Algorithm Arena
When a game character finds you or a map app finds a route, it isn’t magic. It’s a bot following exact rules on a map of squares. Pick a bot, step through what it checks, and see which ones get lost.
For grown-ups
Every bot here is a real algorithm: random walk, left-hand wall following, greedy best-move, breadth-first search, Dijkstra’s algorithm and A*. Each run is worked out in full before it plays, and the claims on screen (Greedy gets stuck in the U-trap, BFS pays more in the mud, A* checks no more squares than Dijkstra) are checked by tests on every maze.
Two ideas carry over to AI: turning the world into nodes, edges and costs (try “See it as a graph”), and the difference between rules that give the same answer every time and models that pick by likelihood (try “Run it again” on Random Walk, then on A*).
Nothing leaves the browser. Shared links carry only the maze. Prefer paper? Robot Route teaches the greedy trap at the kitchen table, and the AI concepts glossary has the words.