Which data structures is suitable for implementing backtracking?

Answer 1

Backtracking is a general algorithmic technique for finding solutions to complex problems. It considers all possible solutions when trying to solve a complex problem.

The general algorithm for backtracking is as follows:

Backtracking_algorithm(Option X)

If X is a solution to the given problem

Add to solutions
Backtracking_algorithm(Expand X)

ELSE

return 0

We begin the backtracking process by choosing one option. We return to the solution if the problem can be solved with that option. Otherwise, we go back and choose an alternative from the remaining options.

Additionally, none of the options may help you find the solution, in that case, the algorithm returns nothing and going backwards won't help you find a solution to that specific issue.

The data structures suitable for implementing backtracking are stacks, linked lists, matrices and graphs. You can understand the implementation of backtracking by visiting the following examples of backtracking applications:

Finding Hamilton cycle in Graphs: Hamilton cycle is a closed loop or graph cycle visiting each node exactly once while traversing the graph. The backtracking technique makes it simple to locate every Hamiltonian Cycle that exists in the provided undirected or directed graph. Finding all of the Hamiltonian Paths in a graph is NP-complete. The goal is to traverse the network using the Depth-First Search algorithm until each vertex has been observed. During the traversal, we go back to look for other paths using backtracking.

Maze-solving problem: Backtracking is also used to solve the maze problem. The algorithm is implemented using a matrix data structure. In a maze problem, a player begins at one location and moves through a sequence of obstacles to reach a specific destination. The rat maze issue is another name for this game.

N Queen Problem: The N queen problem is another example of backtracking implementation using a matrix data structure. It is one of the famous backtracking problems. The N Queen problem deals with arranging N Chess queens on an N–N chessboard without having them attack another queen.

The sum of subset problem: Finding a subset of elements selected from a given collection whose sum equals a given number K is known as the subset sum problem. One can use a backtracking approach to solve the sum of the subset problem. You can use a tree data structure to implement backtracking in the sum of the subset problem. In this problem, the backtracking method attempts to choose a valid subset when an element is invalid. We return to get the previous subset and add another element to get the answer.

Graph Colouring problem: The graph colouring problem aims to assign colours to specific graph elements while following certain guidelines and limitations. One can use the backtracking method to solve the colouring problem of a given graph. The approach is to traverse the graph and colour the node if the current node violates guidelines, backtrack and return false.

Answer 2

Stack.