Abstract. This work presents an algorithm for the sub-graph isomorphism problem based on a new pruning technique for directed graphs. During the tree search, the method checks if a new association between two vertices is compatible by considering the structure of their local neighborhoods, represented as the number of limited-length paths of different type originating from each vertex. In addition, randomized versions of the algorithms are studied experimentally by deriving their runtime distributions. Finally, algorithm portfolios consisting of multiple instances of the same randomized algorithm are proposed and analyzed. The experimental results on benchmark graphs demonstrate that the new pruning method is competitive w.r.t. recently proposed techniques. Significantly better results are obtained on sparse graphs. Furthermore, even better results are obtained by the portfolios, when both the average and standard deviation of solution times are considered.