Signal Strength

Introduction

• midatl2008

This problem asks to find the maximum signal strength in a non-cyclic graph. There are "servers" which have gain, and a "connections" from a server to another, witch also have a gain.

Difficulty

Algorithmic

Mild. The theory is pretty straightforward and doesn't necessitate a fast algorithm.

Implementation

Moderate. Parsing the information and putting them into the relevant data structures is annoying.

Solutions

Solution using recursion

Idea

Create a function that will recursively determine the signal strength at any server. It will find the strength of all the parent servers, and return the strongest one. Implement memoization for speed

How to

Your program needs 3 layers

• Initial setup layer
• Case layer
• Recursive layer

The recursive function should be called initially on the LAST server, and should work its way up to the FIRST server. Thus, base case is when server #0 is hit.