Related papers: Solving Static Permutation Mastermind using $O(n \…
We analyze the general version of the classic guessing game Mastermind with $n$ positions and $k$ colors. Since the case $k \le n^{1-\varepsilon}$, $\varepsilon>0$ a constant, is well understood, we concentrate on larger numbers of colors.…
Since the 1960s Mastermind has been studied for the combinatorial and information theoretical interest the game has to offer. Many results have been discovered starting with Erd\H{o}s and R\'enyi determining the optimal number of queries…
Mastermind is famous two-players game. The first player (codemaker) chooses a secret code which the second player (codebreaker) is supposed to crack within a minimum number of code guesses (queries). Therefore, codemaker's duty is to help…
In the past three decades, deductive games have become interesting from the algorithmic point of view. Deductive games are two players zero sum games of imperfect information. The first player, called "codemaker", chooses a secret code and…
We study the query complexity of a permutation-based variant of the guessing game Mastermind. In this variant, the secret is a pair $(z,\pi)$ which consists of a binary string $z \in \{0,1\}^n$ and a permutation $\pi$ of $[n]$. The secret…
From the 1970s up to now, Mastermind, a classic two-player game, has attracted plenty of attention, not only from the public as a popular game, but also from the academic community as a scientific issue. Mastermind with n positions and k…
We study variants of Mastermind, a popular board game in which the objective is sequence reconstruction. In this two-player game, the so-called \textit{codemaker} constructs a hidden sequence $H = (h_1, h_2, \ldots, h_n)$ of colors selected…
We analyze the classic board game of Mastermind with $n$ holes and a constant number of colors. A result of Chv\'atal (Combinatorica 3 (1983), 325-329) states that the codebreaker can find the secret code with $\Theta(n / \log n)$…
In the permutation Mastermind game, the goal is to uncover a secret permutation $\sigma^\star \colon [n] \to [n]$ by making a series of guesses $\pi_1, \ldots, \pi_T$ which must also be permutations of $[n]$, and receiving as feedback after…
Mastermind game is a two players zero sum game of imperfect information. The first player, called codemaker, chooses a secret code and the second player, called codebreaker, tries to break the secret code by making as few guesses as…
We introduce a guessing game, permutation Wordle, in which a guesser attempts to recover a hidden permutation in $S_n$. In each round, the guesser guesses a permutation (using information from previous rounds) and is told which entries of…
In the Generalized Mastermind problem, there is an unknown subset $H$ of the hypercube $\{0,1\}^d$ containing $n$ points. The goal is to learn $H$ by making a few queries to an oracle, which, given a point $q$ in $\{0,1\}^d$, returns the…
Mastermind is a popular board game released in 1971, where a codemaker chooses a secret pattern of colored pegs, and a codebreaker has to guess it in several trials. After each attempt, the codebreaker gets a response from the codemaker…
We consider a game in which a blindfolded player attempts to set $n$ counters lying on the vertices of a rotating regular $n$-gon table simultaneously to $0$. When the counters count$\pmod{m}$ we simplify the argument of Bar Yehuda, Etzion,…
The stable roommates problem with $n$ agents has worst case complexity $O(n^2)$ in time and space. Random instances can be solved faster and with less memory, however. We introduce an algorithm that has average time and space complexity…
We present $O(\log\log n)$ round scalable Massively Parallel Computation algorithms for maximal independent set and maximal matching, in trees and more generally graphs of bounded arboricity, as well as for constant coloring trees.…
The eternal graph colouring problem, recently introduced by Klostermeyer and Mendoza, is a version of the graph colouring game, where two players take turns properly colouring a graph. In this note, we study the eternal game chromatic…
We study a family of sorting match puzzles on grids, which we call permutation match puzzles. In this puzzle, each row and column of a $n \times n$ grid is labeled with an ordering constraint -- ascending (A) or descending (D) -- and the…
We revisit the problem of permuting an array of length $n$ according to a given permutation in place, that is, using only a small number of bits of extra storage. Fich, Munro and Poblete [FOCS 1990, SICOMP 1995] obtained an elegant…
Permutation patterns and pattern avoidance have been intensively studied in combinatorics and computer science, going back at least to the seminal work of Knuth on stack-sorting (1968). Perhaps the most natural algorithmic question in this…