Unit 2

Problem Solving
• Topics to Be Covered:
State Space Problem; Searching: Uniform search,
Informed Search: Solving problems by searching:
Heuristic functions, Hill climbing, Best First Search,
A* algorithm, AO* algorithm, Searching game trees:
Min Max Search, Alpha Beta pruning.
Search Algorithms in Artificial Intelligence
Search algorithms are one of the most important areas of Artificial Intelligence. This topic
will explain all about the search algorithms in AI.

Problem-solving agents:
• In Artificial Intelligence, Search techniques are universal problem-solving methods.
• Rational agents or Problem-solving agents in AI mostly used these search strategies or
algorithms to solve a specific problem and provide the best result.
• Problem-solving agents are the goal-based agents and use atomic representation.
• In this topic, we will learn various problem-solving search algorithms.
State Space Search:
(How to represent the problem precisely)
S : ( S, A, Action(S), Result (s,a), Cost(S,a))

S represents the various state like:

1. Initial state
2. Goal test
3. Intermediate Test
A is the set of all possible action Move the tiles Left, Right, Up or Down
4. path cost (additive)
A solution is a sequence of actions leading from the initial state to a goal state
 Solve :The 8-puzzle

states? locations of tiles

actions? move blank left, right, up, down
goal test? = goal state (given)
path cost? 1per move
Properties of Search Algorithms:
Following are the four essential properties of search algorithms to compare the
efficiency of these algorithms:
• Completeness: A search algorithm is said to be complete if it guarantees to
return a solution if at least any solution exists for any random input.

• Optimality: If a solution found for an algorithm is guaranteed to be the best

solution (lowest path cost) among all other solutions, then such a solution for
is said to be an optimal solution.

• Time Complexity: Time complexity is a measure of time for an algorithm to

complete its task.

• Space Complexity: It is the minimum storage space required at any point

during the search, as the complexity of the problem.
Based on the search problems we can classify the search algorithms into
uninformed (Blind search) search and informed search (Heuristic search) algorithms.

Uninformed Informed Search (or) Heuristic search

Breadth first search Best first search

Uniform cost search A* search algorithm

Depth first search AO* algorithm

Depth limited search Hill climbing

Iterative deepening depth first search

Bidirectional search
Uninformed/Blind Search:
1. Search without any Information
2. No knowledge
3. Time Consuming
4. More Complexity ( Time , Space)
5. DFS , BFS etc….

Informed Search:
6. Search with Information
7. Use knowledge to find the solution
8. Quick Solution
9. Less Complexity (Time , Space)
10. BFS, A* Algorithm, etc….
1. Breadth-first Search:
 Breadth-first search is the most common search strategy for traversing a tree or graph. This
algorithm searches breadth wise in a tree or graph, so it is called breadth-first search.

 BFS algorithm starts searching from the root node of the tree and expands all successor node
at the current level before moving to nodes of next level.

 Breadth-first search implemented using FIFO queue data structure.

Advantages:
 BFS will provide a solution if any solution exists.
 If there are more than one solutions for a given problem, then BFS will provide the minimal solution
which requires the least number of steps.

Disadvantages:
 It requires lots of memory since each level of the tree must be saved into memory to expand the next
level.
 BFS needs lots of time if the solution is far away from the root node.
Example:
In the below tree structure, we have shown the traversing of the tree using BFS algorithm from
the root node S to goal node K. BFS search algorithm traverse in layers, so it will follow the path
which is shown by the dotted arrow, and the traversed path will be:

S ---> A ---> B ----> C---> D ----> G ---> H ---> E ----> F ----> I ----> K

Breadth-first Search
• Time Complexity: Time Complexity of BFS algorithm can be obtained by the
number of nodes traversed in BFS until the shallowest Node. Where the d=
depth of shallowest solution and b is a node at every state.
• T (b) = 1+b2+b3+.......+ bd = O (bd)
• Space Complexity: Space complexity of BFS algorithm is given by the
Memory size of frontier which is O(bd).
• Completeness: BFS is complete, which means if the shallowest goal node is at some
finite depth, then BFS will find a solution.
• Optimality: BFS is optimal if path cost is a non-decreasing function of the depth of
the node.
2. Depth-first Search
 Depth-first search is a recursive algorithm for traversing a tree or graph data structure.

