One of GitHub's 2019 noopschallenges is the Mazebot. The Mazebot has 2 modes: random and race.
The random mode provides a single maze to solve that is randomly selected from a pool of mazes ranging from 10x10 to 200x200.
The race mode requires solving a series of mazes from 5x5 to 250x250 within a time limit in order to complete it. A stage must be successfully completed before the next maze is given.
solver.js uses A* as its pathfinding algorithm in order to find the shortest possible path through the maze fairly quickly. As can be seen above, it completes the race's 11 stages in a little over 3 seconds.
{
"name": "Maze #95 (10x10)",
"mazePath": "/mazebot/mazes/bJkAZlsmQgZ2VANe3OgHVSFCHtGDtlReybGbO57flDI",
"startingPosition": [
0,
4
],
"endingPosition": [
3,
5
],
"message": "When you have figured out the solution, post it back to this url in JSON format. See the exampleSolution for more information.",
"exampleSolution": {
"directions": "ENWNNENWNNS"
},
"map": [
[
" ", " ", " ", " ", " ", "X", " ", " ", " ", " "
],
[
" ", " ", "X", " ", " ", " ", " ", "X", " ", " "
],
[
"X", " ", "X", "X", "X", "X", " ", "X", " ", " "
],
[
" ", " ", " ", " ", " ", "X", " ", "X", "X", " "
],
[
"A", "X", "X", "X", "X", " ", "X", " ", "X", " "
],
[
" ", "X", " ", "B", "X", " ", "X", " ", "X", " "
],
[
"X", " ", " ", "X", " ", " ", "X", " ", "X", " "
],
[
"X", "X", " ", "X", " ", "X", " ", "X", "X", " "
],
[
"X", "X", " ", " ", " ", "X", " ", "X", " ", " "
],
[
"X", "X", "X", "X", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " "
]
]
}