nyavro's answer, except that I avoid the recursion here.)
In the first part, you calculate the labels on the diagonal:
(0; 0) has label 0.
(1; 1) has label 4*(A-1). The cycle can be evenly split into four parts (with your labels: 1..7, 8..14, 15..21, 22..27).
(2; 2) has label 4*(A-1) + 4*(A-3). After taking one cycle around the A x A matrix, your next cycle will be around a (A - 2) x (A - 2) matrix.
And so on. There are plenty of ways to now figure out the general rule for (K; K) (when 0 < K < A/2). I'll just pick the one that's easiest to show:
4*(A-1) + 4*(A-3) + 4*(A-5) + ... + 4*(A-(2*K-1)) =
4*A*K - 4*(1 + 3 + 5 + ... + (2*K-1)) =
4*A*K - 4*(K + (0 + 2 + 4 + ... + (2*K-2))) =
4*A*K - 4*(K + 2*(0 + 1 + 2 + ... + (K-1))) =
4*A*K - 4*(K + 2*(K*(K-1)/2)) =
4*A*K - 4*(K + K*(K-1)) =
4*A*K - 4*(K + K*K - K) =
4*A*K - 4*K*K =
4*(A-K)*K
(Note: check that 4*(A-K)*K = 28 when A = 8 and K = 1. Compare this to the label at (2; 2) in your example.)
Now that we know what labels are on the diagonal, we can figure out how many layers (say K) we have to remove from our A x A matrix so that the final square is on the edge. If we do this, then answering our question
What are the coordinates (X; Y) when I take N steps in a A x A matrix?
can be done by calculating this K and instead solve the question
What are the coordinates (X - K; Y - K) when I take N - 4*(A-K)*K steps in a (A - 2*K) x (A - 2*K) matrix?
To do this, we should find the largest integer K such that K < A/2 and 4*(A-K)*K <= N.
The solution to this is K = floor(A/2 - sqrt(A*A-N)/2).
All that remains is to find out the coordinates of a square that is N along the edge of some A x A matrix:
if 0*E <= N < 1*E, the coordinates are (0; N);
if 1*E <= N < 2*E, the coordinates are (N - E; E);
if 2*E <= N < 3*E, the coordinates are (E; 3*E - N); and
if 3*E <= N < 4*E, the coordinates are (4*E - N; 0).
Here, E = A - 1.
To conclude, here is a naive (layerNumber gives incorrect answers for large values of a due to float inaccuracy) Haskell implementation of this answer:
finalSquare :: Integer -> Integer -> Maybe (Integer, Integer)
finalSquare a n
| Just (x', y') <- edgeSquare a' n' = Just (x' + k, y' + k)
| otherwise = Nothing
where
k = layerNumber a n
a' = a - 2*k
n' = n - 4*(a-k)*k
edgeSquare :: Integer -> Integer -> Maybe (Integer, Integer)
edgeSquare a n
| n < 1*e = Just (0, n)
| n < 2*e = Just (n - e, e)
| n < 3*e = Just (e, 3*e - n)
| n < 4*e = Just (4*e - n, 0)
| otherwise = Nothing
where
e = a - 1
layerNumber :: Integer -> Integer -> Integer
layerNumber a n = floor $ aa/2 - sqrt(aa*aa-nn)/2
where
aa = fromInteger a
nn = fromInteger n
Here is the possible solution:
f a n | n < (a-1)*1 = (0, n)
| n < (a-1)*2 = (n-(a-1), a-1)
| n < (a-1)*3 = (a-1, 3*(a-1)-n)
| n < (a-1)*4 = (4*(a-1)-n, 0)
| otherwise = add (1,1) (f (a-2) (n - 4*(a-1))) where
add (x1, y1) (x2, y2) = (x1+x2, y1+y2)
This is a basic solution, it may be generalized further - I just don't know how much generalization you need. So you can get the idea.
Edit
Notes:
The solution is for 0-based index
Some check for existence is required (n >= a*a)
I'm going to propose a relatively simple workaround here which generates all the indices in O(A^2) time so that they can later be accessed in O(1) for any N. If A changes, however, we would have to execute the algorithm again, which would once more consume O(A^2) time.