 It is called the depth-first search because it starts from the root node and follows each path
to its greatest depth node before moving to the next path.

 DFS uses a stack data structure for its implementation.

 The process of the DFS algorithm is similar to the BFS algorithm.

Note: Backtracking is an algorithm technique for finding all possible solutions

using recursion.
Advantage:
• DFS requires very less memory as it only needs to store a stack of the nodes on the path
from root node to the current node.

• It takes less time to reach to the goal node than BFS algorithm (if it traverses in the right
path).

Disadvantage:
• There is the possibility that many states keep re-occurring, and there is no guarantee of
finding the solution.

• DFS algorithm goes for deep down searching and sometime it may go to the infinite loop.
Example:
In the below search tree, we have shown the flow of depth-first search, and it will follow the order
as:
Root node--->Left node ----> right node.
It will start searching from root node S
S A B D E C G

Depth-first Search
Completeness:
DFS search algorithm is complete within finite state space as it will expand every node
within a limited search tree.

Time Complexity:
Time complexity of DFS will be equivalent to the node traversed by the algorithm. It is
given by:
T(b)= 1+ b2+ b3 +.........+ b^d = O(bd)
Where, d= maximum depth of any node and this can be much larger than d (Shallowest
solution depth)

Space Complexity:
DFS algorithm needs to store only single path from the root node, hence space complexity
of DFS is equivalent to the size of the fringe set, which is O(bd).

Optimal:
DFS search algorithm is non-optimal, as it may generate a large number of steps or high
cost to reach to the goal node.
3. Depth-Limited Search Algorithm:
A depth-limited search algorithm is similar to depth-first search with a predetermined limit.
Depth-limited search can solve the drawback of the infinite path in the Depth-first search. In this
algorithm, the node at the depth limit will treat as it has no successor nodes further.

Depth-limited search can be terminated with two Conditions of failure:

• Standard failure value: It indicates that problem does not have any solution.

• Cutoff failure value: It defines no solution for the problem within a given depth limit.

Advantages:
Depth-limited search is Memory efficient.

Disadvantages:
• Depth-limited search also has a disadvantage of incompleteness.
• It may not be optimal if the problem has more than one solution.
Example::

Completeness: DLS search algorithm is complete if the

solution is above the depth-limit.

Time Complexity: Time complexity of DLS algorithm is

O(bd).
Space Complexity: Space complexity of DLS algorithm is
O(b*d).

Optimal: Depth-limited search can be viewed as a special

case of DFS, and it is also not optimal even if ℓ>d.
4. Uniform-cost Search Algorithm:
Uniform-cost search is a searching algorithm used for traversing a weighted tree or graph. This
algorithm comes into play when a different cost is available for each edge. The primary goal of
the uniform-cost search is to find a path to the goal node which has the lowest cumulative cost.
Uniform-cost search expands nodes according to their path costs form the root node. It can be
used to solve any graph/tree where the optimal cost is in demand. A uniform-cost search
algorithm is implemented by the priority queue. It gives maximum priority to the lowest
cumulative cost. Uniform cost search is equivalent to BFS algorithm if the path cost of all edges
is the same.
Advantages:
o Uniform cost search is optimal because at every state the path with the least cost is chosen.
Disadvantages:
o It does not care about the number of steps involve in searching and only concerned about path
cost. Due to which this algorithm may be stuck in an infinite loop.
Example:

Completeness:
Uniform-cost search is complete, such as if there is a solution, UCS will find it.
5. Iterative deepening depth-first Search:
The iterative deepening algorithm is a combination of DFS and BFS algorithms. This search
algorithm finds out the best depth limit and does it by gradually increasing the limit until a goal
is found.
This algorithm performs depth-first search up to a certain "depth limit", and it keeps increasing
the depth limit after each iteration until the goal node is found.
This Search algorithm combines the benefits of Breadth-first search's fast search and depth-first
search's memory efficiency.
The iterative search algorithm is useful uninformed search when search space is large, and depth
of goal node is unknown.
Advantages:
o It combines the benefits of BFS and DFS search algorithm in terms of fast search and memory
efficiency.
Disadvantages:
o The main drawback of IDDFS is that it repeats all the work of the previous phase.
Example:
Following tree structure is showing the iterative
deepening depth-first search. IDDFS algorithm
performs various iterations until it does not find the
goal node. The iteration performed by the algorithm is
given as:

