Related papers: Mastermind is NP-Complete
We analyze the computational complexity of several new variants of edge-matching puzzles. First we analyze inequality (instead of equality) constraints between adjacent tiles, proving the problem NP-complete for strict inequalities but…
In this paper, we take an in-depth look at the complexity of a hitherto unexplored Multiobjective Spanner (MSp) problem. The MSp is a multiobjective generalization of the well-studied Minimum t-Spanner problem. This multiobjective approach…
The logic MMSNP is a well-studied fragment of Existential Second-Order logic that, from a computational perspective, captures finite-domain Constraint Satisfaction Problems (CSPs) modulo polynomial-time reductions. At the same time, MMSNP…
Recently, due to the widespread diffusion of smart-phones, mobile puzzle games have experienced a huge increase in their popularity. A successful puzzle has to be both captivating and challenging, and it has been suggested that this…
We prove that the quiver problem is NP complete.
We show that two important problems that have applications in computational biology are ASP-complete, which implies that, given a solution to a problem, it is NP-complete to decide if another solution exists. We show first that a variation…
We study the computational complexity of the Buttons \& Scissors game and obtain sharp thresholds with respect to several parameters. Specifically we show that the game is NP-complete for $C = 2$ colors but polytime solvable for $C = 1$.…
We introduce an extension of Mastermind called Clear Mastermind with enhanced feedback inspired by that from Wordle. The only difference between Clear Mastermind and Mastermind is a rule that provides more precise feedback, as found in…
In the $15$-puzzle game, $15$ labeled square tiles are reconfigured on a $4\times 4$ board through an escort, wherein each (time) step, a single tile neighboring it may slide into it, leaving the space previously occupied by the tile as the…
Tumbleweed is a popular two-player perfect-information new territorial game played at the prestigious Mind Sport Olympiad. We define a generalized version of the game, where the board size is arbitrary and so is the possible number of…
Tetravex is a widely played one person computer game in which you are given $n^2$ unit tiles, each edge of which is labelled with a number. The objective is to place each tile within a $n$ by $n$ square such that all neighbouring edges are…
Using well-known mathematical problems for encryption is a widely used technique because they are computationally hard and provide security against potential attacks on the encryption method. The subset sum problem (SSP) can be defined as…
The computational complexity of the partition, 0-1 subset sum, unbounded subset sum, 0-1 knapsack and unbounded knapsack problems and their multiple variants were studied in numerous papers in the past where all the weights and profits were…
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…
In the last two decades the study of random instances of constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) has flourished across several disciplines, including computer science, mathematics and physics. The diversity of the developed methods, on the…
In the maximum constraint satisfaction problem (MAX CSP), one is given a finite collection of (possibly weighted) constraints on overlapping sets of variables, and the goal is to assign values from a given finite domain to the variables so…
A query game is a pair of a set $Q$ of queries and a set $\mathcal{F}$ of functions, or codewords $f:Q\rightarrow \mathbb{Z}.$ We think of this as a two-player game. One player, Codemaker, picks a hidden codeword $f\in \mathcal{F}$. The…
An input to the Popular Matching problem, in the roommates setting, consists of a graph $G$ and each vertex ranks its neighbors in strict order, known as its preference. In the Popular Matching problem the objective is to test whether there…
We present a definition of the class NP in combinatorial context as the set of languages of structures defined by finitely many forbidden lifted substructures. We apply this to special syntactically defined subclasses and show how they…
This paper describes an extension to the constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) called MUSE CSP (MUltiply SEgmented Constraint Satisfaction Problem). This extension is especially useful for those problems which segment into multiple sets of…