Practical Problems in VLSI Physical Design Automation contains problems and solutions related to various well-known algorithms used in VLSI physical design automation. Dr. Lim believes that the best way to learn new algorithms is to walk through a small example by hand. This knowledge will greatly help understand, analyze, and improve some of the well-known algorithms. The author has designed and taught a graduate-level course on physical CAD for VLSI at Georgia Tech. Over the years he has written his homework with such a focus and has maintained typeset version of the solutions. It was then shared with other colleagues teaching physical CAD either as a sole theme or as a part of EDA (electronic design automation) class. Dr. Lim believes that physical design automation still remains as an exciting and highly rewarding field after its birth in the 1970s, and that students with motivation and skills are always in huge demand. His vision in this book is to see the students realize that the learning curve is not so steep after all.