1'st Iteration-----> A
2'nd Iteration----> A, B, C
3'rd Iteration------>A, B, D, E, C, F, G
4'th Iteration------>A, B, D, H, I, E, C, F, K, G
In the fourth iteration, the algorithm will find the
goal node.
Completeness:
This algorithm is complete if the branching factor is finite.
Time Complexity:
Let's suppose b is the branching factor and depth is d then the worst-case time complexity is
O(b^d).
Space Complexity:
The space complexity of IDDFS will be O(b*d).

Optimal:
IDDFS algorithm is optimal if path cost is a non- decreasing function of the depth of the
node.
Informed Search Algorithms
• So far we have talked about the uninformed search algorithms which looked through search
space for all possible solutions of the problem without having any additional knowledge
about search space.

• But informed search algorithm contains an array of knowledge such as how far we are from
the goal, path cost, how to reach to goal node, etc.

• This knowledge help agents to explore less to the search space and find more efficiently the
goal node.

• The informed search algorithm is more useful for large search space.

• Informed search algorithm uses the idea of heuristic, so it is also called Heuristic search.
Heuristics function:

 Heuristic is a function which is used in Informed Search, and it finds the most promising path.

 It takes the current state of the agent as its input and produces the estimation of how close
agent is from the goal. The heuristic method, however, might not always give the best
solution, but it guaranteed to find a good solution in reasonable time.

 Heuristic function estimates how close a state is to the goal. It is represented by h(n), and it
calculates the cost of an optimal path between the pair of states.

 The value of the heuristic function is always positive.

Admissibility of the heuristic function is given as:

h(n) <= h*(n)
Here h(n) is heuristic cost, and h*(n) is the estimated cost. Hence heuristic cost should be less
than or equal to the estimated cost.
1.) Best-first Search Algorithm (Greedy Search):
• Best-first search algorithm always selects the path which appears best at that moment.

• It is the combination of depth-first search and breadth-first search algorithms.

• In the best first search algorithm, we expand the node which is closest to the goal node and the
closest cost is estimated by heuristic function, i.e.

1. f(n)= h(n)
2. Where, g(n) = Cost from start node to current node n
h(n)= estimated cost from node n to the goal node

The Best first Search algorithm is implemented by the priority queue.

Example:
Consider the below search problem, and we will traverse it using greedy best-first search. At each iteration, each
node is expanded using evaluation function f(n)=h(n) , which is given in the below table.
Best first search algorithm:
• Step 1: Place the starting node into the OPEN list.
• Step 2: If the OPEN list is empty, Stop and return failure.
• Step 3: Remove the node n, from the OPEN list which has the lowest value of f(n), and
places it in the CLOSED list.
• Step 4: Expand the node n, and generate the successors of node n.
• Step 5: Check each successor of node n, and find whether any node is a goal node or not.
If any successor node is goal node, then return success and terminate the search, else
proceed to Step 6.
• Step 6: For each successor node, algorithm checks for evaluation function f(n), and then
check if the node has been in either OPEN or CLOSED list. If the node has not been in
both list, then add it to the OPEN list.
• Step 7: Return to Step 2.
Expand the nodes of S and put in the CLOSED list
Initialization: Open [A, B], Closed [S]
.
Iteration 1: Open [A], Closed [S, B]
Iteration 2: Open [E, F, A], Closed [S, B] : Open [E, A], Closed
[S, B, F]
Iteration 3: Open [I, G, E, A], Closed [S, B, F] : Open [I, E, A],
Closed [S, B, F, G]
Hence the final solution path will be: S----> B----->F----> G
Example BFS: Find the path from A to reach goal node G
Advantages:
• Best first search can switch between BFS and DFS by
gaining the advantages of both the algorithms.
• This algorithm is more efficient than BFS and DFS
algorithms.
Disadvantages:
• It can behave as an unguided depth-first search in the
worst case scenario.
• It can get stuck in a loop as DFS.
• This algorithm is not optimal.
Time Complexity: The worst case time complexity of Greedy best first search is O(bd).

