| Aspect | Uninformed Search | Informed Search |
|---|
| Knowledge Required | No domain-specific knowledge; only knows the start and goal state | Uses domain-specific knowledge (heuristics) to guide the search |
| Search Direction | Blindly explores the search space | Directed towards the goal using heuristics |
| Efficiency | Less efficient, explores many irrelevant paths | More efficient, focuses on promising paths |
| Examples | - Breadth-First Search (BFS) - Depth-First Search (DFS) - Depth-Limited - Iterative Deepening | - Greedy Best-First Search - A* Search |
| Use of Heuristics | ❌ Not used | ✅ Heuristic function h(n) used |
| Completeness | Depends on the algorithm (e.g., BFS is complete) | Depends on the heuristic used |
| Optimality | Some (like BFS and UCS) are optimal | A* is optimal if heuristic is admissible and consistent |
| Time & Space Complexity | Generally higher than informed search | Usually lower due to guided exploration |
| Goal Awareness | Goal is known but not used to guide search | Goal is used to estimate closeness from current state |
📝 Summary
- Uninformed Search explores blindly without any additional knowledge.
- Informed Search uses heuristics to guide the search efficiently toward the goal.