Build a Best-First Search Solver for a Delivery Startup's Test Lab
Overview
What this challenge is about.
Implement uniform-cost and A-star search on a weighted grid, then benchmark 10 instances. Earn a verifiable certificate.
The scenario
The delivery startup (around 80 staff, 4 EU cities, recently exited a seed round) treats algorithm fluency as a hiring filter; a clean reusable onboarding lab cuts a week off their ramp-up time per junior engineer.
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
Deliver a teaching-grade implementation of uniform-cost and A-star search with a benchmark and a beginner tutorial.
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Implement classical search algorithms from first principles
- Design admissible heuristics and reason about their effect on node expansion
- Benchmark algorithms fairly across input sizes
- Write learner-friendly technical documentation
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Bachelor · Ai Systems
Strong alignment
This challenge maps to Introduction to Artificial Intelligence at the Bachelor level. It sharpens the same practical skills your coursework expects — but in a real industry context with actual constraints and deliverables.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
- Search Algorithms
Apply search algorithms to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Heuristic Design
Apply heuristic design to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Python
Write clean, efficient Python for data processing, automation, and backend services.
- Algorithm Benchmarking
Apply algorithm benchmarking to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Technical Writing
Apply technical writing to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Data Structures
Apply data structures to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
Careers
Career paths this challenge builds toward
Completing this challenge demonstrates skills that transfer directly to these roles:
AI Engineer
Implementing core search algorithms cleanly and writing onboarding material is the kind of foundational craft an AI engineer is expected to have on day one at any AI-forward company.
This challenge sharpens
- search-algorithms
- python
- algorithm-benchmarking
Machine Learning Engineer
Clean Python and benchmark discipline transfer directly to the MLE's daily work of comparing model variants under fair conditions.
This challenge sharpens
- python
- algorithm-benchmarking
- data-structures