Space Complexity: The worst case space complexity of Greedy best first search is O(b*d).
Where, d is the maximum depth of the search space.

Complete: Greedy best-first search is also incomplete, even if the given state space is
finite.

Optimal: Greedy best first search algorithm is not optimal.

2.) A* Search Algorithm:
• A* search is the most commonly known form of best-first search. It uses heuristic
function h(n), and cost to reach the node n from the start state g(n).

• It has combined features of UCS and greedy best-first search, by which it solve the
problem efficiently.

• This search algorithm expands less search tree and provides optimal result faster.
• A* algorithm uses g(n)+h(n) instead of g(n).

• In A* search algorithm, we use search heuristic as well as the cost to reach the node.
Hence we can combine both costs as following, and this sum is called as a fitness
number.
At each point in the search space, only those node is expanded which have the
lowest value of f(n), and the algorithm terminates when the goal node is found.
Algorithm of A* search:
Step1: Place the starting node in the OPEN list.
Step 2: Check if the OPEN list is empty or not, if the list is empty then return failure and stops.
Step 3: Select the node from the OPEN list which has the smallest value of evaluation function
(g+h), if node n is goal node then return success and stop, otherwise
Step 4: Expand node n and generate all of its successors, and put n into the closed list. For each
successor n', check whether n' is already in the OPEN or CLOSED list, if not then compute
evaluation function for n' and place into Open list.
Step 5: Else if node n' is already in OPEN and CLOSED, then it should be attached to the back
pointer which reflects the lowest g(n') value.
Step 6: Return to Step 2.
Advantages:
o A* search algorithm is the best algorithm than other search algorithms.
o A* search algorithm is optimal and complete.
o This algorithm can solve very complex problems.

Disadvantages:
o It does not always produce the shortest path as it mostly based on heuristics and
approximation.
o A* search algorithm has some complexity issues.
o The main drawback of A* is memory requirement as it keeps all generated nodes in the
memory, so it is not practical for various large-scale problems.
Example:
In this example, we will traverse the given graph using the A* algorithm. The heuristic value of
all states is given in the below table so we will calculate the f(n) of each state using the formula
f(n)= g(n) + h(n), where g(n) is the cost to reach any node from start state.
Here we will use OPEN and CLOSED list.

Solution:
Initialization: {(S, 5)}
Iteration1: {(S--> A, 4), (S-->G, 10)}
Iteration2: {(S--> A-->C, 4), (S--> A-->B, 7), (S-->G, 10)}
Iteration3: {(S--> A-->C--->G, 6), (S--> A-->C--->D, 11), (S--> A-->B, 7), (S-->G, 10)}
Iteration 4 : It will give the final result, as S--->A--->C--->G it provides the optimal path with
cost 6.
Points to remember:
o A* algorithm returns the path which occurred first, and it does not search for all remaining
paths.
o The efficiency of A* algorithm depends on the quality of heuristic.
o A* algorithm expands all nodes which satisfy the condition f(n)<="" li="">
Complete: A* algorithm is complete as long as:
o Branching factor is finite.
o Cost at every action is fixed.
Optimal: A* search algorithm is optimal if it follows below two conditions:

• Admissible: The first condition requires for optimality is that h(n) should be an admissible
heuristic for A* tree search. An admissible heuristic is optimistic in nature.

• Consistency: Second required condition is consistency for only A* graph-search.

If the heuristic function is admissible, then A* tree search will always find the least cost path.

Time Complexity: The time complexity of A* search algorithm depends on heuristic function,
and the number of nodes expanded is exponential to the depth of solution d. So the time
complexity is O(b^d), where b is the branching factor.

Space Complexity: The space complexity of A* search algorithm is O(b^d)

 AO* Algorithm / AND OR GRAPH
AO* AND OR graph Useful for certain problems where
• The solution involves decomposing the problem into smaller problems.

• We then solve these smaller problems.

Like A* algorithm here we will use two arrays and one heuristic function.

OPEN:
It contains the nodes that has been traversed but yet not been marked solvable or unsolvable.

CLOSE:
It contains the nodes that have already been processed.
Algorithm:
Step 1: Place the starting node into OPEN.