I suggest you use a structure like this to store the indices to access your matrix:
Coordinate[] indices = new Coordinate[A*A]
Where Coordinate is just a pair of int.
You can then fill your indices array by using some loops:
(This implementation uses 1-based array access. Correct expressions containing i, sentinel and currentDirection accordingly if this is an issue.)
Coordinate[] directions = { {1, 0}, {0, 1}, {-1, 0}, {0, -1} };
Coordinate c = new Coordinate(1, 1);
int currentDirection = 1;
int i = 1;
int sentinel = A;
int sentinelIncrement = A - 1;
boolean sentinelToggle = false;
while(i <= A * A) {
indices[i] = c;
if (i >= sentinel) {
if (sentinelToggle) {
sentinelIncrement -= 1;
}
sentinel += sentinelIncrement;
sentinelToggle = !sentinelToggle;
currentDirection = currentDirection mod 4 + 1;
}
c += directions[currentDirection];
i++;
}
Alright, off to the explanation: I'm using a variable called sentinel to keep track of where I need to switch directions (directions are simply switched by cycling through the array directions).
The value of sentinel is incremented in such a way that it always has the index of a corner in our spiral. In your example the sentinel would take on the values 8, 15, 22, 28, 34, 39... and so on.
Note that the index of "sentinel" increases twice by 7 (8, 15 = 8 + 7, 22 = 15 + 7), then by 6 (28 = 22 + 6, 34 = 28 + 6), then by 5 and so on. In my while loop I used the boolean sentinelToggle for this. Each time we hit a corner of the spiral (this is exactly iff i == sentinel, which is where the if-condition comes in) we increment the sentinel by sentinelIncrement and change the direction we're heading. If sentinel has been incremented twice by the same value, the if-condition if (sentinelToggle) will be true, so sentinelIncrement is decreased by one. We have to decrease sentinelIncrement because our spiral gets smaller as we go on.
This goes on as long as i <= A*A, that is, as long as our array indices has still entries that are zero.
Note that this does not give you a closed formula for a spiral coordinate in respect to N (which would be O(1) ); instead it generates the indices for all N which takes up O(A^2) time and after that guarantees access in O(1) by simply calling indices[N].
O(n^2) hopefully shouldn't hurt too badly because I'm assuming that you'll also need to fill your matrix at some point which also takes O(n^2).
If efficiency is a problem, consider getting rid off sentinelToggle so it doesn't mess up branch prediction. Instead, decrement sentinelIncrement every time the while condition is met. To get the same effect for your sentinel value, simply start sentinelIncrement at (A - 1) * 2 and every time the if-condition is met, execute:
sentinel += sentinelIncrement / 2
The integer division will have the same effect as only decreasing sentinelIncrement every second time. I didn't do this whole thing in my version because I think it might be more easily understandable with just a boolean value.
Hope this helps!

Find the a location in a matrix so that the cost of every one moving to that location is smallest

There is a matrix, m×n. Several groups of people locate at some certain spots. In the following example, there are three groups and the number 4 indicates there are four people in this group. Now we want to find a meeting point in the matrix so that the cost of all groups moving to that point is the minimum. As for how to compute the cost of moving one group to another point, please see the following example.
Group1: (0, 1), 4
Group2: (1, 3), 3
Group3: (2, 0), 5
. 4 . .
. . . 3
5 . . .
If all of these three groups moving to (1, 1), the cost is:
4*((1-0)+(1-1)) + 5*((2-1)+(1-0))+3*((1-1)+(3-1))
My idea is :
Firstly, this two dimensional problem can be reduced to two one dimensional problem.
In the one dimensional problem, I can prove that the best spot must be one of these groups.
In this way, I can give a O(G^2) algorithm.(G is the number of group).
Use iterator's example for illustration:
{(-100,0,100),(100,0,100),(0,1,1)},(x,y,population)
for x, {(-100,100),(100,100),(0,1)}, 0 is the best.
for y, {(0,100),(0,100),(1,1)}, 0 is the best.
So it's (0, 0)
Is there any better solution for this problem.
I like the idea of noticing that the objective function can be decomposed to give the sum of two one-dimensional problems. The remaining problems look a lot like the weighted median to me (note "solves the following optimization problem in "http://www.stat.ucl.ac.be/ISdidactique/Rhelp/library/R.basic/html/weighted.median.html" or consider what happens to the objective function as you move away from the weighted median).
