Maze Solver 🧩🐍

A Python-based maze generator and solver using a recursive backtracking algorithm. Visualizes maze construction and pathfinding with a GUI window.

Features

• Procedural maze generation with randomized paths
• Recursive backtracking algorithm to create and solve the maze
• Unit-tested core logic (cell creation, wall breaking, solving path)
• Support for deterministic randomness via a user-defined seed

How It Works

• Maze Generation:

  • Grid of Cell objects initialized with all walls.
  • _break_walls_r uses randomized depth-first search to knock down walls and form a solvable maze.

• Maze Solving:

  • solve() starts at the top-left corner and recursively finds a path to the bottom-right.
  • draw_move and draw_undo methods visualize forward and backtracking steps.

• Entrance/Exit:

  • The top wall of the first cell and the bottom wall of the last cell are removed.

Demo

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• venv for isolated environment

Setup

# Create and activate a virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows use `venv\Scripts\activate`

# Install dependencies (if any)
pip install -r requirements.txt

On Linux based systems:

sudo apt-get install python3-tk

Usage

Running the Maze Solver

python3 -m src.main

Running Tests

bash test.sh

or directly:

python -m unittest discover unittests

Project Structure

maze_solver/
├── src/
│   ├── main.py          # Entry point
│   ├── maze.py          # Maze logic
│   ├── cell.py          # Cell representation
│   └── window.py        # Window drawing abstraction
├── unittests/
│   └── tests.py         # Unit tests
├── test.sh              # Test runner script
├── requirements.txt     # Optional: dependencies list
└── README.md

Customization

Change CATPPUCCIN color scheme for different maze themes.

Swap in your own rendering layer by adapting the Window interface.

License

MIT License

Built with love and recursion 🌀