Programming Assignment 1:

Decomposition of Graphs
Revision: July 27, 2020

Introduction
Welcome to your first programming assignment of the Algorithms on Graphs class! In this and the next
programming assignments you will be practicing implementing the basic building blocks of graph algorithms:
computing the number of connected components, checking whether there is a path between the given two
vertices, checking whether there is a cycle, etc. Such building blocks are used practically in all applications
working with graphs: for example, finding shortest paths on maps, analyzing social networks, analyzing
biological data.
In this programming assignment, the grader will show you the input and output data if your solution
fails on any of the tests. This is done to help you to get used to the algorithmic problems in general and get
some experience debugging your programs while knowing exactly on which tests they fail. However, for all
the following programming assignments, the grader will show the input data only in case your solution fails
on one of the first few tests (please review the questions ?? and ?? in the FAQ section for a more detailed
explanation of this behavior of the grader).

Learning Outcomes
Upon completing this programming assignment you will be able to:

1. find an exit from a maze;

2. find the number of exits needed for a maze;

Passing Criteria: 1 out of 2

Passing this programming assignment requires passing at least 1 out of 2 programming challenges from this
assignment. In turn, passing a programming challenge requires implementing a solution that passes all the
tests for this problem in the grader and does so under the time and memory limits specified in the problem
statement.

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Contents
1 Finding an Exit from a Maze 5

2 Adding Exits to a Maze 7

3 Appendix 8
3.1 Compiler Flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2 Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

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Graph Representation in Programming Assignments
In programming assignments, graphs are given as follows. The first line contains non-negative integers 𝑛 and
𝑚 — the number of vertices and the number of edges respectively. The vertices are always numbered from 1
to 𝑛. Each of the following 𝑚 lines defines an edge in the format u v where 1 ≤ 𝑢, 𝑣 ≤ 𝑛 are endpoints of
the edge. If the problem deals with an undirected graph this defines an undirected edge between 𝑢 and 𝑣. In
case of a directed graph this defines a directed edge from 𝑢 to 𝑣. If the problem deals with a weighted graph
then each edge is given as u v w where 𝑢 and 𝑣 are vertices and 𝑤 is a weight.
It is guaranteed that a given graph is simple. That is, it does not contain self-loops (edges going from a
vertex to itself) and parallel edges.
Examples:
∙ An undirected graph with four vertices and five edges:
4 5
2 1
4 3
1 4
2 4
3 2

4 3

1 2

∙ A directed graph with five vertices and eight edges.

5 8
4 3
1 2
3 1
3 4
2 5
5 1
5 4
5 3

2 5 4

1 3

∙ A directed graph with five vertices and one edge.

51
43

2 5 4

1 3

Note that the vertices 1, 2, and 5 are isolated (have no adjacent edges), but they are still present in
the graph.

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∙ A weighted directed graph with three vertices and three edges.
3 3
2 39
1 35
1 2 -2

3
5 9

1 2
−2

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1 Finding an Exit from a Maze
Problem Introduction
A maze is a rectangular grid of cells with walls between some of adjacent cells.
You would like to check whether there is a path from a given cell to a given
exit from a maze where an exit is also a cell that lies on the border of the maze
(in the example shown to the right there are two exits: one on the left border
and one on the right border). For this, you represent the maze as an undirected
graph: vertices of the graph are cells of the maze, two vertices are connected by
an undirected edge if they are adjacent and there is no wall between them. Then,
to check whether there is a path between two given cells in the maze, it suffices to
check that there is a path between the corresponding two vertices in the graph.

Problem Description
Task. Given an undirected graph and two distinct vertices 𝑢 and 𝑣, check if there is a path between 𝑢 and 𝑣.
Input Format. An undirected graph with 𝑛 vertices and 𝑚 edges. The next line contains two vertices 𝑢
and 𝑣 of the graph.
Constraints. 2 ≤ 𝑛 ≤ 103 ; 1 ≤ 𝑚 ≤ 103 ; 1 ≤ 𝑢, 𝑣 ≤ 𝑛; 𝑢 ̸= 𝑣.
Output Format. Output 1 if there is a path between 𝑢 and 𝑣 and 0 otherwise.
Time Limits.
language C C++ Java Python C# Haskell JavaScript Ruby Scala
time (sec) 1 1 1.5 5 1.5 2 5 5 3

Memory Limit. 512MB.