The URL above seems to say the weighted median takes time n log n, which I guess means that you could attain their claim by sorting the data and then doing a linear pass to work out the weighted median. The numbers you have to sort are in the range [0, m] and [0, n] so you could in theory do better if m and n are small, or - of course - if you are given the data pre-sorted.
Come to think of it, I don't see why you shouldn't be able to find the weighted median with a linear time randomized algorithm similar to that used to find the median (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Algorithms/Randomization#find-median) - repeatedly pick a random element, use it to partition the items remaining, and work out which half the weighted median should be in. That gives you expected linear time.
I think this can be solved in O(n>m?n:m) time and O(n>m?n:m) space.
We have to find the median of x coordinates and median of all y coordinates in the k points and the answer will be (x_median,y_median);
Assumption is this function takes in the following inputs:
total number of points :int k= 4+3+5 = 12;
An array of coordinates:
struct coord_t c[12] = {(0,1),(0,1),(0,1), (0,1), (1,3), (1,3),(1,3),(2,0),(2,0),(2,0),(2,0),(2,0)};
c.int size = n>m ? n:m;
Let the input of the coordinates be an array of coordinates. coord_t c[k]
struct coord_t {
int x;
int y;
};
1. My idea is to create an array of size = n>m?n:m;
2. int array[size] = {0} ; //initialize all the elements in the array to zero
for(i=0;i<k;i++)
{
array[c[i].x] = +1;
count++;
}
int tempCount =0;
for(i=0;i<k;i++)
{
if(array[i]!=0)
{
tempCount += array[i];
}
if(tempCount >= count/2)
{
break;
}
}
int x_median = i;
//similarly with y coordinate.
int array[size] = {0} ; //initialize all the elements in the array to zero
for(i=0;i<k;i++)
{
array[c[i].y] = +1;
count++;
}
int tempCount =0;
for(i=0;i<k;i++)
{
if(array[i]!=0)
{
tempCount += array[i];
}
if(tempCount >= count/2)
{
break;
}
}
int y_median = i;
coord_t temp;
temp.x = x_median;
temp.y= y_median;
return temp;
Sample Working code for MxM matrix with k points:
*Problem
Given a MxM grid . and N people placed in random position on the grid. Find the optimal meeting point of all the people.
/
/
Answer:
Find the median of all the x coordiates of the positions of the people.
Find the median of all the y coordinates of the positions of the people.
*/
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
typedef struct coord_struct {
int x;
int y;
}coord_struct;
typedef struct distance {
int count;
}distance;
coord_struct toFindTheOptimalDistance (int N, int M, coord_struct input[])
{
coord_struct z ;
z.x=0;
z.y=0;
int i,j;
distance * array_dist;
array_dist = (distance*)(malloc(sizeof(distance)*M));
for(i=0;i<M;i++)
{
array_dist[i].count =0;
}
for(i=0;i<N;i++)
{
array_dist[input[i].x].count +=1;
printf("%d and %d\n",input[i].x,array_dist[input[i].x].count);
}
j=0;
for(i=0;i<=N/2;)
{
printf("%d\n",i);
if(array_dist[j].count !=0)
i+=array_dist[j].count;
j++;
}
printf("x coordinate = %d",j-1);
int x= j-1;
for(i=0;i<M;i++)
array_dist[i].count =0;
for(i=0;i<N;i++)
{
array_dist[input[i].y].count +=1;
}
j=0;
for(i=0;i<N/2;)
{
if(array_dist[j].count !=0)
i+=array_dist[j].count;
j++;
}
int y =j-1;
printf("y coordinate = %d",j-1);
z.x=x;
z.y =y;
return z;
}
int main()
{
coord_struct input[5];
input[0].x =1;
input[0].y =2;
input[1].x =1;
input[1].y =2;
input[2].x =4;
input[2].y =1;
input[3].x = 5;
input[3].y = 2;
input[4].x = 5;
input[4].y = 2;
int size = m>n?m:n;
coord_struct x = toFindTheOptimalDistance(5,size,input);
}
Your algorithm is fine, and divide the problem into two one-dimensional problem. And the time complexity is O(nlogn).
