Challenge: sum of squares. Let's break 299

[Thomas Okken]

(01-20-2018 10:13 PM)Paul Dale Wrote:  I think there was mention of trying to link the new node directly into the previous graph. Starting the search from there feels like it would be a win. It kind of makes sense that much of the graph will often be unchanged with the addition of a new node. Still exponential time problems always become infeasible.

Or take it a step further and keep track of all the paths found so far, so that if extending the previous one doesn't work, you can try even earlier ones as well. I think something like that may be necessary (barring any deeper insights) because it strikes me in those videos how often two successive paths appear to be completely different. (Bonus question: how does the number of possible paths evolve with rising n?)