EventsThe 1st International Electronic Conference on Games
Published
This submission belongs to the session S1. Algorithmic, Computational and Applied Game Theory of the event The 1st International Electronic Conference on Games
Published date
14 Oct, 2025
Academic Editor
author-avatarKjell Hausken
Citation
Sergey Bereg, On the 3-interval Ulam-Renyi game with 3 lies, in Proceedings of The 1st International Electronic Conference on Games, 15 October–16 October 2025, MDPI: Basel, Switzerland
Share
Email
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

On the 3-interval Ulam-Renyi game with 3 lies

1. Department of Computer Science, University of Texas at Dallas, P.O. Box 830688, Richardson, TX 75083, USA, USA
Abstract

We consider a variant of the classical 20 question game with lies (also known as
the Ulam-R\' enyi game).
There are two players: Paul (the Questioner) and Carole (the Oracle).
Carole selects a number $x\in U=\{0,1,\dots,2^m-1\}$ without revealing it to Paul.
Paul asks membership questions of the form "Is $x\in S$?", where $S\subseteq U$.
Carole's aim is to maximize the number of questions Paul must ask.
She is allowed to lie up to $e$ times.
Paul wins if, after $q$ questions, exactly one value of $x$ remains possible; otherwise, Carole wins.
It is known [1] that Carole can win whenever $q<Q_{min}(2^m,e)$, where
$Q_{min}(2^m,e)=\min\{q~|~ 2^{q-m}\ge \sum_{i=0}^e {q\choose i}\}$.
We study the $k$-interval Ulam-R\' enyi game where each query set $S$ is the union of at most $k$ intervals.

Recently it was shown [2] that Paul can win the game with $e=3$ lies and $k=4$ intervals,
using $Q_{min}(2^m,e)$ questions for sufficiently large $m$.
In this paper, we show that three intervals suffice for Paul to win when $m=O(1)$.
It remains an open problem whether Paul can win using three-interval sets for all values of $m$.


References.

[1] E.~R. Berlekamp. Block coding for the binary symmetric channel with noiseless,
delayless feedback. In {\em Error-Correcting Codes}, pp. 61--68. Wiley, 1968.

[2] F.~Cicalese and M.~Rossi. On the multi-interval {U}lam-{R}{\'{e}}nyi game: For 3 lies 4
intervals suffice. {\em Theor. Comput. Sci.}, 809:339--356, 2020.

Keywords
Ulam-Renyi game
k-interval queries
error-correcting codes
Strategic Evolution in a Dual-Game Framework: An Agent-Based Model of Inequality and Cooperation
Sex Differences in Cooperation and Costly Punishment under High Emotional Stress: An Experimental Study