Step 2: Compute the most promising solution tree say T0.

Step 3: Select a node n that is both on OPEN and a member of T0. Remove it from OPEN and
place it in CLOSE

Step 4: If n is the terminal goal node then leveled n as solved and leveled all the ancestors of n as
solved. If the starting node is marked as solved then success and exit.

Step 5: If n is not a solvable node, then mark n as unsolvable. If starting node is marked as
unsolvable, then return failure and exit.

Step 6: Expand n. Find all its successors and find their h (n) value, push them into OPEN.

Step 7: Return to Step 2.

Step 8: Exit.
In the above graph, the solvable nodes are A, B, C, D, E, F and the unsolvable
nodes are G, H. Take A as the starting node. So place A into OPEN.
Advantages:
• It is an optimal algorithm.
• If traverse according to the ordering of nodes.
• It can be used for both OR and AND graph.

Disadvantages:
• Sometimes for unsolvable nodes, it can’t find the optimal
path.
• Its complexity is than other algorithms.
Hill Climbing Algorithm in Artificial Intelligence
• Hill climbing algorithm is a local search algorithm which continuously moves in
the direction of increasing elevation/value to find the peak of the mountain or
best solution to the problem. It terminates when it reaches a peak value where
no neighbor has a higher value.
• Hill climbing algorithm is a technique which is used for optimizing the
mathematical problems. One of the widely discussed examples of Hill climbing
algorithm is Traveling-salesman Problem in which we need to minimize the
distance traveled by the salesman.
• It is also called greedy local search as it only looks to its good immediate
neighbor state and not beyond that.
• A node of hill climbing algorithm has two components which are state and
value.
• Hill Climbing is mostly used when a good heuristic is available.
• In this algorithm, we don't need to maintain and handle the search tree or graph
as it only keeps a single current state.
Features of Hill Climbing:

Following are some main features of Hill Climbing Algorithm:

•Generate and Test variant: Hill Climbing is the variant of Generate and Test
method. The Generate and Test method produce feedback which helps to decide
which direction to move in the search space.
•Greedy approach: Hill-climbing algorithm search moves in the direction which
optimizes the cost.
•No backtracking: It does not backtrack the search space, as it does not remember
the previous states.
State-space Diagram for Hill Climbing:
•The state-space landscape is a graphical representation of the hill-climbing
algorithm which is showing a graph between various states of algorithm and
Objective function/Cost.
•On Y-axis we have taken the function which can be an objective function or cost
function, and state-space on the x-axis. If the function on Y-axis is cost then, the
goal of search is to find the global minimum and local minimum. If the function of
Y-axis is Objective function, then the goal of the search is to find the global
maximum and local maximum.
Problems in Hill Climbing Algorithm:
1. Local Maximum: A local maximum is a peak state in the landscape which is better than
each of its neighboring states, but there is another state also present which is higher than the local
maximum.
•Solution: Backtracking technique can be a solution of the local maximum in state space
landscape. Create a list of the promising path so that the algorithm can backtrack the search space
and explore other paths as well.

2. Plateau: A plateau is the flat area of the search space in which all the neighbor states of the
current state contains the same value, because of this algorithm does not find any best direction to
move. A hill-climbing search might be lost in the plateau area.
•Solution: The solution for the plateau is to take big steps or very little steps while searching,
to solve the problem. Randomly select a state which is far away from the current state so it is
possible at the algorithm could find non-plateau region.
3. Ridges: A ridge is a special form of the local maximum. It has an area which is higher than its
surrounding areas, but itself has a slope, and cannot be reached in a single move.

Solution: With the use of bidirectional search, or by moving in different directions, we can improve this
problem.

Types of Hill Climbing Algorithm:

• Simple hill Climbing

• Steepest-Ascent hill-climbing
[Link] Hill Climbing:
Simple hill climbing is the simplest way to implement a hill climbing algorithm. It only
evaluates the neighbor node state at a time and selects the first one which optimizes current
cost and set it as a current state. It only checks it's one successor state, and if it finds better than
the current state, then move else be in the same state. This algorithm has the following features:
• Less time consuming
• Less optimal solution and the solution is not guaranteed
Algorithm for Simple Hill Climbing:
Step 1: Evaluate the initial state, if it is goal state then return success and Stop.
Step 2: Loop Until a solution is found or there is no new operator left to apply.
Step 3: Select and apply an operator to the current state.
Step 4: Check new state:
a. If it is goal state, then return success and quit.
b. Else if it is better than the current state then assign new state as a current
state.
c. Else if not better than the current state, then return to step2.
Step 5: Exit.

