Undergraduate Upends a 40-Year-Old Data Science Conjecture
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Summary
Andrew Krapivin, a student at Cambridge University, has inadvertently overturned the common thinking around hash tables, according to a paper he co-authored with two others that was published this month in 2025.
Hash tables are widely used data structures for storing and organising computer data.
Krapivin’s work disproves a long-held assumption about the speed at which hash tables can locate data, by reducing the steps required to do so.
While Krapivin set out to improve how microscopic pointers worked, he inadvertently came up with a new kind of hash table that greatly reduces the time required to find specific information.
“You’ve actually completely wiped out a 40-year-old conjecture,” said William Kuszmaul, a co-author of the study.
