WEEKLY PUZZLE
Getting to Philosophy
Mathematical Optimization on a Closed Grid
Arrange the numbers 1–64 on an 8×8 grid. From each cell, movement always goes to the orthogonally adjacent cell with the highest value. Your goal is to maximize the average number of clicks needed to reach the Philosophy cell.
64
63
62
61
57
58
59
60
56
55
54
53
49
50
51
52
How the path worksA cell moves to its highest-valued orthogonal neighbour. For example:
52 → 53 → 60 → 61 → 62 → 63 → 64
Design the full grid so that these paths are as long as possible on average.
52 → 53 → 60 → 61 → 62 → 63 → 64
Design the full grid so that these paths are as long as possible on average.
Difficulty Hard
Estimated time 45–60 min
Submission Numeric answer