Sample 1.
Input:
44
12
32
43
14
14
Output:
1

4 3

1 2

In this graph, there are two paths between vertices 1 and 4: 1-4 and 1-2-3-4.

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Sample 2.
Input:
42
12
32
14
Output:
0

4 3

1 2

In this case, there is no path from 1 to 4.

Starter Files
The starter solutions for this problem read the input data from the standard input, pass it to a blank
procedure, and then write the result to the standard output. You are supposed to implement your algorithm
in this blank procedure if you are using C++, Java, or Python3. For other programming languages, you need
to implement a solution from scratch. Filename: reachability

What To Do
To solve this problem, it is enough to implement carefully the corresponding algorithm covered in the lectures.

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2 Adding Exits to a Maze
Problem Introduction
Now you decide to make sure that there are no dead zones in a maze, that is, that at least one exit is
reachable from each cell. For this, you find connected components of the corresponding undirected graph
and ensure that each component contains an exit cell.

Problem Description
Task. Given an undirected graph with 𝑛 vertices and 𝑚 edges, compute the number of connected components
in it.
Input Format. A graph is given in the standard format.

Constraints. 1 ≤ 𝑛 ≤ 103 , 0 ≤ 𝑚 ≤ 103 .

Output Format. Output the number of connected components.
Time Limits.
language C C++ Java Python C# Haskell JavaScript Ruby Scala
time (sec) 1 1 1.5 5 1.5 2 5 5 3

Memory Limit. 512MB.

Sample 1.
Input:
42
12
32
Output:
2

4 3

1 2

There are two connected components here: {1, 2, 3} and {4}.

Starter Files
The starter solutions for this problem read the input data from the standard input, pass it to a blank
procedure, and then write the result to the standard output. You are supposed to implement your algorithm
in this blank procedure if you are using C++, Java, or Python3. For other programming languages, you need
to implement a solution from scratch. Filename: connected_components

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3 Appendix
3.1 Compiler Flags
C (gcc 7.4.0). File extensions: .c. Flags:
gcc - pipe - O2 - std = c11 < filename > - lm

C++ (g++ 7.4.0). File extensions: .cc, .cpp. Flags:

g ++ - pipe - O2 - std = c ++14 < filename > - lm

If your C/C++ compiler does not recognize -std=c++14 flag, try replacing it with -std=c++0x flag
or compiling without this flag at all (all starter solutions can be compiled without it). On Linux
and MacOS, you most probably have the required compiler. On Windows, you may use your favorite
compiler or install, e.g., cygwin.
C# (mono 4.6.2). File extensions: .cs. Flags:
mcs

Go (golang 1.13.4). File extensions: .go. Flags

go

Haskell (ghc 8.0.2). File extensions: .hs. Flags:

ghc - O2

Java (OpenJDK 1.8.0_232). File extensions: .java. Flags:

javac - encoding UTF -8
java - Xmx1024m

JavaScript (NodeJS 12.14.0). File extensions: .js. No flags:

nodejs

Kotlin (Kotlin 1.3.50). File extensions: .kt. Flags:

kotlinc
java - Xmx1024m

Python (CPython 3.6.9). File extensions: .py. No flags:

python3

Ruby (Ruby 2.5.1p57). File extensions: .rb.

ruby

Rust (Rust 1.37.0). File extensions: .rs.

rustc

Scala (Scala 2.12.10). File extensions: .scala.

scalac

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3.2 Frequently Asked Questions
Why My Submission Is Not Graded?
You need to create a submission and upload the source file (rather than the executable file) of your solution.
Make sure that after uploading the file with your solution you press the blue “Submit” button at the bottom.
After that, the grading starts, and the submission being graded is enclosed in an orange rectangle. After the
testing is finished, the rectangle disappears, and the results of the testing of all problems are shown.

What Are the Possible Grading Outcomes?

