Computer Science

1. Prompt

Explain load balancing in a distributed system and describe the most common method used in practice.
What if a node in the system goes down?

ANSWERS

Response A:

1. Factuality/Accuracy = 5
2. Formatting and Coherence = 5
3. Completeness = 5
4. Creativity and complexity = 4
5. Relevance = 5
6. Development of Ideas/Themes = 4
7. Conciseness = 5
8. Overall = 5

Response B:

1. Factuality/Accuracy = 5
2. Formatting and Coherence = 4
3. Completeness = 5
4. Creativity and complexity = 4
5. Relevance = 5
6. Development of Ideas/Themes = 4
7. Conciseness = 4
8. Overall = 4

Response A is exceptionally clear, covering load balancing and node failure in a precise, comprehensive,
and pertinent manner. Response A is more precise than Response B, even if Response B covers more
ground.

2. Prompt

Autonomous vehicles (AV), also known as self-driving cars, is a very popular topic. Imagine you are
working for an AV company, and your self-driving car is testing on a new road which it has never seen
before. What can we do in advance to make sure we can reduce the probability of collision? What will
you do differently if this new road is busy compared to if this new road is empty, and please also take
the weather into consideration.

ANSWERS

Response A

1. Factuality/Accuracy = 5
2. Formatting and Coherence = 5
3. Completeness = 5
4. Creativity and complexity = 5
5. Relevance = 5
6. Development of Ideas/Themes = 5
7. Conciseness = 4
8. Overall = 5

Response B

1. Factuality/Accuracy = 5
2. Formatting and Coherence = 4
3. Completeness = 3
4. Creativity and complexity = 3
5. Relevance = 4
6. Development of Ideas/Themes = 3
7. Conciseness = 4
8. Overall = 3

3. Prompt

As we all know, recommender systems are widely used in a lot of different areas, e.g. Amazon’s item

recommendation, Facebook and Instagram’s news feed ranking and YouTube’s video recommendation.

These systems usually learn from users’ and items’ historical behaviors and make relevant

recommendations, however, for new users or items with no history, systems like this might run into

issues, i.e. the cold start problems. Describe some methods you know or can think of to tackle this

challenge.
Response A

1. Factuality/Accuracy = 5
2. Formatting and Coherence = 5
3. Completeness = 5
4. Creativity and complexity = 5
5. Relevance = 5
6. Development of Ideas/Themes = 5
7. Conciseness = 4
8. Overall = 5

Response B

1. Factuality/Accuracy = 4
2. Formatting and Coherence = 4
3. Completeness = 4
4. Creativity and complexity = 3
5. Relevance = 4
6. Development of Ideas/Themes = 3
7. Conciseness = 4
8. Overall = 3

Response A is distinguished by its comprehensive and innovative method as it employs sophisticated

methods of transfer learning. Response B, on the other hand, while correct and pertinent has less of

depth and diversity.

Rewriting

4. Prompt

Heapsort is a widely-used sorting algorithm. Please write an introduction to Heapsort including its basic
idea, main steps, complexity and important properties. Write some pseudo code to illustrate the process
of Heapsort.

ANSWER

Of course, I can introduce Heapsort. Heapsort is an algorithm that uses the heap data structure, a
tree-shaped organization in which a parent node's value can either be larger than or equal to all
its child nodes thereby creating what is known as max heap.
The main idea of Heapsort is based upon the divide and conquer strategy. It entails breaking
down the array into two segments: one ascending and another descending. The algorithm points
out the smallest or largest elements in the unsorted region and places them within the sorted
portion until all of it is used up. The primary steps are:

 Build a heap using the complete array.

 Exchange the initial element, which can be either the largest or smallest(depending on the
heap type), with the last element. This process increases the size of sorted segment by 1
and reduces the unsorted part by 1.
 Adjust the first element (previously the last element at step 2) to the correct position.
 Repeat steps 2 and 3 until there is no unsorted part left.

The complexity of each step is as follows:

 Creating a heap. Time complexity O(n log n), space complexity O(1)
 Repeating the sorting iterations. Time complexity O(n log n), space complexity O(1)

Consequently, the overall time complexity is O(n log n), with space complexity O(1).

