What happens if Dijkstra's algorithm encounters a negative weight edge?

Practice Questions

Q1
What happens if Dijkstra's algorithm encounters a negative weight edge?
  1. It will still find the shortest path.
  2. It will fail to find a solution.
  3. It will ignore the edge.
  4. It will return an incorrect path.

Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions

What happens if Dijkstra's algorithm encounters a negative weight edge?
  • Step 1: Understand that Dijkstra's algorithm is used to find the shortest path in a graph.
  • Step 2: Know that a graph can have edges with weights, which represent the cost to travel from one node to another.
  • Step 3: Recognize that a negative weight edge means the cost to travel is less than zero, which is unusual.
  • Step 4: Realize that Dijkstra's algorithm assumes that once it finds the shortest path to a node, it won't find a shorter path later.
  • Step 5: If Dijkstra's algorithm encounters a negative weight edge, it may incorrectly calculate the shortest path.
  • Step 6: This can lead to wrong results, as the algorithm might not revisit nodes to check for shorter paths after encountering the negative edge.
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