COMP2119 Introduction to Data Structures and Algorithms
Assignment 2 - Algorithm Analysis, Data Structures and Hashing
Due Date: Oct 21, 2024 7:00pm
Question 1 - What have You Done? [30%]
One day, handsome Jeff finished grading n assignment scripts. He sorted the scripts in ascend-
ing order of UID (assume all UIDs are unique). To inspect his work, Ben read k scripts from
the top, and put them back at the bottom of the pile without changing the order of the k scripts.
Suppose the UID of the n scripts are stored in list A as integers with the current placing order.
The first element in A represents UID of the script on the top. To arrange the papers back in
order, Jeff needs to find out the value of k.
You may assume that n is in power of 2, and 0 ≤ k ≤ n − 1.
Example:
For input A1 = [43, 60, 71, 3, 14, 23, 26] and n = 7, the output will be k = 4. Ben has read
scripts with UID 3, 14, 23, 26.
Your Tasks:
(a) [10%] Jeff has written the function reOrder1(A, n) to solve the problem. Explain briefly
how his code solve the problem and analyze it’s worst case time complexity.
Algorithm 1.1 Pseudocode of reOrder1
1: function reOrder1(A, n)
2:
3: k=0
4: for (i = 0 to n − 2) do
5: if (A[i] > A[i + 1]) then
6: k = n−i−1
7: end if
8: end for
9:
10: return k
11:
12: end function
(b) [15%] If n is large, it would be a nightmare to run Jeff’s algorithm by human efforts. Write
the pseudocode of another algorithm reOrder2(A, n) to solve the problem. The algorithm
must be asymptotically faster than reOrder1(A, n).
Briefly explain what the code does, and analyze the algorithm’s worst case time complex-
ity.
1
Question 2 - Linked List [30%]
Implement a linked list and solve the following sub-problems with your implementation. Feel
free to select any programming language you prefer.
(a) [15%] Merging: Implement a function that takes two sorted linked lists and merges them
into a single sorted linked list.
(b) [15%] Cycle detection: A cycle in a linked list occurs when a node’s next pointer points
back to a previous node, creating a loop, while the beginning of a cycle is the first node
in that loop where traversal starts repeating.
Implement a function that detects if there is a cycle in the linked list. If a cycle exists, it
returns the node where the cycle begins.
Question 3 - Maximum Frequency Stack [20%]
Design a stack-like data structure to push elements to the stack and pop the most frequent
element from the stack.
Specifically, for a FreqStack class: FreqStack () constructs an empty frequency stack (called
fstack ). fstack .push(val ) pushes an integer val onto the top of the stack. fstack .pop() removes
and returns the most frequent element in the stack. If there are multiple different elements of
the same highest frequency, the element closest to the stack’s top is removed and returned.
Suppose at most N elements will be inserted into fstack and each val is smaller than 10.
Example:
FreqStack fstack = new FreqStack();
[Link](5); // The stack is [5]
[Link](7); // The stack is [5,7]
[Link](5); // The stack is [5,7,5]
[Link](7); // The stack is [5,7,5,7]
[Link](4); // The stack is [5,7,5,7,4]
[Link](5); // The stack is [5,7,5,7,4,5]
[Link](); // return 5, as 5 is the most frequent. The stack becomes [5,7,5,7,4].
[Link](); // return 7, as 5 and 7 are the most frequent, but 7 is closest to the
top. The stack becomes [5,7,5,4].
[Link](); // return 5, as 5 is the most frequent. The stack becomes [5,7,4].
[Link](); // return 4, as 4, 5 and 7 are the most frequent, but 4 is closest to
the top. The stack becomes [5,7].
Your Tasks:
(a) [15%] Implement the FreqStack class as described above.
(b) [5%] Analyse the worst-case time complexity of fstack .push and fstack .pop of your imple-
mentation.
2
Question 4 - Hash Table [20%]
Insert the keys {17, 94, 86, 22, 98, 79, 54, 38} into the following hash tables.
For each case, calculate the average number of slots inspected for an unsuccessful search after
the keys are inserted (An empty slot or a NIL pointer access should also be counted as one
inspection.). Assume that each slot in a hash table has equal chance to be accessed at the first
probe in the search process.
(a) [5%] A hash table of size 7 with a single hash function of h(x) = x mod 7. Collisions are
handled by chaining.
(b) [7%] A hash table of size 11 with a single hash function of h(x) = x mod 11. Collisions
are handled by open addressing with linear probing, using the function f (i) = 3i.
(c) [8%] A hash table of size 11 with double hashing using the probe sequence h(k, i) =
(h1 (k) + i h2 (k)) mod 11, where h1 (x) = x mod 11 and h2 (x) = 2 − (k mod 2).
Submission
Please submit your assignment (one PDF file) to moodle by the deadline. Make sure the con-
tent is readable. Feel free to contact the TAs if you encounter any difficulty in this assignment.
We are happy to help you!
