Introduction to search algorithms: Non-programming version

The strategy you probably followed was to start with the first element and test each in turn until you found the data item you were looking for. You might also have chosen elements at random (ensuring that you never picked the same one twice), but in fact this would be no better. In either case, the maximum number of guesses you would need was 8 and the (long-run) average number of guesses was 4.5.

The strategy of testing each element in an array until you find a match is known as linear search. In the worst-case scenario, the number of comparisons we need is the same as the size of the data array we are searching. We say that the order of complexity of the algorithm is O(n) (using big O notation), because the number of comparisons we have to perform on an array of n elements is of the order of n.

In classical computing there is no way of searching an unsorted array of data faster than this. However, using a quantum computer, we may be able to perform such a search in O(√n) operations, meaning we can search an array with n elements by a number of comparisons of the order of √n. We will learn about this method, known as Grover’s Algorithm, in Lesson 4.

Once the game is complete, students should explain their strategies. The teacher should then run through linear search (i.e. selecting each data item in turn until the search item is found or every item of data has been checked) and explain that this is the best classical algorithm for searching unsorted data. Linear search has complexity O(n), but the equivalent quantum approach (Grover’s Algorithm, which will be covered in Lesson 4) has complexity O(√n).

The best strategy here is to guess in the middle of the array. If you find a match, stop. If your name is higher in the alphabet than the element you checked, go to the mid-point of the upper half of the array and test again. If it is lower, go to the mid-point of the lower half of the array and test again. Keep doing this until you find the name.

Depending on how you chose to round your mid-points, you should have found “Inez” in either two or three guesses. The greatest number of guesses required is four and the average required over all the names (using the algorithm shown) is 2.625.

This algorithm is known as binary search. Knowledge of the structure of the array makes this algorithm much faster than a linear search. In the worst-case scenario, the number of comparisons we need is linked to the logarithm (in base 2) of the number of elements of the array. In the example above, there are 8 elements: log₂8 = 3. We say that the order of complexity of the algorithm is O(log(n)) (using big O notation), because the number of comparisons we have to perform on an array of n elements is of the order of log(n).

Once game is complete, students should explain their strategies. Teacher should then run through binary search (i.e. always choosing the middle item of the search array and then repeating with the lower or upper half of the array, depending on the comparison made) and explain that this is the best classical algorithm for searching sorted data. Binary search has complexity O(log(n)).

Hopefully, you will have seen that by guessing one of the two possibilities for each characteristic, you could rule out half of the candidates each time. As there were eight characters, it took three questions to uniquely identify the character each time (note that the characters were chosen to represent all unique combinations of the three binary characteristics, so there could be no ambiguity in the final selection).

The answer in all cases is three guesses. This is a variant of the binary search shown in part 2a and, again, the order of complexity of the algorithm is O(log(n)) (though in this case it will take exactly log₂n guesses for every search).

In quantum computing, this particular structure of problem has a remarkable solution: the answer can be found using exactly one computation, however large n. It is known as the Bernstein-Vazirani problem, and we shall see how the algorithm works in Lesson 3 (mathematical and computational approach).

Once game is complete, students should explain their strategies. The correct strategy is to guess one characteristic at a time (e.g. “does your character wear glasses?”). This will eliminate half of the characters with each guess, meaning that the correct character can always be found in three guesses. This is a variant of binary search because the search range can again be halved with each iteration. This example has been chosen, because it is equivalent to a particular search problem, known as the Bernstein-Vazirani problem, where the quantum algorithm has O(1) complexity. This algorithm will be covered in Lesson 3 (mathematical and computational approach).

One possible algorithm is to test each prime in turn. If the number does not divide by the prime, try the next prime in the list. If it does divide by the prime, calculate the quotient and test whether this number divides by each prime in the list (starting from the beginning again).

This strategy is known as trial division. With a number like 8192, which has many low prime factors, we can break down a number into its prime factors quite quickly (in this case, with 12 calculations). However, where a number has only two similar-sized prime factors, the algorithm is much slower. In the case of 6557 (= 79 × 83), it takes 22 calculations to find the factors. If we were to construct a number which was the product of two primes which were, for example, 600 digits in length, not even a supercomputer would be able to factorise it. The RSA algorithm, which is used worldwide in encryption for the banking system and the wider internet, relies on this key fact for its security. In the classical computing world, this encryption routine is thought to be unbreakable. However, quantum computing may offer a way to break it. In Lessons 5 and 6, you will learn about the RSA encryption system (RSA: the unbreakable code?) and how Shor’s algorithm (Breaking the unbreakable? Shor’s Algorithm) offers a potential method for a quantum computer to it.

Once game is complete, students should explain their strategies. The point of this exercise is to show that factorising numbers by trial division is a computationally slow process, especially where the number is the product of two large primes. The RSA algorithm (on which a large amount of internet encryption is based) relies on the difficulty of factoring large numbers as the basis of its security. Lesson 5 will go through the RSA algorithm (RSA: the unbreakable code?) and Lesson 6 will show how a quantum algorithm (Shor’s algorithm) may one day be able to break it (Breaking the unbreakable? Shor’s Algorithm).

Lesson 2 (which follows this lesson) will explore Deutsch’s algorithm (mathematical and computational approach). The classical approach to this algorithm has not been covered here, as it is an artificial construction with no widely-used application in computing. Its importance, however, is that it was the first example of a problem for which a quantum algorithm was faster than any classical algorithm. The basic elements of the approach used in Deutsch’s Algorithm will inform all the algorithms covered in the later part of this course.