There are only two outcomes: “pass” or “no pass.” To pass, your program must return a correct answer on
all the test cases we prepared for you, and do so under the time and memory constraints specified in the
problem statement. If your solution passes, you get the corresponding feedback "Good job!" and get a point
for the problem. Your solution fails if it either crashes, returns an incorrect answer, works for too long, or
uses too much memory for some test case. The feedback will contain the index of the first test case on which
your solution failed and the total number of test cases in the system. The tests for the problem are numbered
from 1 to the total number of test cases for the problem, and the program is always tested on all the tests
in the order from the first test to the test with the largest number.
Here are the possible outcomes:

∙ Good job! Hurrah! Your solution passed, and you get a point!

∙ Wrong answer. Your solution outputs incorrect answer for some test case. Check that you consider
all the cases correctly, avoid integer overflow, output the required white spaces, output the floating
point numbers with the required precision, don’t output anything in addition to what you are asked
to output in the output specification of the problem statement.
∙ Time limit exceeded. Your solution worked longer than the allowed time limit for some test case.
Check again the running time of your implementation. Test your program locally on the test of max-
imum size specified in the problem statement and check how long it works. Check that your program
doesn’t wait for some input from the user which makes it to wait forever.
∙ Memory limit exceeded. Your solution used more than the allowed memory limit for some test case.
Estimate the amount of memory that your program is going to use in the worst case and check that it
does not exceed the memory limit. Check that your data structures fit into the memory limit. Check
that you don’t create large arrays or lists or vectors consisting of empty arrays or empty strings, since
those in some cases still eat up memory. Test your program locally on the tests of maximum size
specified in the problem statement and look at its memory consumption in the system.
∙ Cannot check answer. Perhaps the output format is wrong. This happens when you output
something different than expected. For example, when you are required to output either “Yes” or
“No”, but instead output 1 or 0. Or your program has empty output. Or your program outputs not
only the correct answer, but also some additional information (please follow the exact output format
specified in the problem statement). Maybe your program doesn’t output anything, because it crashes.
∙ Unknown signal 6 (or 7, or 8, or 11, or some other). This happens when your program
crashes. It can be because of a division by zero, accessing memory outside of the array bounds, using
uninitialized variables, overly deep recursion that triggers a stack overflow, sorting with a contradictory
comparator, removing elements from an empty data structure, trying to allocate too much memory,
and many other reasons. Look at your code and think about all those possibilities. Make sure that you
use the same compiler and the same compiler flags as we do.
∙ Internal error: exception... Most probably, you submitted a compiled program instead of
a source code.

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 ∙ Grading failed. Something wrong happened with the system. Report this through Coursera or edX
Help Center.

May I Post My Solution at the Forum?

Please do not post any solutions at the forum or anywhere on the web, even if a solution does not pass the
tests (as in this case you are still revealing parts of a correct solution). Our students follow the Honor Code:
“I will not make solutions to homework, quizzes, exams, projects, and other assignments available to anyone
else (except to the extent an assignment explicitly permits sharing solutions).”

Do I Learn by Trying to Fix My Solution?

My implementation always fails in the grader, though I already tested and stress tested it a lot. Would not it
be better if you gave me a solution to this problem or at least the test cases that you use? I will then be able
to fix my code and will learn how to avoid making mistakes. Otherwise, I do not feel that I learn anything
from solving this problem. I am just stuck.
First of all, learning from your mistakes is one of the best ways to learn.
The process of trying to invent new test cases that might fail your program is difficult but is often
enlightening. Thinking about properties of your program makes you understand what happens inside your
program and in the general algorithm you’re studying much more.
Also, it is important to be able to find a bug in your implementation without knowing a test case and
without having a reference solution, just like in real life. Assume that you designed an application and
an annoyed user reports that it crashed. Most probably, the user will not tell you the exact sequence of
operations that led to a crash. Moreover, there will be no reference application. Hence, it is important to
learn how to find a bug in your implementation yourself, without a magic oracle giving you either a test case
that your program fails or a reference solution. We encourage you to use programming assignments in this
class as a way of practicing this important skill.
If you have already tested your program on all corner cases you can imagine, constructed a set of manual
test cases, applied stress testing, etc, but your program still fails, try to ask for help on the forum. We
encourage you to do this by first explaining what kind of corner cases you have already considered (it may
happen that by writing such a post you will realize that you missed some corner cases!), and only afterwards
asking other learners to give you more ideas for tests cases.

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