Design and applications of an algorithm benchmark system in a computational problem solving environment

Benchmark tests are often used to evaluate the quality of products by a set of common criteria. In this paper we describe a computational problem solving environment based on open source codes and an algorithm benchmark system, which is embedded in the environment as a plug-in system. The algorithm benchmark system can be used to compare the performance of various algorithms or to evaluate the behavior of an algorithm with different input instances. The current implementation allows users to compare or evaluate algorithms written in C/C++. Some examples of the algorithm benchmark system that evaluates the memory utilization, time complexity and the output of algorithms are also presented. Algorithm benchmark impresses the learning effect; students can not only comprehend the performance of respective algorithms but also write their own programs to challenge the best known results.