NP Complete

NP-Complete
Problems
CIT 596, Spring 2012
Problems that
• What if a Cross
problem has: the Line
o An exponential upper bound
o A polynomial lower bound
• We have only found exponential algorithms, so it

appears to be intractable.
• But... we can’t prove that an exponential solution is

needed, we can’t prove that a polynomial algorithm
cannot be developed, so we can’t say the problem is
intractable...
NP-Complete
• Problems
The upper bound
intractable
suggests the problem is
• The lower bound suggests the problem is

tractable
• The lower bound is linear: O(N)
• They are all reducible to each other
o If we find a reasonable algorithm (or
prove intractability) for one, then we
can do it for all of them!
Traveling Salesman
5-Clique
Hamiltonian Path
Map Coloring
Vertex Cover (VC)
• Given a graph and an integer k, is there a collection of k
vertices such that each edge is connected to one of the vertices
in the collection?
Class
• Scheduling
With N teachers with certain hour restrictions
Problem
M classes to be scheduled, can we:
o Schedule all the classes
o Make sure that no two teachers teach the
same class at the same time
o No teacher is scheduled to teach two classes
at once
Pair Programming Problem
• With N students and K projects, where N is
even, can we:
o Assign pairs of students to each project
o Every student works on every project
o No student has the same partner more than
once
• Is this an NP-complete problem?
Graph isomorphism
• Graph isomorphism is NP-hard; is it NP-complete?
NP and P
• What is NP?
• NP is the set of all decision problems (question with yes-or-no
answer) for which the 'yes'-answers can be verified in polynomial
time (O(n^k) where n is the problem size, and k is a constant) by a
deterministic Turing machine. Polynomial time is sometimes used as
the definition of fast or quickly.
• What is P?
• P is the set of all decision problems which can be solved in
polynomial time by a deterministic Turing machine. Since it can
solve in polynomial time, it can also be verified in polynomial time.
Therefore P is a subset of NP.
NP-Complete
• What is NP-Complete?
• A problem x that is in NP is also in NP-Complete if and only
if every other problem in NP can be quickly (ie. in polynomial
time) transformed into x. In other words:
• x is in NP, and
• Every problem in NP is reducible to x
• So what makes NP-Complete so interesting is that if any one
of the NP-Complete problems was to be solved quickly then
all NP problems can be solved quickly
NP-Hard
• What is NP-Hard?
• NP-Hard are problems that are at least as hard as the hardest
problems in NP. Note that NP-Complete problems are also
NP-hard. However not all NP-hard problems are NP (or even a
decision problem), despite having 'NP' as a prefix. That is the
NP in NP-hard does not mean 'non-deterministic polynomial
time'. Yes this is confusing but its usage is entrenched and
unlikely to change.
Certifi
cates
• Returning true: in order to show that the
schedule can be made, we only have to show
one schedule that works
o This is called a certificate.
• Returning false: in order to show that the

schedule cannot be made, we must test all
schedules.
Oracles
• If we could make the ‘right decision’ at all decision
points, then we can determine whether a solution is
possible very quickly!
o If the found solution is valid, then True
o If the found solution is invalid, then False
• If we could find the certificates quickly, NP-complete

problems would become tractable – O(N)
• This (magic) process that can always make the right
guess is called an Oracle.
Determinism vs.
Nondeterminism
• Nondeterministic algorithms produce an answer
by a series of “correct guesses”
• Deterministic algorithms (like those that a

computer executes) make decisions based on
information.
NP-Complete
“NP-Complete” comes from:
o Nondeterministic Polynomial
o Complete - “Solve one, Solve them all”
There are more NP-Complete problems than

provably intractable problems.
Proving NP-
Completeness
• Show that the problem is in NP. (i.e. Show that a
certificate can be verified in polynomial time.)
• Assume it is not NP complete
• Show how to convert an existing NPC problem into the
problem that we are trying to show is NP Complete (in
polynomial time).
• If we can do it we’ve done the proof!

• Why?
• If we can turn an exisiting NP-complete problem into
our problem in polynomial time... 
Become Famous!
To get famous in a hurry, for any NP-
Complete problem:
o Raise the lower bound
(via a stronger proof)
o Lower the upper bound
(via a better algorithm)
They’ll be naming buildings after you

before you are dead!
http://xkcd.com/287/
End
• http://www.coursehero.com/file/3292647/cs1311lecture29wdl/
• http://www.cs.uky.edu/~lewis/cs-heuristic/text/class/more-
np.html
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/210829/what-is-an-np-
complete-problem
• Wikipedia

NP Complete

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NP-Complete

• We have only found exponential algorithms, so it

• But... we can’t prove that an exponential solution is

• The lower bound suggests the problem is

• Returning false: in order to show that the

• If we could find the certificates quickly, NP-complete

• Deterministic algorithms (like those that a

There are more NP-Complete problems than

• If we can do it we’ve done the proof!

They’ll be naming buildings after you

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