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In computer science, the exact cover problem is a decision problem to determine if an exact cover exists. The exact cover problem is NP-complete[1] and is one of Karp's 21 NP-complete problems.[2] The exact cover problem is a kind of constraint satisfaction problem.

I have been reading examples of exact cover problems such as the n-queens, sudoku, etc but cant seem to understand how a problem can be exact.

ead
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yul gurz
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    Exact refers to covering each item exactly once. Your last sentence suggests you interpreted that differently. – harold Jul 17 '16 at 12:45
  • @harold: I thought so too, but in fairness the Wikipedia Exact Cover article mentions those 2 problems as examples (and gives a somewhat convoluted justification that I didn't have the energy to verify). – j_random_hacker Jul 18 '16 at 12:42
  • see some answers at https://cs.stackexchange.com/questions/74407/what-are-the-real-world-applications-of-set-cover-problem – tillmo Jan 15 '19 at 08:12

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