Heuristics Guide

Use this for scored problems where partial credit depends on how well your strategy performs.

Scoring Mindset

• Optimize expected score, not only pass/fail.
• Stability matters: avoid large variance between test cases.
• Budget runtime and memory so your solution stays within limits.

Practical Workflow

• Start with a safe baseline that always finishes.
• Add one heuristic at a time and measure score change.
• Keep fallback behavior for blocked or unknown states.
• Prefer deterministic tie-breaks to keep runs reproducible.

For Sweeper-Style Tasks

• Track visited cells and local obstacle history.
• Use short-term exploration plus a recovery path when trapped.
• If movement fails, rotate and re-evaluate quickly.
• Keep output commands valid and flush each round.