Rewrite as four-dimensional route finding The grid isn't just a 2D grid. The constraints make it 4D: * X * Y * Last direction * Number of steps in that direction By tracking all four dimensions, we can find the shortest route for _all_ combinations of the constraint. Previously, we were dropping routes that were currently longer but ended up shorter because they could take subsequent steps that other routes couldn't.

#! /usr/bin/env ruby

if ARGV.length != 1
        abort("Incorrect arguments - needs input file")
elsif not File.exist? (ARGV[0])
	abort("File #{ARGV[0]} did not exist")
end

file = ARGV[0]

File.open(file, "r").each_line(chomp: true).…
# Rest of algorithm here