News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:New algorithm breaks speed limit for solving linear equat... by YetAnotherNick on Tuesday March 09, 2021 @02:23AM (#26396307)
I think that is definition of approximate algorithm, not randomized algorithm. Quicksort is a classic randomized algorithm, but it is not approximate.
Re:New algorithm breaks speed limit for solving linear equat... by bonzini on Tuesday March 09, 2021 @08:29AM (#26398545)
Randomized quick sort could pick the wrong pivot at every step (or at every other step, that's still quadratic complexity), so it's only O(n log n) with high probability.
Re:New algorithm breaks speed limit for solving linear equat... by zeroonetwothree on Tuesday March 09, 2021 @09:58AM (#26399384)
The probability is so low that this has probably never happened in all history (for reasonably sized arrays).

It’s not typical to analyse randomised algorithms this way for that reason.

Re:New algorithm breaks speed limit for solving linear equat... by HelloNurse on Tuesday March 09, 2021 @10:30AM (#26399703)
Quicksort is popular, and Quicksort bad inputs can happen in highly plausible specific cases (e.g. almost sorted input vs. pivot on first array element) and can be easily engineered whenever an attacker controls a large input to be sorted and can guess what sorting algorithm is being used. Probability of bad performance is only low on implausibly random input instances.
Re:New algorithm breaks speed limit for solving linear equat... by ychen306 on Tuesday March 09, 2021 @11:09AM (#26400179)