0

I’m unsure if this is a stupid question, but:

In general, is guessing a correct value faster when done randomly, or done incrementally from some basic seed/sequence?

For example if I have [1,....,1Billion] and the number I’m guessing at 1B - 1, would it be quicker to jump around randomly or would it be quicker to add 1 incrementally for each guess?

Is there any literature on exactly this question?

Jayden Rivers
  • 77
  • Your question is somewhat unclear. Do you mean 999.999.999 by 1B - 1? Can the random jump process guess the same number twice? – Alexander Geldhof May 13 '19 at 12:59
  • Sorry. For the first question yes. For the second question, definitely not. A guess is removed after it is shown to be incorrect. – Jayden Rivers May 13 '19 at 13:03
  • 1
    In that case, if your amount of values ranges from 1 to N, and your chosen value is A, the random algorithm will the number after an average of N/2 guesses, and the incremental algorithm will find it after A guesses. Which is quicker depends on A. – Alexander Geldhof May 13 '19 at 13:07

0 Answers0