metadata.toml

challenge_id = "the-way"

challenge_name = "The Way"

challenge_description = '''
I am lost. I think I need to take a moment to remember where I was going.
Don't distrurb me. I will remember any moment.
'''

challenge_spoilers = '''
The challenge is a traditional optimizeme challenge.
The binary will try to calculate a table of the shortest path between each node in a graph and then use that table to derive a key and decrypt the flag.
The implementation is using a naive recursive algorithm with no optimization and will never finish before running out of time or memory.
The players need to identify what calculation is being performed and optimize it, for example using the Floyd-Warshal alghorithm.
They can then use the same key derivation procedure to calculate the key and decrypt the flag.
'''

author = "zetatwo"

hints = [
    "The recursive calls perform a lot of repeated work",
    "The program runs the recursion from the Floyd-Warshal algorithm but lacks memoization or dynamic programming."
]