If you like number theory, combinatorics, and/or optimizing Haskell code, I challenge you to solve Infinite 2D Array using Haskell.
- Level 1: can you come up with a general formula to compute
?
- Level 2: In general, how can you efficiently compute
?
- Level 3: Now implement the above ideas in Haskell so your solution actually fits within the 1 second time limit.
I have solved it but it was definitely challenging. In a subsequent blog post I’ll talk about my solution and ask for other optimization ideas.
I tried the obvious dynamic programming recurrence with a lazy array, but it’s still too slow (fails on test 2). I was surprised since I’ve had a lot of luck with the array-based approach for many challenges before. I think I need to find a shortcut that skips the intermediate calculations
You mean you made a lazy array to directly hold the F_x,y values? Notice that x and y can be up to 10^6, so that would be an array with a trillion elements. =)
Yep I forgot to square the 10^6 when estimating the space requirements, oops. I thought a million would be pretty quick
Level 1: I found this formula works for x>0, F_{x,y} = f_{x+2y} + \sum_{i=1}^y (f_i – f_{2i}) \binom{y-i+x-1}{y-i}, where f_i is the ith Fibonacci number.
Level 2: Binomial coefficients can be calculated in constant time from factorials and inverse factorials. Fibonacci numbers, factorials and inverse factorials can be calculated modulo 10^9+7 in linear time. The formula above also takes linear time.
Level 3: I used unboxed arrays for storage and it ran in 0.24s, comfortably within the time limit :)
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infinite2darray.hs
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infinite2darray_formula.md
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Very nice! It seems you found a slightly nicer formula than I did; mine involves two sums of Fibonacci numbers times binomial coefficients instead of just one.
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