Brute-force search

Common card · No. 404309

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...

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