Backtracking

Backtracking is a systematic way to explore all possible solutions by making a choice, recursing, and undoing the choice when you backtrack. It is the right tool for problems that ask for all combinations, all permutations, all subsets, or any valid configuration. The key skill is recognizing when to prune: stopping a branch early when you can tell it cannot lead to a valid solution. Without pruning, backtracking is just brute force. Most problems here share the same recursive skeleton and differ only in the constraints that determine valid choices and stopping conditions.