The Ultimate Treasure Hunt - A Fun and Challenging Coding Challenge for Intermediate Programmers

Are you ready for a fun and challenging coding exercise that will test your problem-solving skills? Welcome to the Ultimate Treasure Hunt! This coding challenge is designed for intermediate programmers looking to level up their skills and have a good time. In this article, we'll describe the challenge, provide sample inputs and outputs, and give you some hints to get started. In a follow-up article, we'll dive into a detailed explanation of how to solve the Ultimate Treasure Hunt.

The Challenge: The Ultimate Treasure Hunt

You're presented with a grid filled with integers, representing a treasure map. Each cell contains a number, which is the number of steps in any direction (up, down, left, or right) you can move from that cell. The goal is to find the path with the maximum amount of treasure, starting from the top-left corner of the grid and finishing at the bottom-right corner.

During the treasure hunt, you can collect treasure at each cell you visit. However, you can only visit each cell once. Your task is to write a program that finds the path with the maximum treasure, considering the constraints mentioned.

Input:

An n x m grid, where 1 <= n, m <= 50, filled with integers,
where each integer is in the range 1 to 100.

Output:

The maximum amount of treasure that can be collected during
the treasure hunt, following the rules described above.

Example:

INPUT:

4 4
6 7 1 3
7 2 4 1
4 3 1 2
1 2 4 5

OUTPUT:

29

Explanation:

The path with the maximum amount of treasure is: (1,1) -> (2,2) -> (3,1) -> (2,3) -> (3,4) -> (4,3) -> (4,4), collecting a total of 29 treasure points.

Hints:

Consider using dynamic programming or backtracking to solve this problem. Think about how to optimize your solution, as there might be multiple paths to explore.

The Ultimate Treasure Hunt is a fun and challenging coding exercise that will test your problem-solving skills and introduce you to dynamic programming or backtracking concepts. In the follow-up article, we'll provide a step-by-step explanation of how to solve this problem, so you can compare your solution and learn new techniques. Good luck, and have fun with the treasure hunt!