You only need to divide every groups of people into n single people, so every move to left, right, up or down will be 1 for each people. We only need to find where's the (n + 1) / 2th people stand for row and column respectively.
Consider your sample. {(-100,0,100),(100,0,100),(0,1,1)}.
Let's take the line numbers out. It's {(-100,100),(100,100),(0,1)}, and that means 100 people stand at -100, 100 people stand at 100, and 1 people stand at 0.
Sort it by x, and it's {(-100,100),(0,1),(100,100)}. There is 201 people in total, so we only need to set the location at where the 101th people stands. It's 0, and that's for the answer.
The column number is with the same algorithm. {(0,100),(0,100),(1,1)}, and it's sorted. The 101th people is at 0, so the answer for column is also 0.
The answer is (0,0).
I can think of O(n) solution for one dimensional problem, which in turn means you can solve original problem in O(n+m+G).
Suppose, people are standing like this, a_0, a_1, ... a_n-1: a_0 people at spot 0, a_1 at spot 1. Then the solution in pseudocode is
cur_result = sum(i*a_i, i = 1..n-1)
cur_r = sum(a_i, i = 1..n-1)
cur_l = a_0
for i = 1:n-1
cur_result = cur_result - cur_r + cur_l
cur_r = cur_r - a_i
cur_l = cur_l + a_i
end
You need to find point, where cur_result is minimal.
So you need O(n) + O(m) for solving 1d problems + O(G) to build them, meaning total complexity is O(n+m+G).
Alternatively you solve 1d in O(G*log G) (or O(G) if data is sorted) using the same idea. Choose the one from expected number of groups.
you can solve this in O(G Log G) time by reducing it to, two one dimensional problems as you mentioned.
And as to how to solve it in one dimension, just sort them and go through them one by one and calculate cost moving to that point. This calculation can be done in O(1) time for each point.
You can also avoid Log(G) component if your x and y coordinates are small enough for you to use bucket/radix sort.
Inspired by kilotaras's idea. It seems that there is a O(G) solution for this problem.
Since everyone agree with the two dimensional problem can be reduced to two one dimensional problem. I will not repeat it again. I just focus on how to solve the one dimensional problem
with O(G).
Suppose, people are standing like this, a[0], a[1], ... a[n-1]. There is a[i] people standing at spot i. There are G spots having people(G <= n). Assuming these G spots are g[1], g[2], ..., g[G], where gi is in [0,...,n-1]. Without losing generality, we can also assume that g[1] < g[2] < ... < g[G].
It's not hard to prove that the optimal spot must come from these G spots. I will pass the
prove here and left it as an exercise if you guys have interest.
Since the above observation, we can just compute the cost of moving to the spot of every group and then chose the minimal one. There is an obvious O(G^2) algorithm to do this.
But using kilotaras's idea, we can do it in O(G)(no sorting).
cost[1] = sum((g[i]-g[1])*a[g[i]], i = 2,...,G) // the cost of moving to the
spot of first group. This step is O(G).
cur_r = sum(a[g[i]], i = 2,...,G) //How many people is on the right side of the
second group including the second group. This step is O(G).
cur_l = a[g[1]] //How many people is on the left side of the second group not
including the second group.
for i = 2:G
gap = g[i] - g[i-1];
cost[i] = cost[i-1] - cur_r*gap + cur_l*gap;
if i != G
cur_r = cur_r - a[g[i]];
cur_l = cur_l + a[g[i]];
end
end
The minimal of cost[i] is the answer.
Using the example 5 1 0 3 to illustrate the algorithm.
In this example,
n = 4, G = 3.
g[1] = 0, g[2] = 1, g[3] = 3.
a[0] = 5, a[1] = 1, a[2] = 0, a[3] = 3.
(1) cost[1] = 1*1+3*3 = 10, cur_r = 4, cur_l = 5.
(2) cost[2] = 10 - 4*1 + 5*1 = 11, gap = g[2] - g[1] = 1, cur_r = 4 - a[g[2]] = 3, cur_l = 6.
(3) cost[3] = 11 - 3*2 + 6*2 = 17, gap = g[3] - g[2] = 2.

