Computer Science NEA - Advice Needed!

I'm currently going into year 13 and am trying to write the code for my NEA. I was planning on doing a Rubik's Cube solver, however now that I've actually started to code it I think I may have given myself too big of a challenge. I'm mainly using Python since that's the language I'm most comfortable with. Also, I've already done the analysis stage of my project write-up about a Rubik's Cube solver. My project deadline is in December, should I try to find another project idea and restart while I still can or should I continue trying to pursue this one?

Thanks!

Reply 1

hotpud

Original post by ollie_06

No. Keep going. You need to break your problem down a bit. Rather than solve the whole rubiks cube, why not start working on solving one face? The next step is then to get the first row consistent followed by the middle side pieces. Once you have solved that, the rest can be solved algorithmically based on what you have got.

So steps:
- How will you define your data structure to represent each face?
- How will you manipulate that data structure to simulate making each turn. Once you have figured this out, you are probably about 2/3 of the way and will within top marks.
- What is the algorithm you need to use to solve a rubiks cube? And each move is preset based on what you want to do, so you can actually preprogram sequences of moves in functions that are called depending on what is on the cube.

Hang in there. It isn't quite as complex as you imagine.

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