Generating Hard Satis ability Problems ?

We report results from large-scale experiments in satissability testing. As has been observed by others, testing the satissability of random formulas often appears surprisingly easy. Here we show that by using the right distribution of instances, and appropriate parameter values, it is possible to generate random formulas that are hard, that is, for which satissability testing is quite diicult. Our results provide a benchmark for the evaluation of satissability-testing procedures.

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