Learning Opportunities

This puzzle can be solved using the following concepts. Practice using these concepts and improve your skills.

Statement

The Goal

The Virus is spreading! Your mission: guide it safely out of the system. Slide and shift the molecules, plan every move, and clear the path. Outsmart the infection before it’s too late!

Rules

The game is played on a 4×4 board, rotated by 45°, with the exit in the far-left corner. The Virus, a red 2×1 molecule, must be guided out of the body through the exit.

The board may also contain:

Dead cells: (marked with a skull) – these are immovable obstacles.
Enzymes: molecules which you can slide around to clear the path for the Virus.

You can control molecules — including the Virus — using these rules:

Each molecule has a unique moleculeId.
The Virus moleculeId is always equal to 0.
In each turn, you may move any molecule one space LEFT, UP, RIGHT, DOWN.
No rotating or flipping is allowed.
If a molecule bumps into another, both will slide together in that direction.
If any molecule hits a dead cell or leaves the board (except for the exit space), you fail.
The exit space [-1, 3] can be used by any molecule.

Check the image below for a visual explanation of the rules:

Coordinate system, valid (green arrows) and invalid (red arrows) moves

Victory Conditions

You guide the Virus to the exit [-1, 3]

Loss Conditions

You do not respond in time.
You output an unrecognized moleculeId.
You output an unrecognized direction.
Any molecule leaves the board or hits a dead cell.
You exceed the number of turns allowed.

Additional Info

- Press the gear icon on the viewer to access extra display options
- This puzzle is based on a board game named Anti-Virus
- Source code in my GitHub repo
- Background image from Freepik.com

Game Input

Initial input

Line 1: maxTurns - the maximum number of turns allowed before the Virus kills the body.

Line 2: deadCount - the number of dead (immovable) cells

Next deadCount lines: 2 space-separated integers x y - the coordinates of each dead cell

Turn input

Line 1: cellCount - the number of cells currently occupied by molecules (including the Virus).

Next cellCount lines: 3 space-separated integers moleculeId x y the molecule ID and coordinates of a cell, where cells with the same moleculeId belong to the same molecule.

Output

Single line per turn: 2 space-separated integers moleculeId direction - move the molecule with the given moleculeId in one of the directions: LEFT, UP, RIGHT, DOWN

Constraints

0 ≤ deadCount ≤ 2
2 ≤ cellCount ≤ 14
0 ≤ moleculeId ≤ 8

Allotted response time to output in first turn is ≤ 10s

Allotted response time to output in other turns is ≤ 100ms

Solve it

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