Backtracking and branch and bound are algorithms used to solve problems with large search spaces. Backtracking uses depth-first search and prunes subtrees that don't lead to viable solutions. Branch and bound uses breadth-first search and pruning, maintaining partial solutions in a priority queue. Both techniques systematically eliminate possibilities to find optimal solutions faster than exhaustive search. Examples where they can be applied include maze pathfinding, the eight queens problem, sudoku, and the traveling salesman problem.

1. Backtracking
&
Branch and Bound

2. Backtracking
• Suppose you have to make a series of
decisions, among various choices, where
– You don’t have enough information to know
what to choose
– Each decision leads to a new set of choices
– Some sequence of choices (possibly more than
one) may be a solution to your problem
• Backtracking is a methodical way of trying
out various sequences of decisions, until
you find one that “works”

3. Backtracking Algorithm
•
•
Based on depth-first recursive search
Approach
1. Tests whether solution has been found
2. If found solution, return it
3. Else for each choice that can be made
a) Make that choice
b) Recur
c) If recursion returns a solution, return it
4. If no choices remain, return failure
•
Some times called “search tree”

4. Backtracking
• Performs a depth-first traversal of a tree
• Continues until it reaches a node that is nonviable or non-promising
• Prunes the sub tree rooted at this node and
continues the depth-first traversal of the tree

5. Backtracking Algorithm – Example
• Find path through maze
– Start at beginning of maze
– If at exit, return true
– Else for each step from current location
• Recursively find path
• Return with first successful step
• Return false if all steps fail

6. Backtracking
• Backtracking is a technique used to solve
problems with a large search space, by
systematically trying and eliminating possibilities.
• A standard example of backtracking would be
going through a maze.
Portion B
– At some point in a maze, you might have two options
of which direction to go:
Portion A

7. Backtracking

One strategy would be
to try going through
Portion A of the maze.

If you get stuck before
you find your way out,
then you "backtrack" to
the junction.
At this point in time you
know that Portion A will
NOT lead you out of the
maze,

so you then start
searching in Portion B
Portion A

Portion B

8. Backtracking
• Clearly, at a single junction
you could have even more
than 2 choices.
• The backtracking strategy
says to try each choice, one
after the other,
– if you ever get stuck,
"backtrack" to the junction
and try the next choice.
C
B
A
• If you try all choices and
never found a way out,
then there IS no solution to
the maze.

9. Backtracking – Eight Queens
Problem
• Find an arrangement of 8
queens on a single chess board
such that no two queens are
attacking one another.
• In chess, queens can move all
the way down any row, column
or diagonal (so long as no
pieces are in the way).
– Due to the first two restrictions,
it's clear that each row and
column of the board will have
exactly one queen.

10. Backtracking – Eight Queens
Problem
• The backtracking strategy is as
follows:
1)
Q
Q
Place a queen on the first
available square in row 1.
2)
Move onto the next row,
placing a queen on the first
available square there (that
doesn't conflict with the
previously placed queens).
3)
Q
Q
Q
Q
Continue…
Continue in this fashion until
either:
a)
b)
you have solved the problem, or
you get stuck.
–
When you get stuck, remove the
queens that got you there, until you
get to a row where there is another
valid square to try.
Animated Example:
http://www.hbmeyer.de/backtrack
/achtdamen/eight.htm#up

11. Backtracking – Eight Queens Problem
• When we carry out backtracking, an easy
way to visualize what is going on is a tree
that shows all the different possibilities
that have been tried.
• On the board we will show a visual
representation of solving the 4 Queens
problem (placing 4 queens on a 4x4 board
where no two attack one another).

12. Backtracking – Eight Queens Problem
• The neat thing about coding up backtracking,
is that it can be done recursively, without
having to do all the bookkeeping at once.
– Instead, the stack or recursive calls does most of
the bookkeeping
– (ie, keeping track of which queens we've placed,
and which combinations we've tried so far, etc.)

13. perm[] - stores a valid permutation of queens from index 0 to location-1.
location – the column we are placing the next queen
usedList[] – keeps track of the rows in which the queens have already been placed.
void solveItRec(int perm[], int location, struct onesquare usedList[]) {
if (location == SIZE) {
printSol(perm);
}
for (int i=0; i<SIZE; i++) {
if (usedList[i] == false) {
if (!conflict(perm, location, i)) {
Found a solution to the problem, so print it!
Loop through possible rows to place this queen.
Only try this row if it hasn’t been used
Check if this position conflicts with any previous
queens on the diagonal
perm[location] = i;
usedList[i] = true;
solveItRec(perm, location+1, usedList);
usedList[i] = false;
}
}
}
}
1) mark the queen in this row
2) mark the row as used
3) solve the next column location
recursively
4) un-mark the row as used, so we
can get ALL possible valid
solutions.

