Question

Discuss the similarities between "Decrease and Conquer" and "Divide and Conquer" algorithms.

Answer 1

Divide and conquer as it goes by its name is a way of division of the problem into further parts untill it becomes easier and simpler to be sovled. It is used in making the program simpler. We simply divide our program into subdivided program and solve it when it becomes simpler so it is in a way conquered. Therefore the name is given as divide and conquer. Sort algorithms such as quick sort and merge sort and search algorithms such as binary search is and example of Divide and Conquer.

We can say that though the name sounds similar but Decrease and Conquer is a bit different from Divide and Conquer. In Decrease and Conquer we do not divide the program into subdivisions but we try to make the program simpler by using techniques which make the original program smaller and simpler. This could be done by decreasing the number of variables or constants in the code. Example of Decrease and Conquer can be such as printing subsets of a given set or used to generate and display permutations.

So we can say that in Divide and Conquer we divide the program or algorith into further subdivisions in order to make it simpler whereas in Decrease and Conquer we try to decrease the complexity of the original program or algorith by various techniques and make it smaller and simpler.