# Project Euler: 18-Maximum path sum I & II

#### Problem:

By starting at the top of the triangle below and moving to adjacent numbers on the row below, the maximum total from top to bottom is 23.

   3
7 4
2 4 6
8 5 9 3

That is, 3 + 7 + 4 + 9 = 23 Find the maximum total from top to bottom of the triangle below:

                      75
95 64
17 47 82
18 35 87 10
20 04 82 47 65
19 01 23 75 03 34
88 02 77 73 07 63 67
99 65 04 28 06 16 70 92
41 41 26 56 83 40 80 70 33
41 48 72 33 47 32 37 16 94 29
53 71 44 65 25 43 91 52 97 51 14
70 11 33 28 77 73 17 78 39 68 17 57
91 71 52 38 17 14 91 43 58 50 27 29 48
63 66 04 68 89 53 67 30 73 16 69 87 40 31
04 62 98 27 23 09 70 98 73 93 38 53 60 04 23

Note: As there are only 16384 routes, it is possible to solve this problem by trying every route. However, Problem 67, is the same challenge with a triangle containing one-hundred rows; it cannot be solved by brute force, and requires a clever method!

#### Solution:

As the note describes, it is possible to solve this problem by finding all routes from the root and select the highest value. But when the row increases, it will become impossible to calculate all the routes. For example, in problem 67, there are 100 rows and there are $2^{99}$ routes altogether. If one can check one trillion ($10^{12}$) routes every second, it would require over twenty billion years to check $2^{99}$ routes.

The optimal solution can be found in dynamic programming(DP).

The solution can be implemented both a top-down and bottom-up approach. I found the bottom-up approach easier to understand. We will start with the bottom-most parent. By comparing the adjacent nodes, we take the highest one and add it with the parent. Going through the same process at every level, we will get the longest path sum at the root node!

At first, we need to process the input. From the input string, we make a nested list.

# Process the triangle as a nesteed list
def process_triangle(t):
triangle = list()
for line in t.splitlines():
triangle.append(list(map(int, line.split())))
return triangle

t = '''75
95 64
17 47 82
18 35 87 10
20 04 82 47 65
19 01 23 75 03 34
88 02 77 73 07 63 67
99 65 04 28 06 16 70 92
41 41 26 56 83 40 80 70 33
41 48 72 33 47 32 37 16 94 29
53 71 44 65 25 43 91 52 97 51 14
70 11 33 28 77 73 17 78 39 68 17 57
91 71 52 38 17 14 91 43 58 50 27 29 48
63 66 04 68 89 53 67 30 73 16 69 87 40 31
04 62 98 27 23 09 70 98 73 93 38 53 60 04 23
'''
triangle = process_triangle(t)

Starting from (list_length-1) we compare all the child nodes and took the highest one and sum it up with the parent.

# Find the maximum path sum
def maximum_path_sum(triangle):
l = len(triangle)
for i in range(l-2, -1, -1):
for j in range(len(triangle[i])):
print(maximum_path_sum(triangle))
Without reproducing the same solution here as for Problem 67, I only can refer you same method, since the dynamic programming solution was optimal and can be used for this larger triangle as well. You only need to set the t with the new triangle with 100 rows.