arrow
Return

Quantum algorithm for secret learning in Mastermind game

delete2025-11-12
delete0
PRE
AI
W
Wentao Qi
Y
Yongzhen Xu
S
Shenggen Zheng
L
Lvzhou Li *
DOI:10.1007/s11433-025-2752-7delete
deleteOriginal
deleteOriginal request for help
deleteShare
deleteSave
Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
This work investigates quantum speedups for the popular game named Mastermind, in which there are two participants: the codemaker who selects a secret string, and the codebreaker who submits query strings and receives answers from the codemaker. The codebreaker’s objective is to learn the secret string in as few queries as possible. This work focuses on playing the Mastermind game on quantum computers using different types of codemaker’s answers such as black count, ℓp distance, and separable distance. We show that the codebreaker can learn the secret with certainty by using quantum algorithms which exhibit a sharp reduction in query numbers compared with their classical counterparts. Specifically, our quantum algorithms require $${\cal O}(k \log k)$$ black-count queries, $${\cal O}(\log k)$$ ℓp-distance queries, and $${\cal O}(\log M)$$ separable-distance queries to learn the secret s ∈ [k]n, respectively, where M is completely determined by k. Thus, the quantum query complexity is independent of the length n of the secret s, as opposed to the query complexity linear in n of classical algorithms.

Journal

S
Science China Physics, Mechanics and Astronomy
IF:
0
Papers:
2
Citations:
4

Organization

S
School of Computer Science and Engineering
Scholars:
1.3K
Papers: 590
Citations: 2
Cited Papers

Cited Papers

Query complexity of mastermind variants
err2018-03-01
err0
PREAI
errBerger,Aaron; Chute,Christopher; Stone,Matthew
errShare
errSave
Quantum generative adversarial network for generating discrete distribution
err2020-10-01
err0
errOAAI
errHaozhen Situ; Zhimin He; Yuyi Wang; Lvzhou Li; Shenggen Zheng
errShare
errSave
Quantum speedup of twin support vector machines
err2020-04-23
err23
PREAI
errYe, Zekun; Li, Lvzhou; Situ, Haozhen; Wang, Yuyi
errShare
errSave
Playing Mastermind With Many Colors
err2016-11-08
err0
errOAAI
errBenjamin Doerr; Carola Doerr; Reto Spöhel; Henning Thomas
errShare
errSave
Recovery From Non-Decomposable Distance Oracles
err2023-10-01
err0
PREAI
errHu,Zhuangfei; Li,Xinda; Woodruff,David P.; Zhang,Hongyang; Zhang,Shufan
errShare
errSave
An efficient quantum proactive incremental learning algorithm
err2024-10-22
err5
PREAI
errLi, Lingxiao; Li, Jing; Song, Yanqi; Qin, Sujuan; Wen, Qiaoyan; Gao, Fei
errShare
errSave
A quantum federated learning framework for classical clients
err2024-03-19
err26
errOAAI
errSong, Yanqi; Wu, Yusen; Wu, Shengyao; Li, Dandan; Wen, Qiaoyan; Qin, Sujuan; Gao, Fei
errShare
errSave
errShare
errSave
researcher View more