P Versus NP Problem

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The relationship between the complexity classes P and NP is an unsolved question in theoretical computer science. It is considered to be the most important problem in the field. In essence, the question P = NP? asks: if ''yes''-answers to a ''yes''-or-''no''-question can be verified "quickly", can the answers themselves also be computed quickly? An answer to the P = NP question would determine whether problems like the subset-sum problem are as "easy" to compute as to verify. If it turned out P does not equal NP, it would mean that some NP problems are substantially "harder" to compute than to verify.