| --- |
| license: mit |
| pretty_name: "Maze Solver Benchmark (BFS shortest path by maze size)" |
| language: |
| - en |
| tags: |
| - maze |
| - bfs |
| - shortest-path |
| - recursive-backtracker |
| - pathfinding |
| - benchmark |
| task_categories: |
| - other |
| size_categories: |
| - n<1K |
| configs: |
| - config_name: bfs_by_size |
| data_files: data/maze-benchmark.json |
| --- |
| |
| # Maze Solver Benchmark — BFS Shortest Path by Maze Size |
|
|
| By **[LK Forge](https://lkforge.com)**: privacy-first browser tools & games, nothing to install, nothing uploaded. |
|
|
| Search effort and path length for the [LK Forge Maze Solver](https://lkforge.com/tools/puzzles/maze-solver/), |
| which generates a **perfect maze** with a recursive-backtracker and finds the **unique shortest |
| path** with breadth-first search. 200 seeded mazes per size. |
|
|
| - **How the solver works:** https://lkforge.com/tools/puzzles/maze-solver/how-the-maze-solver-works.html |
| - **Try it:** https://lkforge.com/tools/puzzles/maze-solver/ |
| - **Producer:** [LK Forge](https://lkforge.com) — client-side AI games, solvers, and tools. |
|
|
| ## Headline numbers (200 mazes each) |
|
|
| | Maze | Open cells | Mean shortest path | Mean cells visited by BFS | % of open cells explored | |
| |---|---|---|---|---| |
| | 12×12 | 287 | 131 | 185 | 64.5% | |
| | 20×20 | 799 | 308 | 487 | 60.9% | |
| | 30×30 | 1,799 | 607 | 1,071 | 59.5% | |
| | 40×40 | 3,199 | 972 | 1,784 | 55.8% | |
|
|
| In a perfect maze there is exactly one path between any two cells, so BFS returns the unique |
| shortest route. It explores a **fairly stable ~56–65% of all open cells** before reaching the |
| exit, and both path length and search effort scale roughly linearly with the number of open cells. |
|
|
| ## Files |
|
|
| - `data/maze-benchmark.json` — per size: open cells, mean shortest-path length, mean cells visited, % explored. |
|
|
| ## Method |
|
|
| - **Engine:** the recursive-backtracker generator and BFS solver copied verbatim from the shipped |
| `maze-solver.js` (DOM stripped, `Math.random` → seeded RNG, size parametrized). |
| - **Cells visited** = BFS dequeue count (machine-independent search effort). |
|
|
| ## Reproduce |
|
|
| ```bash |
| node scripts/benchmark-maze.mjs |
| ``` |
|
|
| ## Citation |
|
|
| > LK Forge (2026). *Maze Solver Benchmark — BFS Shortest Path by Maze Size.* |
| > https://lkforge.com/tools/puzzles/maze-solver/ |
|
|
| Everything runs client-side, no login, no tracking. |
|
|
