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Turing Machines and Undecidability

GATE CSE 2016 Set 1 · Q17

MCQ1 markEasy

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Which of the following decision problems are undecidable? I. Given NFAs N1N_1 and N2N_2, is L(N1)∩L(N2)=ΦL(N_1) \cap L(N_2) = \Phi? II. Given a CFG G=(N,Σ,P,S)G = (N, \Sigma, P, S) and a string x∈Σ∗x \in \Sigma^*, does x∈L(G)x \in L(G)? III. Given CFGs G1G_1 and G2G_2, is L(G1)=L(G2)L(G_1) = L(G_2)? IV. Given a TM MM, is L(M)=ΦL(M) = \Phi?

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Official answer: C) III and IV only

Turing Machines and Undecidability

Let us analyze the decidability of each decision problem:

  1. Problem I (Emptiness of Intersection for Regular Languages): Regular languages are closed under intersection. We can construct a product automaton for N1N_1 and N2N_2 and test whether any final state is reachable from the start state using standard graph search (BFS/DFS). Hence, this problem is decidable.

  2. Problem II (Membership for CFG): Given a CFG GG and string xx, we can check if x∈L(G)x \in L(G) using parsing algorithms such as the CYK algorithm in O(∣x∣3)O(|x|^3) time. Hence, this problem is decidable.

  3. Problem III (Equivalence of CFGs): Determining whether two context-free grammars generate the same language (L(G1)=L(G2)L(G_1) = L(G_2)) is a well-known undecidable problem (closely related to the undecidability of L(G)=Σ∗L(G) = \Sigma^*).

  4. Problem IV (Emptiness for TM): Testing whether L(M)=ΦL(M) = \Phi for a Turing machine is a non-trivial property of the language recognized by the TM, which is undecidable by Rice's theorem.

Therefore, problems III and IV are undecidable, making (C) the correct option.

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This Turing Machines and Undecidability previous year question is Q17 of the GATE CSE 2016 Set 1 paper. Find more GATE CSE PYQs on Turing Machines and Undecidability in Theory of Computation, or browse all GATE CSE PYQs.

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Turing Machines and Undecidability in GATE CSE

Turing Machines and Undecidability has 30 GATE CSE PYQs across 20 papers from 2012 to 2026. 13 of them are 1-mark MCQs like this one, and GATE CSE 2016 Set 1 has 2.

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GateAI solution cardGATE CSE 2016 Set 1 · Q17 · MCQ

Which of the following decision problems are undecidable? I. Given NFAs N1 and N2, is L(N1) ∩ L(N2) = ? II. Given a CFG G = (N, , P, S) and a string x ∈ *, does x ∈ L(G)? III. Given CFGs G1 and G2, is L(G1) = L(G2)? IV. Given a TM M, is L(M) = ?

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