Let M denote an encoding of an automaton M. Suppose that = {0, 1}. Which of the following languages is/are NOT recursive?
Topic-wise GATE CS PYQs with verified steps
GATE CSE 2021 Set 1 · Q12
Time
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Solution
Official answer: D) L = { M M is a PDA such that L(M) = *}
Turing Machines and UndecidabilityA language is recursive if there exists a halting Turing machine (decider) that decides membership in the language.
(A) : Decidable/Recursive. The emptiness problem for DFAs () can be decided by graph reachability algorithms (BFS/DFS) to check if any accept state is reachable from the start state.
**(B) :** Decidable/Recursive. Since DFAs are closed under complementation, we can construct such that and then check if .
(C) : Decidable/Recursive. The emptiness problem for CFLs/PDAs () is decidable by checking whether the start variable can derive any terminal string.
**(D) :** Undecidable (NOT recursive). The universality problem for context-free languages ( / ) is undecidable via reduction from the Post Correspondence Problem (PCP) or by representing valid computation histories of a Turing machine.
Therefore, only D is NOT recursive.
Try the question first, then check your work.
Examiner trap
Consider standard decision properties for Regular languages (DFAs) vs Context-Free languages (PDAs). While emptiness is decidable for both DFAs and PDAs, universality () is undecidable for PDAs.
This Turing Machines and Undecidability previous year question is Q12 of the GATE CSE 2021 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 has 30 GATE CSE PYQs across 20 papers from 2012 to 2026. 3 of them are 1-mark MSQs like this one, and GATE CSE 2021 Set 1 has 2.
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