Mastermind is NP-Complete

• Published in 2005
• Added on 2012-09-02

In this paper we show that the Mastermind Satisfiability Problem (MSP) is NP-complete. The Mastermind is a popular game which can be turned into a logical puzzle called Mastermind Satisfiability Problem in a similar spirit to the Minesweeper puzzle. By proving that MSP is NP-complete, we reveal its intrinsic computational property that makes it challenging and interesting. This serves as an addition to our knowledge about a host of other puzzles, such as Minesweeper, Mah-Jongg, and the 15-puzzle.

Links

• http://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0512049
• http://arxiv.org/pdf/cs/0512049v1

Other information

BibTeX entry

@article{Stuckman2005,
	abstract = {In this paper we show that the Mastermind Satisfiability Problem (MSP) is NP-complete. The Mastermind is a popular game which can be turned into a logical puzzle called Mastermind Satisfiability Problem in a similar spirit to the Minesweeper puzzle. By proving that MSP is NP-complete, we reveal its intrinsic computational property that makes it challenging and interesting. This serves as an addition to our knowledge about a host of other puzzles, such as Minesweeper, Mah-Jongg, and the 15-puzzle.},
	archivePrefix = {arXiv},
	arxivId = {cs/0512049},
	author = {Stuckman, Jeff and Zhang, Guo-Qiang},
	eprint = {cs/0512049},
	journal = {Arxiv preprint cs/0512049},
	keywords = {computational complexity,mastermind,theory of computation},
	month = {dec},
	pages = {1--7},
	primaryClass = {cs.CC},
	title = {Mastermind is NP-Complete},
	url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0512049 http://arxiv.org/pdf/cs/0512049v1},
	year = 2005,
	urldate = {2012-09-02},
	collections = {Puzzles,Basically computer science,Games to play with friends,Computational complexity of games}
}