COMPUTATIONAL METHODS

Question 1

What is backtracking?

Answer 1

• a problem-solving technique implemented using algorithms, often
  recursively
• works by methodically visiting each path and building a solution based on the paths found to be correct
• if a path is found to be invalid, the algorithm backtracks to the previous stage and visits an alternate path

Question 2

What is data mining?

Answer 2

• a technique used to identify patterns or outliers in large sets of data collected from a variety of sources
• data mining is used in software designed to spot trends or identify correlations between data which are not immediately
  obvious
• insights from data mining can be used to make predictions about the future based on previous trends

Question 3

What is a heuristic?

Answer 3

• a heuristic is a non-optimal, ‘rule-of-thumb’ approach to problem-solving which is used to find an approximate solution to a problem when the standard solution is unreasonably time-consuming or resource-intensive to find
• the solution found through using heuristics is not perfectly accurate or complete
• heuristics are used to provide an estimated solution for
  intractable problem and also in machine learning and language recognition.