Google Combinatorial Optimization interview problem

I got asked this question on a interview for Google a couple of weeks ago, I didn't quite get the answer and I was wondering if anyone here could help me out.
You have an array with n elements. The elements are either 0 or 1.
You want to split the array into k contiguous subarrays. The size of each subarray can vary between ceil(n/2k) and floor(3n/2k). You can assume that k << n.
After you split the array into k subarrays. One element of each subarray will be randomly selected.
Devise an algorithm for maximizing the sum of the randomly selected elements from the k subarrays.
Basically means that we will want to split the array in such way such that the sum of all the expected values for the elements selected from each subarray is maximum.
You can assume that n is a power of 2.
Example:
Array: [0,0,1,1,0,0,1,1,0,1,1,0]
n = 12
k = 3
Size of subarrays can be: 2,3,4,5,6
Possible subarrays [0,0,1] [1,0,0,1] [1,0,1,1,0]
Expected Value of the sum of the elements randomly selected from the subarrays: 1/3 + 2/4 + 3/5 = 43/30 ~ 1.4333333
Optimal split: [0,0,1,1,0,0][1,1][0,1,1,0]
Expected value of optimal split: 1/3 + 1 + 1/2 = 11/6 ~ 1.83333333
I think we can solve this problem using dynamic programming.
Basically, we have:
f(i,j) is defined as the maximum sum of all expected values chosen from an array of size i and split into j subarrays. Therefore the solution should be f(n,k).
The recursive equation is:
f(i,j) = f(i-x,j-1) + sum(i-x+1,i)/x where (n/2k) <= x <= (3n/2k)
I don't know if this is still an open question or not, but it seems like the OP has managed to add enough clarifications that this should be straightforward to solve. At any rate, if I am understanding what you are saying this seems like a fair thing to ask in an interview environment for a software development position.
Here is the basic O(n^2 * k) solution, which should be adequate for small k (as the interviewer specified):
def best_val(arr, K):
n = len(arr)
psum = [ 0.0 ]
for x in arr:
psum.append(psum[-1] + x)
tab = [ -100000 for i in range(n) ]
tab.append(0)
for k in range(K):
for s in range(n - (k+1) * ceil(n/(2*K))):
terms = range(s + ceil(n/(2*K)), min(s + floor((3*n)/(2*K)) + 1, n+1))
tab[s] = max( [ (psum[t] - psum[s]) / (t - s) + tab[t] for t in terms ])
return tab[0]
I used the numpy ceil/floor functions but you basically get the idea. The only `tricks' in this version is that it does windowing to reduce the memory overhead to just O(n) instead of O(n * k), and that it precalculates the partial sums to make computing the expected value for a box a constant time operation (thus saving a factor of O(n) from the inner loop).
I don't know if anyone is still interested to see the solution for this problem. Just stumbled upon this question half an hour ago and thought of posting my solution(Java). The complexity for this is O(n*K^log10). The proof is a little convoluted so I would rather provide runtime numbers:
n k time(ms)
48 4 25
48 8 265
24 4 20
24 8 33
96 4 51
192 4 143
192 8 343919
The solution is the same old recursive one where given an array, choose the first partition of size ceil(n/2k) and find the best solution recursively for the rest with number of partitions = k -1, then take ceil(n/2k) + 1 and so on.
