Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Brute-force search
Summary
In computer science, brute-force search or exhaustive search, also known as generate and test, is a very general problem-solving technique and algorithmic paradigm that consists of systematically checking all possible candidates for whether or not each candidate satisfies the problem's statement.
A brute-force algorithm that finds the divisors of a natural number n would enumerate all integers from 1 to n, and check whether each of them divides n without remainder. A brute-force approach for the eight queens puzzle would examine all possible arrangements of 8 pieces on the 64-square chessboard and for each arrangement, check whether each (queen) piece can attack any other.
While a brute-force search is simple to implement and will always find a solution if it exists, implementation costs are proportional to the number of candidate solutions - which in many practical problems tends to grow very quickly as the size of the problem increases (§Combinatorial explosion). Therefore, brute-force search is typically used when the problem size is limited, or when there are problem-specific heuristics that can be used to reduce the set of candidate solutions to a manageable size. The method is also used when the simplicity of implementation is more important than processing speed.
This is the case, for example, in critical applications where any errors in the algorithm would have very serious consequences or when using a computer to prove a mathematical theorem. Brute-force search is also useful as a baseline method when benchmarking other algorithms or metaheuristics. Indeed, brute-force search can be viewed as the simplest metaheuristic. Brute force search should not be confused with backtracking, where large sets of solutions can be discarded without being explicitly enumerated (as in the textbook computer solution to the eight queens problem above). The brute-force method for finding an item in a table - namely, check all entries of the latter, sequentially - is called linear search.
In order candidate for P after the current one c.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related courses (4)
COM-401: Cryptography and security
This course introduces the basics of cryptography. We review several types of cryptographic primitives, when it is safe to use them and how to select the appropriate security parameters. We detail how
CS-430: Intelligent agents
Software agents are widely used to control physical, economic and financial processes. The course presents practical methods for implementing software agents and multi-agent systems, supported by prog
CS-101: Advanced information, computation, communication I
Discrete mathematics is a discipline with applications to almost all areas of study. It provides a set of indispensable tools to computer science in particular. This course reviews (familiar) topics a
Related lectures (30)
Longest Common Subsequence: Dynamic Programming Algorithm
Explores the Longest Common Subsequence concept and its dynamic programming algorithm, emphasizing optimal substructure and efficient problem-solving.
Maximum Subarray Problem
Explores the Master method, the Maximum Subarray Problem, and optimal solution structures.
Deliberative Agents: Planning and Strategies
Covers planning with adversaries, heuristic search algorithms, and strategies for games with chance, emphasizing the significance of deliberative agents.
Related publications (55)
Related concepts (16)
Backtracking
Backtracking is a class of algorithms for finding solutions to some computational problems, notably constraint satisfaction problems, that incrementally builds candidates to the solutions, and abandons a candidate ("backtracks") as soon as it determines that the candidate cannot possibly be completed to a valid solution. The classic textbook example of the use of backtracking is the eight queens puzzle, that asks for all arrangements of eight chess queens on a standard chessboard so that no queen attacks any other.
Cryptography
Cryptography, or cryptology (from κρυπτός "hidden, secret"; and γράφειν graphein, "to write", or -λογία -logia, "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adversarial behavior. More generally, cryptography is about constructing and analyzing protocols that prevent third parties or the public from reading private messages. Modern cryptography exists at the intersection of the disciplines of mathematics, computer science, information security, electrical engineering, digital signal processing, physics, and others.
Constraint programming
Constraint programming (CP) is a paradigm for solving combinatorial problems that draws on a wide range of techniques from artificial intelligence, computer science, and operations research. In constraint programming, users declaratively state the constraints on the feasible solutions for a set of decision variables. Constraints differ from the common primitives of imperative programming languages in that they do not specify a step or sequence of steps to execute, but rather the properties of a solution to be found.