In the 20x20 grid below, four numbers along a diagonal line have been marked in red.
08 02 22 97 38 15 00 40 00 75 04 05 07 78 52 12 50 77 91
08
49 49 99 40 17 81 18 57 60 87 17 40 98 43 69 48 04 56 62
00
81 49 31 73 55 79 14 29 93 71 40 67 53 88 30 03 49 13 36
65
52 70 95 23 04 60 11 42 69 24 68 56 01 32 56 71 37 02 36
91
22 31 16 71 51 67 63 89 41 92 36 54 22 40 40 28 66 33 13
80
24 47 32 60 99 03 45 02 44 75 33 53 78 36 84 20 35 17 12
50
32 98 81 28 64 23 67 10
26 38
40 67 59 54 70 66 18 38 64 70
67 26 20 68 02 62 12 20 95
63 94
39 63 08 40 91 66 49 94 21
24 55 58 05 66 73 99 26 97 17
78 78
96 83 14 88 34 89 63 72
21 36 23 09 75 00 76 44 20 45 35
14 00
61 33 97 34 31 33 95
78 17 53 28 22 75 31 67 15 94 03 80 04 62 16 14 09 53 56
92
16 39 05 42 96 35 31 47 55 58 88 24 00 17 54 24 36 29 85
57
86 56 00 48 35 71 89 07 05 44 44 37 44 60 21 58 51 54 17
58
19 80 81 68 05 94 47 69 28 73 92 13 86 52 17 77 04 89 55
40
04 52 08 83 97 35 99 16 07 97 57 32 16 26 26 79 33 27 98
66
88 36 68 87 57 62 20 72 03 46 33 67 46 55 12 32 63 93 53
69
04 42 16 73 38 25 39 11 24 94 72 18 08 46 29 32 40 62 76
36
20 69 36 41 72 30 23 88 34 62 99 69 82 67 59 85 74 04 36
16
20 73 35 29 78 31 90 01 74 31 49 71 48 86 81 16 23 57 05
54
01 70 54 71 83 51 54 69 16 92 33 48 61 43 52 01 89 19 67
48
The product of these numbers is 26 x 63 x 78 x 14 = 1788696.
What is the greatest product of four adjacent numbers in any direction (up, down, left, right, or diagonally) in the 20x20 grid?
This was easy to do with Excel. Paste the numbers into an Excel range leaving three columns to the left, three to the right, and three rows below empty. Suppose this is D4:N23.
Now, in the cell in the 1st column and 4th row below the grid D29 in my case, enter a formula that computes the maximum of 4 products. Two of these products represent the 2 diagonals starting with the first cell with a number (D4 in my example), the first going left and down, the second going right and down. The third computes the product of the four cells going down and the last computes the product of four cells going right. Drag this formula to fill the 20x20 grid. Then, use a MAX function to find the maximum of the 20x20 cells containing the formulas.