14. Backtracking – 8 queens problem - Analysis
• Another possible brute-force algorithm is generate the
permutations of the numbers 1 through 8 (of which there are 8! =
40,320),
– and uses the elements of each permutation as indices to place a
queen on each row.
– Then it rejects those boards with diagonal attacking positions.
• The backtracking algorithm, is a slight improvement on the
permutation method,
– constructs the search tree by considering one row of the board at a
time, eliminating most non-solution board positions at a very early
stage in their construction.
– Because it rejects row and diagonal attacks even on incomplete
boards, it examines only 15,720 possible queen placements.
• A further improvement which examines only 5,508 possible queen
placements is to combine the permutation based method with the
early pruning method:
– The permutations are generated depth-first, and the search space is
pruned if the partial permutation produces a diagonal attack

15. Sudoku and Backtracking
• Another common puzzle that can be solved by backtracking
is a Sudoku puzzle.
• The basic idea behind the solution is as follows:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Scan the board to look for an empty square that could take on
the fewest possible values based on the simple game
constraints.
If you find a square that can only be one possible value, fill it in
with that one value and continue the algorithm.
If no such square exists, place one of the possible numbers for
that square in the number and repeat the process.
If you ever get stuck, erase the last number placed and see if
there are other possible choices for that slot and try those
next.

16. Mazes and Backtracking
• A final example of something that can be solved
using backtracking is a maze.
– From your start point, you will iterate through each
possible starting move.
– From there, you recursively move forward.
– If you ever get stuck, the recursion takes you back to
where you were, and you try the next possible move.
• In dealing with a maze, to make sure you don't try
too many possibilities,
– one should mark which locations in the maze have been
visited already so that no location in the maze gets
visited twice.
– (If a place has already been visited, there is no point in
trying to reach the end of the maze from there again.

17. Example: N-Queens Problem
• Given an N x N sized chess board
• Objective: Place N queens on the
board so that no queens are in
danger

18. • One option would be to generate a tree of
every possible board layout
• This would be an expensive way to find a
solution

19. Backtracking
• Backtracking prunes
entire sub trees if their
root node is not a viable
solution
• The algorithm will
“backtrack” up the tree
to search for other
possible solutions

20. Efficiency of Backtracking
• This given a significant advantage over an
exhaustive search of the tree for the average
problem
• Worst case: Algorithm tries every path,
traversing the entire search space as in an
exhaustive search

21. Branch and Bound
• Where backtracking uses a depth-first search
with pruning, the branch and bound algorithm
uses a breadth-first search with pruning
• Branch and bound uses a queue as an
auxiliary data structure

22. The Branch and Bound Algorithm
• Starting by considering the root node and
applying a lower-bounding and upperbounding procedure to it
• If the bounds match, then an optimal
solution has been found and the algorithm
is finished
• If they do not match, then algorithm runs
on the child nodes

23. Example:
The Traveling Salesman Problem
 Branch and bound can be used to solve the TSP using
a priority queue as an auxiliary data structure
 An example is the problem with a directed graph
given by this adjacency matrix:

24. Traveling Salesman Problem
• The problem starts at vertex 1
• The initial bound for the minimum tour is the
sum of the minimum outgoing edges from
each vertex
Vertex 1
Vertex 2
Vertex 3
Vertex 4
Vertex 5
Bound
min (14, 4, 10, 20)
min (14, 7, 8, 7)
min (4, 5, 7, 16)
min (11, 7, 9, 2)
min (18, 7, 17, 4)
=
=
=
=
=
4
7
4
2
4
= 21

25. Traveling Salesman Problem
• Next, the bound for the node for the partial
tour from 1 to 2 is calculated using the
formula:
Bound = Length from 1 to 2 + sum of min outgoing
edges for vertices 2 to 5 = 14 + (7 + 4 + 2 + 4) = 31

26. Traveling Salesman Problem
• The node is added to the priority queue
• The node with the lowest bound is then
removed
• This calculation for the bound for the node of
the partial tours is repeated on this node
• The process ends when the priority queue is
empty

27. Traveling Salesman Problem
• The final results of
this example are in
this tree:
• The accompanying
number for each node
is the order it was
removed in

28. Efficiency of Branch and Bound
• In many types of problems, branch and bound
is faster than branching, due to the use of a
breadth-first search instead of a depth-first
search
• The worst case scenario is the same, as it will
still visit every node in the tree