Code:
public class PartitionOptimization {
public static void main(String[] args) {
PartitionOptimization p = new PartitionOptimization();
int[] input = { 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0};
int splitNum = 3;
int lowerLim = (int) Math.ceil(input.length / (2.0 * splitNum));
int upperLim = (int) Math.floor((3.0 * input.length) / (2.0 * splitNum));
System.out.println(input.length + " " + lowerLim + " " + upperLim + " " +
splitNum);
Date currDate = new Date();
System.out.println(currDate);
System.out.println(p.getMaxPartExpt(input, lowerLim, upperLim,
splitNum, 0));
System.out.println(new Date().getTime() - currDate.getTime());
}
public double getMaxPartExpt(int[] input, int lowerLim, int upperLim,
int splitNum, int startIndex) {
if (splitNum <= 1 && startIndex<=(input.length -lowerLim+1)){
double expt = findExpectation(input, startIndex, input.length-1);
return expt;
}
if (!((input.length - startIndex) / lowerLim >= splitNum))
return -1;
double maxExpt = 0;
double curMax = 0;
int bestI=0;
for (int i = startIndex + lowerLim - 1; i < Math.min(startIndex
+ upperLim, input.length); i++) {
double curExpect = findExpectation(input, startIndex, i);
double splitExpect = getMaxPartExpt(input, lowerLim, upperLim,
splitNum - 1, i + 1);
if (splitExpect>=0 && (curExpect + splitExpect > maxExpt)){
bestI = i;
curMax = curExpect;
maxExpt = curExpect + splitExpect;
}
}
return maxExpt;
}
public double findExpectation(int[] input, int startIndex, int endIndex) {
double expectation = 0;
for (int i = startIndex; i <= endIndex; i++) {
expectation = expectation + input[i];
}
expectation = (expectation / (endIndex - startIndex + 1));
return expectation;
}
}
Not sure I understand, the algorithm is to split the array in groups, right? The maximum value the sum can have is the number of ones. So split the array in "n" groups of 1 element each and the addition will be the maximum value possible. But it must be something else and I did not understand the problem, that seems too silly.
I think this can be solved with dynamic programming. At each possible split location, get the maximum sum if you split at that location and if you don't split at that point. A recursive function and a table to store history might be useful.
sum_i = max{ NumOnesNewPart/NumZerosNewPart * sum(NewPart) + sum(A_i+1, A_end),
sum(A_0,A_i+1) + sum(A_i+1, A_end)
}
This might lead to something...
I think its a bad interview question, but it is also an easy problem to solve.
Every integer contributes to the expected value with weight 1/s where s is the size of the set where it has been placed. Therefore, if you guess the sizes of the sets in your partition, you just need to fill the sets with ones starting from the smallest set, and then fill the remaining largest set with zeroes.
You can easily see then that if you have a partition, filled as above, where the sizes of the sets are S_1, ..., S_k and you do a transformation where you remove one item from set S_i and move it to set S_i+1, you have the following cases:
Both S_i and S_i+1 were filled with ones; then the expected value does not change
Both them were filled with zeroes; then the expected value does not change
S_i contained both 1's and 0's and S_i+1 contains only zeroes; moving 0 to S_i+1 increases the expected value because the expected value of S_i increases
S_i contained 1's and S_i+1 contains both 1's and 0's; moving 1 to S_i+1 increases the expected value because the expected value of S_i+1 increases and S_i remains intact
In all these cases, you can shift an element from S_i to S_i+1, maintaining the filling rule of filling smallest sets with 1's, so that the expected value increases. This leads to the simple algorithm:
Create a partitioning where there is a maximal number of maximum-size arrays and maximal number of minimum-size arrays
Fill the arrays starting from smallest one with 1's
Fill the remaining slots with 0's
How about a recursive function:
int BestValue(Array A, int numSplits)
// Returns the best value that would be obtained by splitting
// into numSplits partitions.
This in turn uses a helper:
// The additional argument is an array of the valid split sizes which
// is the same for each call.
int BestValueHelper(Array A, int numSplits, Array splitSizes)
{
int result = 0;
for splitSize in splitSizes
int splitResult = ExpectedValue(A, 0, splitSize) +
BestValueHelper(A+splitSize, numSplits-1, splitSizes);
if splitResult > result
result = splitResult;
}
ExpectedValue(Array A, int l, int m) computes the expected value of a split of A that goes from l to m i.e. (A[l] + A[l+1] + ... A[m]) / (m-l+1).
BestValue calls BestValueHelper after computing the array of valid split sizes between ceil(n/2k) and floor(3n/2k).
I have omitted error handling and some end conditions but those should not be too difficult to add.
Let
a[] = given array of length n
from = inclusive index of array a
k = number of required splits
minSize = minimum size of a split
maxSize = maximum size of a split
d = maxSize - minSize
expectation(a, from, to) = average of all element of array a from "from" to "to"
Optimal(a[], from, k) = MAX[ for(j>=minSize-1 to <=maxSize-1) { expectation(a, from, from+j) + Optimal(a, j+1, k-1)} ]
Runtime (assuming memoization or dp) = O(n*k*d)

Resources