With high probability


In mathematics, an event that occurs with high probability is one whose probability depends on a certain number n and goes to 1 as n goes to infinity, i.e. it can be made as close as desired to 1 by making n big enough.

Applications

The term WHP is especially used in computer science, in the analysis of probabilistic algorithms. For example, consider a certain probabilistic algorithm on a graph with n nodes. If the probability that the algorithm returns the correct answer is, then when the number of nodes is very large, the algorithm is correct with a probability that is very near 1. This fact is expressed shortly by saying that the algorithm is correct WHP.
Some examples where this term is used are: