An Optimal Mastermind (4,7) Strategy and More Results in the Expected Case · HackerPapers discussionshttps://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/1305.1010/Collected HN comments and submissions linking this paper.enMon, 02 Nov 2026 11:16:22 GMTAn Optimal Mastermind (4,7) Strategy and More Results in the Expected Case — mentioned by chrisconleyhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14343372urn:hackerpapers:mention:1305.1010:14343372Mon, 15 May 2017 17:28:14 GMT<p>I&#x27;ve been studying the game of hangman (somewhat obsessively) for the last 6 or so years. I only recently discovered this Knuth paper via An Optimal Mastermind (4,7) Strategy and More Results in the Expected Case [1]. I think the reason it has captivated me for so long is because of the unexpected insight that choosing a known short-term failure or an increased chance of short-term failure (when optimizing for information gain) will result in quicker paths to your final goal AND decreased amounts of short-term failures. My repo (currently being reworked) for simulating different strategies in…</p><p><a href="https://hackerpaper.kaipfister.de/p/1305.1010/">Paper and discussion history</a>. A mention is not an endorsement.</p>cs.GT