Summary on Searching

1. Many AI problems can be described in terms of a start state, a goal state and a set of
operations

2. These problems can be solved by searching through all possible states to find a solution;

3. Two search strategies are breadth-first and depth-first searching;

4. These strategies can be illustrated using a search tree, with a root, branches and nodes;

5. Breadth first search tries all nodes at the first level before moving on to the second level;

6. Breadth first search will always find the best solution, but it requires more memory then
depth-first search;

7. Depth first search completes the search of one branch before backtracking and trying other
branches

8. Depth first search uses less memory, but it may not find the best solution, or it may get stuck
in an infinite loop;

9. Breadth-first and depth-first are both exhaustive search strategies (they try every possibility)

10. In real problems, there are often many branches from each node, leading to combinatorial
explosion (too many possibilities for the system to search in a reasonable time)

11. To reduce the search space, heuristics (rules of thumb) can be used to select the most likely
branches

12. A system which can develop its own heuristics could be described as intelligent.

Prepared by : V.K
 Tutorial

1. What are the names of uninformed search

a) A* Search
b) Hill Climbing search
c) Breadth First Search and Depth First Search
d) Blind Search

2. What are the names of Informed search

a) A* Search and Hill Climbing Search
b) Hill Climbing Search
c) Breadth First Search and Depth First Search
d) Blind Search

3 .Uninformed search method takes less memory. Which is the search method mention below
has this criteria
a) Depth-First Search
b) Liner Search
c) Breadth First Search
d) Optimal Search

Prepared by : V.K
 4. A search tree:
(a) is a programming language used to solve Artificial Intelligence problems
(b) is a classical Artificial Intelligence problem
(c) is a method of representing the possible states of simple problems
(d) can be used to solve every Artificial Intelligence problem

5 .If the following tree were searched using the depth-first search, until a solution was found
at F, the order of visiting the nodes would be:

(a) ABCDEF
(b) ABF
(c) ABEBF
(d) ABCDF

6. A data structure where new items are added to the front (or top) and items are also
removed from the front (or top), is called a

(a) queue
(b) array
(c) tree
(d) stack

7. Which search techniques starts by searching the top horizontal layer for a solution?
Breadth first search

8. Which search techniques start by searching down the first branch on the left of the search
tree?
Depth first search

9 . A problem is presented using the search tree shown

The solution to the problem is Harry. What is the order of visiting the elements of the tree for a
breadth first search to reach the solution?

Prepared by : V.K
10. What would the order of visiting the elements of the tree be if depth first search was used ?

Fred

Polly Tom Harry

Alan Carol Sarah Mary

11. Describe how a depth-first search operates

12. If the goal state is near the top of the search tree on the right, which search method wuld be
bst and why?

13 .If the goal state is far down the leftmost branch of the search tree, which search technique
would be best? Explain your answer

14. In a search tree what is the name of the state that is being sought?

15. Describe how a breadth-first search operates

16. Why are search techniques necessary when playing chess?

17. Which search method will always find a solution if one exists?
a. breadth first search
b. depth first search

18. Which search method normally uses less memory?

a. breadth first search
b. depth first search

19. Which search method may get into an infinite loop and never find a solution
a. breadth first search
b. depth first search

Prepared by : V.K