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An Optimal Algorithm for Finding All the Jumps of a Monotone Step-Function REFAEL HASSINAND NIMRODMEGIDDO* Stutistics Deportment, Tel Aoio Unioersitv, Tel Aoiu, Isrue169978 Received July 26, 1983 The idea of binary search is generalized as follows. Given f : (0.1,. . . ,N ) + (0,...,K ) such that f(O)=O. f ( N ) = K , and / ( I ) / ( , ) for ; I , all the jumps of f , i.e., all is such that /(I) f ( i - 1) together with the difference f ( i ) -f ( i - 1) are recognized within K [log, ( N / K ) ~ + [ (N - 1)2~-[0g2(N/K)I] f-evaluations. This is proved to be the exact bound in the non-trivial case wh K N. An optimal strategy is as follows: The first query will be at i = 2, where rn = [log, (N/K)]. An adversary will then respond either f ( i ) = 0 or f ( i ) = 1 as explained in the paper. 19x5 Academic Pres,, Inc. I f f : {O,l,. ..,N ) + {0,1) is monotone and f(0) = 0, f ( N ) = 1, then f has one jump which can be recognized by a binary search within [ l o g 2 ~ ] f-evaluations. In this paper we generalize this situation to the case of a monotone nondecreasing step-function, i.e., f: {0,1,. . .,N ) -, {0,1,...,K ) , where f(O)= 0, f ( N ) = K, and f ( i ) f ( j ) for i j . Obvi- ously, by performing K binary searches one may recognize f (i) for all i, so that lo^,^] f-evaluations should suffice. Also, trivially, if K 2 N then N - 1f-evaluations are sufficient and may also be necessary in the worst- case. We prove in this paper that the exact upper bound on the number of f-evaluations required for the recognition of all the j