Maze Escape AI (CodinGame Puzzle)

Overview

This project is a solution to a maze-based puzzle from CodinGame. The goal is to control a character (Rick) navigating through an unknown maze, locating a control room, and escaping before an alarm triggers.

The maze is partially hidden and revealed progressively, requiring both exploration and path optimization.

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Problem Description

• The maze is a grid of size R x C

• Cells may contain:

  • # → Wall
  • . → Empty space
  • T → Exit
  • C → Control room
  • ? → Unknown cell

Objectives:

1. Explore the maze to find the control room (C)
2. Determine if it is possible to reach the exit (T) within the allowed number of turns after triggering the alarm
3. If safe, go to C, then return to T
4. Otherwise, continue exploring

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Approach

The solution is based on:

Breadth-First Search (BFS)

• Used to compute shortest paths in the maze

• Handles both:

  • Exploration (towards unknown cells ?)
  • Optimal routing (towards C and T)

Strategy

• If the control room is not found → explore unknown areas

• Once found:

  • Compute shortest path from C to T

  • If the path is short enough (≤ alarm timer):

    • Go to C
    • Then return to T

  • Otherwise:

    • Keep exploring

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Key Functions

• find_path_bfs(...) Computes shortest path using BFS

• proximiter(...) Returns accessible neighboring cells

• proximiter_pt(...) Same as above but avoids unknown cells

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How to Run

This script is designed to run inside the CodinGame environment.

Project History

This project was originally developed in June 2023 as part of a CodinGame challenge. The Git repository and commit history were created later for archival.