Algorithm Basics
What is a step-by-step set of instructions used to solve a problem or complete a task?
What is an algorithm?
Which search algorithm checks each item in a list one at a time?
What is a linear search?
The time complexity of an algorithm is expressed as a function of what?
What is the size of the input?
A problem with a yes/no answer is called what kind of problem?
What is a decision problem?
The Folding@Home project aims to use distributed computing to solve what problem?
What is modeling protein folding?
This refers to the specific order in which instructions are executed in an algorithm.
What is sequencing?
Which search algorithm repeatedly splits a sorted list in half to find a target value?
What is a binary search?
What term is used to describe how an algorithm’s resource needs grow with input size?
What are rates of growth?
What’s a problem for which no algorithm can ever give a correct solution for all inputs?
What is an undecidable problem?
This type of computing processes tasks one after another.
What is sequential computing?
What kind of structure allows a program to choose between different paths or actions?
What is selection?
This measures how well an algorithm solves a problem using time and resources.
What is efficiency?
This time complexity increases directly in proportion to input size.
What is linear time?
An algorithm that finds a "good enough" solution when exact solutions are impractical uses a...?
What is a heuristic?
What term measures how much faster a task runs using multiple processors instead of one?
What is speedup?
Repeating a set of instructions until a condition is met is known as what?
What is iteration?
What do we call an algorithm that takes an impractical amount of time or resources to complete?
What is unreasonable time?
What term describes an algorithm whose growth rate increases faster than any polynomial?
What is exponential time?
What’s the name of a problem where you aim to find the best solution among many?
What is an optimization problem?
This model of computing solves parts of a problem simultaneously on multiple processors.
What is parallel computing?
A question or situation that needs to be answered or solved by using algorithms is called a...?
What is a problem?
What kind of time complexity is more efficient than linear and often seen in binary search?
What is logarithmic time?
If an algorithm’s time complexity is expressed as n² or n³, what type of complexity is that?
What is polynomial?
Which type of problem might have a solution, but takes too long to compute to be practical?
What is a problem with an unreasonable time complexity?
What computing model runs processes on multiple machines over a network?
What is distributed computing?