  In this work we propose and analyze a simple randomized algorithm to find a
satisfiable assignment for a Boolean formula in conjunctive normal form (CNF)
having at most 3 literals in every clause. Given a k-CNF formula phi on n
variables, and alpha in{0,1}^n that satisfies phi, a clause of phi is critical
if exactly one literal of that clause is satisfied under assignment alpha.
Paturi et. al. (Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science 1999) proposed
a simple randomized algorithm (PPZ) for k-SAT for which success probability
increases with the number of critical clauses (with respect to a fixed
satisfiable solution of the input formula). Here, we first describe another
simple randomized algorithm DEL which performs better if the number of critical
clauses are less (with respect to a fixed satisfiable solution of the input
formula). Subsequently, we combine these two simple algorithms such that the
success probability of the combined algorithm is maximum of the success
probabilities of PPZ and DEL on every input instance. We show that when the
average number of clauses per variable that appear as unique true literal in
one or more critical clauses in phi is between 1 and 1.9317, combined algorithm
performs better than the PPZ algorithm.