[Link]-Ascent hill climbing:

The steepest-Ascent algorithm is a variation of simple hill climbing algorithm.
This algorithm examines all the neighboring nodes of the current state and
selects one neighbor node which is closest to the goal state. This algorithm
consumes more time as it searches for multiple neighbors
Algorithm for Steepest-Ascent hill climbing:
Step 1: Evaluate the initial state, if it is goal state then return success and
stop, else make current state as initial state.
Step 2: Loop until a solution is found or the current state does not change.
A. Let SUCC be a state such that any successor of the current
state will be better than it.
B. For each operator that applies to the current state:
i. Apply the new operator and generate a new state.
ii. Evaluate the new state.
iii. If it is goal state, then return it and quit, else
compare it to the SUCC.
iv. If it is better than SUCC, then set new state as
SUCC.
v. If the SUCC is better than the current state, then set
current state to SUCC.
Game tree:
A game tree is a tree where nodes of the tree are the game states and Edges of the tree
are the moves by players. Game tree involves initial state, actions function, and result
Function.
Example: Tic-Tac-Toe game tree:
• The following figure is showing part of the game-tree for tic-tac-toe game. Following
are some key points of the game:
• There are two players MAX and MIN.
• Players have an alternate turn and start with MAX.
• MAX maximizes the result of the game tree.
• MIN minimizes the result.
Example Explanation:
• From the initial state, MAX has 9 possible moves as he starts
first. MAX place x and MIN place o, and both player plays
alternatively until we reach a leaf node where one player has
three in a row or all squares are filled.
• Both players will compute each node, minimax, the minimax
value which is the best achievable utility against an optimal
adversary.
• Suppose both the players are well aware of the tic-tac-toe and
playing the best play. Each player is doing his best to prevent
another one from winning. MIN is acting against Max in the
game.
• So in the game tree, we have a layer of Max, a layer of MIN,
and each layer is called as Ply. Max place x, then MIN puts o
to prevent Max from winning, and this game continues until
the terminal node.
• In this either MIN wins, MAX wins, or it's a draw. This game-
tree is the whole search space of possibilities that MIN and
Hence adversarial Search for the mini max procedure works as
follows:
• It aims to find the optimal strategy for MAX to win the game.
• It follows the approach of Depth-first search.
• In the game tree, optimal leaf node could appear at any depth
of the tree.
• Propagate the minimax values up to the tree until the terminal
node discovered.
In a given game tree, the optimal strategy can be determined
from the mini max value of each node, which can be written as
MINIMAX(n). MAX prefer to move to a state of maximum value and
MIN prefer to move to a state of minimum value then:
Mini-Max Algorithm in Artificial Intelligence
• Mini-max algorithm is a recursive or backtracking algorithm which is
used in decision-making and game theory. It provides an optimal move
for the player assuming that opponent is also playing optimally.
• Mini-Max algorithm uses recursion to search through the game-tree.
• Min-Max algorithm is mostly used for game playing in AI. Such as
Chess, Checkers, tic-tac-toe, go, and various tow-players game. This
Algorithm computes the mini max decision for the current state.
• In this algorithm two players play the game, one is called MAX and
other is called MIN.
• Both the players fight it as the opponent player gets the minimum
benefit while they get the maximum benefit.
• Both Players of the game are opponent of each other, where MAX will
select the maximized value and MIN will select the minimized value.
• The mini max algorithm performs a depth-first search algorithm for the
exploration of the complete game tree.
• The mini max algorithm proceeds all the way down to the terminal node
of the tree, then backtrack the tree as the recursion.
Pseudo-code for MinMax Algorithm:
1. function minimax(node, depth, maximizingPlayer) is
2. if depth ==0 or node is a terminal node then
3. return static evaluation of node
4.
5. if MaximizingPlayer then // for Maximizer Player
6. maxEva= -infinity
7. for each child of node do
8. eva= minimax(child, depth-1, false)
9. maxEva= max(maxEva,eva) //gives Maximum of the values
10. return maxEva
11.
12. else // for Minimizer player
13. minEva= +infinity
14. for each child of node do
15. eva= minimax(child, depth-1, true)
16. minEva= min(minEva, eva) //gives minimum of the values
17. return minEva
Initial call:
Minimax(node, 3, true)
Working of Min-Max Algorithm:
• The working of the mini max algorithm can be easily
described using an example. Below we have taken an
example of game-tree which is representing the two-
player game.
• In this example, there are two players one is called
Maximizer and other is called Minimizer.
• Maximizer will try to get the Maximum possible score,
and Minimizer will try to get the minimum possible
score.
• This algorithm applies DFS, so in this game-tree, we
have to go all the way through the leaves to reach the
terminal nodes.
• At the terminal node, the terminal values are given so
we will compare those value and backtrack the tree
until the initial state occurs.
Following are the main steps involved in solving the two-player
game tree:
Step-1: In the first step, the algorithm generates the entire game-
tree and apply the utility function to get the utility values for the
terminal states. In the below tree diagram, let's take A is the
initial state of the tree. Suppose maximizer takes first turn which
has worst-case initial value =- infinity, and Minimizer will take
next turn which has worst-case initial value = +infinity.
Step 2: Now, first we find the utilities value for the Maximizer, its
initial value is -∞, so we will compare each value in terminal state
with initial value of Maximizer and determines the higher nodes
values. It will find the maximum among the all.
For node D max(-1,- -∞) => max(-1,4)= 4
For Node E max(2, -∞) => max(2, 6)= 6
For Node F max(-3, -∞) => max(-3,-5) = -3
For node G max(0, -∞) = max(0, 7) = 7
Step 3: In the next step, it's a turn for minimizer, so it will
compare all nodes value with +∞, and will find the 3rd layer
node values.
o For node B= min(4,6) = 4
o For node C= min (-3, 7) = -3
Step 3: Now it's a turn for Maximizer, and it will again choose the
maximum of all nodes value and find the maximum value for the
root node. In this game tree, there are only 4
layers, hence we reach immediately to the root node, but in real
games, there will be more than 4 layers.
o For node A max(4, -3)= 4

That was the complete workflow of the mini max two player game.
Properties of Mini-Max algorithm:
• Complete- Min-Max algorithm is Complete. It will definitely find a solution (if exist), in
the finite search tree.
• Optimal- Min-Max algorithm is optimal if both opponents are playing optimally.
• Time complexity- As it performs DFS for the game-tree, so the time complexity of Min-
Max algorithm is O(bm), where b is branching factor of the game-tree, and m is the
maximum depth of the tree.
• Space Complexity- Space complexity of Mini-max algorithm is also similar to DFS which
is O(bm).
Limitation of the mini max Algorithm:
The main drawback of the mini max algorithm is that it gets really slow for complex games such
as Chess, go, etc. This type of games has a huge branching factor, and the player has lots of
choices to decide. This limitation of the mini max algorithm can be improved from alpha-beta
pruning which we have discussed in the next topic.
Alpha-Beta Pruning
• Alpha-beta pruning is a modified version of the minimax algorithm. It is an
optimization technique for the minimax algorithm.
• As we have seen in the minimax search algorithm that the number of game states it has
to examine are exponential in depth of the tree. Since we cannot eliminate the
exponent, but we can cut it to half. Hence there is a technique by which without
checking each node of the game tree we can compute the correct minimax decision,
and this technique is called pruning. This involves two threshold parameter Alpha and
beta for future expansion, so it is called alpha-beta pruning. It is also called as
Alpha-Beta Algorithm.
• Alpha-beta pruning can be applied at any depth of a tree, and sometimes it not only
prune the tree leaves but also entire sub-tree.
The two-parameter can be defined as:
a. Alpha: The best (highest-value) choice we have found so far at any point
along the path of Maximizer. The initial value of alpha is -∞.
b. Beta: The best (lowest-value) choice we have found so far at any point
along the path of Minimizer. The initial value of beta is +∞.
The Alpha-beta pruning to a standard minimax algorithm returns the same move
as the standard algorithm does, but it removes all the nodes which are not really
affecting the final decision but making algorithm slow. Hence by pruning these
nodes, it makes the algorithm fast.