Key properties of Heapsort include:

 Optimal time complexity: O(n log n)

 In-place sorting: Space complexity O(1)
 Unstable: similar elements in the original array are disordered.
 Heapsort is often superior to quicksort with a worst-case time complexity of O(n^2)

Here is the pseudocode for Heapsort:

#Pseudocode for Heapsort

#Build a subtree that has node i as its root into a max-

heap.

#Assuming that the left and right subtrees of i are max-

heaps, n is the total number of elements in the array.
procedure heapify(arr, n, i):

largest = i

2 * i + 1 = left_child

2 * i + 2 == right_child
# Compare the root with its left child and right child (if they exist).
if left_child < n and arr[left_child] > arr[largest]:
largest = left_child

if right_child < n and arr[right_child] > arr[largest]:

largest = right_child

# If the largest element is not the root, swap both of them and recursively
heapify any affected subtree.
if largest != i:
swap(arr[i], arr[largest])
heapify(arr, n, largest)

#Main Heapsort function

procedure heapsort(arr):

n = length(arr)

# Build a max-heap from the input array. Start from the last non-leaf node.
for i from n // 2 - 1 down to 0:
heapify(arr, n, i)

# Pop elements off the heap one by one and append them to the array's tail.
for i from n - 1 down to 0:
swap(arr, 0, i) # Move the current root to the end
arr = heapify(arr, i, 0) # Reduced heap

An example to illustrate:
arr = [4, 10, 3, 5, 1]

heapsort(arr)
print(arr) # Output will be a sorted array:

[1, 3, 4, 5, 10]

5. Prompt

Imagine we have a computer science student studying the P vs NP problem. Please introduce the basic
concepts of this topic.

ANSWERS
Let's explore an introduction to the fascinating P vs NP problem. In the field of Computer
Science, P, referred to as "Class P," constitutes problems that a Turing machine can effectively
solve within polynomial time. These problems, which are often characterized as "tractable
problems,'' suggest the presence of practical and viable solutions.

In contrast, NP, an acronym for "nondeterministic polynomial time," designates a category of

issues that defy resolution by a deterministic Turing machine within polynomial time. There
exists a widely acknowledged consensus indicating that NP problems present a heightened
degree of complexity when contrasted with their P counterparts. Underlining this, it is pivotal to
note that P is inherently subsumed within the overarching domain of NP.

The crux of the P vs NP problems lies in the exploration of whether P is equivalent to NP or not.
This dichotomous inquiry -P = NP or P ≠ NP- carries profound implications. Should the former
hold, it implies that problems verifiable in polynomial time are also solvable within polynomial
time? Concurrently, this predicament remains an unsolved puzzle, contributing to the ongoing
discourse in the realm of theoretical Computer Science.

6. Prompt

Please write to explain the relationship between hardware and software in a computer and how they
can work together. Use illustrative examples to help you understand.

ANSWER

How well a computer works depends on the interaction between its physical parts (hardware) and
programmed instructions known as software. It is as if these tangible parts and the coded
instructions are in a symbiotic relationship that works harmoniously together. This teamwork is
crucial in ensuring that any computer system runs efficiently.

Hardware is the physical elements of a computer, such as the central processing unit CPU,
memory modules or storage devices input-output peripherals, and motherboard. These
components are used as the foundation upon which software can perform its duties.

For example, the CPU is equivalent to a computer’s brain processing instructions stored in
memory, as well as performing various calculations and tasks. Storage devices store both the
operating system of a computer itself and user-installed programs.

Contrastingly, software involves all the programs, applications, and operating systems that
operate on hardware. It is the set of instructions that hardware follows to do certain tasks. An
operating system, such as Microsoft Windows or macOS works like an intermediary layer
between the user and hardware systems managing resources on one side while providing a much-
needed connection with many offered software applications.
A word processing application can serve as an example to illustrate this relationship. The
hardware, the CPU, and memory handle the word processor’s software code which enables users
to type edit, and format text. When an individual instructs the software to save a document, their
storage device or hardware dumps this data onto hard drive space or SSD.

For instance, a graphics-intensive video game is another example. The CPU and GPU work
together to run the game software. The CPU oversees general game mechanics, while the GPU
works on rendering graphics for smooth and responsive gaming.

In other words, a computer’s hardware as well as its software work in tandem to fulfill tasks.
Hardware holds the physical infrastructure and software gives directions that hardware must
follow. the relation between these two fundamental elements in computing is complementary.