Related papers: The Gift Exchange Problem
In this paper, we revisit the much studied problem of Pattern Matching with Swaps (Swap Matching problem, for short). We first present a graph-theoretic model, which opens a new and so far unexplored avenue to solve the problem. Then, using…
In the classical coupon collector's problem, every box of breakfast cereal contains one coupon from a collection of n distinct coupons, each equally likely to appear. The goal is to find the expected number of boxes a player needs to…
When shuffling a deck of cards, one probably wants to make sure it is thoroughly shuffled. A way to do this is by sifting through the cards to ensure that no adjacent cards are the same number, because surely this is a poorly shuffled deck.…
The multiplication game is a two-person game in which each player chooses a positive integer without knowledge of the other player's number. The two numbers are then multiplied together and the first digit of the product determines the…
We consider the following game that has been used as a way of testing claims of extrasensory perception (ESP). One is given a deck of $mn$ cards comprised of $n$ distinct types each of which appears exactly $m$ times: this deck is shuffled…
Consider a set of clients in a broadcast network, each of which holds a subset of packets in the ground set X. In the (coded) cooperative data exchange problem, the clients need to recover all packets in X by exchanging coded packets over a…
In this paper we introduce novel algorithmic strategies for effciently playing two-player games in which the players have different or identical player roles. In the case of identical roles, the players compete for the same objective (that…
In a classical chess round-robin tournament, each of $n$ players wins, draws, or loses a game against each of the other $n-1$ players. A win rewards a player with 1 points, a draw with 1/2 point, and a loss with 0 points. We are interested…
We improve the solution of the classical prisoners and drawers riddle, where all prisoners can find their number using the pointer-following strategy, provided that the prisoners can send a spy to inspect all drawers and swap one pair of…
Repeated game has long been the touchstone model for agents' long-run relationships. Previous results suggest that it is particularly difficult for a repeated game player to exert an autocratic control on the payoffs since they are jointly…
Given a set of $p$ players we consider problems concerning envy-free allocation of collections of $k$ pieces from a given set of goods or chores. We show that if $p\le n$ and each player can choose $k$ pieces out of $n$ pieces of a cake,…
We present and analyze PackIt!, a turn-based game consisting of packing rectangles on an $n \times n$ grid. PackIt! can be easily played on paper, either as a competitive two-player game or in \emph{solitaire} fashion. On the $t$-th turn, a…
In this paper we will be introducing a type of game which as far as this author is aware has never been studied before. These are games where there are two players, one who is trying to get one of his pieces, called a King to a predefined…
The Secret Santa ritual, where in a group of people every member presents a gift to a randomly assigned partner, poses a combinatorial problem when considering the probabilities involved in the formation of pairs, where two persons exchange…
The input to the token swapping problem is a graph with vertices $v_1, v_2, \ldots, v_n$, and $n$ tokens with labels $1, 2, \ldots, n$, one on each vertex. The goal is to get token $i$ to vertex $v_i$ for all $i= 1, \ldots, n$ using a…
Human societies engage in a number of games which use tokens as a means to allocate, issue and access gated resources and property rights: The notion of exchanging tokens that represent and carry value from the past into the future to…
This paper deals with a problem in which two players share a previously sliced pizza and try to eat as much amount of pizza as they can. It takes time to eat each piece of pizza and both players eat pizza at the same rate. One is allowed to…
Finding a counterfeit coin with the different weight from a set of visually identical coin using a balance, usually a two-armed balance, known as the balance question, is an intersting and inspiring question. Its variants involve…
Consider a uniformly random deck consisting of cards labelled by numbers from $1$ through $n$, possibly with repeats. A guesser guesses the top card, after which it is revealed and removed and the game continues. What is the expected number…
In this paper we introduce a new game; in this game there are two players who play as rival pirate gangs. The goal is to gather more treasure than your rival. The game is played on a graph and a player gathers treasure by moving to an…