Note: To better understand this topic, kindly study the mini max algorithm.
Condition for Alpha-beta pruning:
The main condition which required for alpha-beta pruning is:
1. α>=β
Key points about alpha-beta pruning :
• The Max player will only update the value of
alpha.
• The Min player will only update the value of
beta.
• While backtracking the tree, the node values will
be passed to upper nodes instead of values of
alpha and beta.
• We will only pass the alpha, beta values to the
child nodes.
Working of Alpha-Beta Pruning:
Let's take an example of two-player search tree to
understand the working of Alpha-beta pruning
Step 1: At the first step the, Max player will start
first move from node A where α= -∞ and β= +∞,
these value of alpha and beta passed down to
node B where again α= -∞ and β= +∞, and Node B
passes the same value to its child D.
Step 2: At Node D, the value of α will be calculated as its turn for Max.
The value of α is compared with firstly 2 and then 3, and the max (2, 3)
= 3 will be the value of α at node D and node value will also 3.
Step 3: Now algorithm backtrack to node B, where the value of β
will change as this is a turn of Min, Now β= +∞, will compare
with the available subsequent nodes value, i.e. min (∞, 3) = 3,
hence at node B now α= -∞, and β= 3.
In the next step, algorithm traverse the next successor of Node B which
is node E, and the values of α= -∞, and β= 3 will also be passed.
Step 4: At node E, Max will take its turn, and the value of alpha will
change. The current value of alpha will be compared with 5, so max (-
∞, 5) = 5, hence at node E α= 5 and β= 3, where α>=β, so the right
successor of E will be pruned, and algorithm will not traverse it, and
the value at node E will be 5.
Step 5: At next step, algorithm again backtrack the tree, from node B to
node A. At node A, the value of alpha will be changed the maximum
available value is 3 as max (-∞, 3)= 3, and β= +∞, these two values now
passes to right successor of A which is Node C.
At node C, α=3 and β= +∞, and the same values will be passed on to node F.
Step 6: At node F, again the value of α will be compared with left child
which is 0, and max(3,0)= 3, and then compared with right child which is 1,
and max(3,1)= 3 still α remains 3, but the node value of F will become 1.
Step 7: Node F returns the node value 1 to node C, at C α= 3 and β=
+∞, here the value of beta will be changed, it will compare with 1 so
min (∞, 1) = 1. Now at C, α=3 and β= 1, and again it satisfies the
condition α>=β, so the next child of C which is G will be pruned, and
the algorithm will not compute the entire sub-tree G.
Step 8: C now returns the value of 1 to A here the best value for A is
max (3, 1) = 3. Following is the final game tree which is the showing the
nodes which are computed and
nodes which has never computed. Hence the optimal value for the
maximizer is 3 for this example.
Move Ordering in Alpha-Beta pruning:
The effectiveness of alpha-beta pruning is highly dependent on the order
in which each node is examined. Move order is an important aspect of
alpha-beta pruning.
It can be of two types:
o Worst ordering: In some cases, alpha-beta pruning algorithm does not
prune any of the leaves of the tree, and works exactly as minimax
algorithm. In this case, it also consumes more time because of alpha-beta
factors, such a move of pruning is called worst ordering. In this case, the
best move occurs on the right side of the tree. The time complexity for
such an order is O(bm).
o Ideal ordering: The ideal ordering for alpha-beta pruning occurs when
lots of pruning happens in the tree, and best moves occur at the left side
of the tree. We apply DFS hence it first search left of the tree and go
deep twice as minimax algorithm in the same amount of time.
Complexity in ideal ordering is O(bm/2).
Rules to find good ordering:
Following are some rules to find good ordering in alpha-beta pruning:
o Occur the best move from the shallowest node.
o Order the nodes in the tree such that the best nodes are checked first.
o Use domain knowledge while finding the best move. Ex: for Chess,
try order: captures first, then threats, then forward moves, backward
moves.
o We can bookkeep the states, as there is a possibility that states may
repeat.
THANK YOU