Topic summary
Computational Problems
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Computational problem.
is a computational problem that has a solution, as there are many known integer factorization algorithms. A computational problem can be viewed as a set of instances or cases together with a, possibly empty, set of solutions for every instance/case. The question then is, whether there exists an algorithm that maps instances to solutions. For example, in the factoring problem, the instances are the integers n, and solutions are prime numbers p that are the nontrivial prime factors of n. An example of a computational problem without a solution is the Halting problem. Computational problems are one of the main objects of study in theoretical computer science.