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Coding Challenge: Ceres Search
Problem Summary
You are presented with a word search puzzle where you must find all occurrences of the word "XMAS". The word can appear in various directions and orientations, including:
- Horizontal (left-to-right and right-to-left)
- Vertical (top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top)
- Diagonal (both directions)
- Overlapping with other words
Example Puzzle
Below is a simplified word search grid where irrelevant characters are replaced
with .:
..X...
.SAMX.
.A..A.
XMAS.S
.X....
In this grid, "XMAS" can appear in multiple ways.
Larger Example
For the following complete grid:
MMMSXXMASM
MSAMXMSMSA
AMXSXMAAMM
MSAMASMSMX
XMASAMXAMM
XXAMMXXAMA
SMSMSASXSS
SAXAMASAAA
MAMMMXMMMM
MXMXAXMASX
The word "XMAS" occurs 18 times. Visualizing the grid with only the letters in "XMAS" highlighted:
....XXMAS.
.SAMXMS...
...S..A...
..A.A.MS.X
XMASAMX.MM
X.....XA.A
S.S.S.S.SS
.A.A.A.A.A
..M.M.M.MM
.X.X.XMASX
Objective
For the given puzzle input, calculate and return the total number of times the word "XMAS" appears in all possible orientations.
Notes
- Words can overlap and share characters.
- Input will be a rectangular grid of letters.
Good luck helping the little Elf! 🌟