Hello, and welcome back to our coding lesson series. In this unit, we have a fascinating problem at hand that uses the concept of 2D arrays or grids. What's interesting about this problem is that it involves not only the simple traversal of the grid but also making this traversal in a unique manner. Initially, the concept might seem a bit tricky, but as we dissect the task and take it step by step, you're sure to enjoy how it unfolds. Are you ready to embark on this adventure? Let's dive right in!

The task before us involves the creation of a C++ function named pathTraverse. This function should perform a particularly ordered traversal through a 2D grid. The function will accept a grid represented as a std::vector<std::vector<int>>, along with the starting cell coordinates as parameters. Starting from the provided cell, the function should make moves in any one of the four possible directions toward an adjacent cell. However, a condition governs this selection: the new cell value should be strictly greater than the current cell's value.

This pattern would continue as we keep selecting the next available, larger cell value. The traversal would halt when there are no cells left that satisfy our criteria. The final result of the function will be a std::vector<int> that includes all the visited cell values in the order of their visitation.

Consider a 3x3 grid:

If we start at the cell with the value 5, we can logically move to either 6 or 8. Let's say we choose ; the only cell that we can now move to is . After this, we have no more moves left that fit our criteria. Hence, the function returns .