Backtracking
In plain terms
Trying choices and undoing them when they lead to dead ends.
Going deeper
Backtracking incrementally builds candidate solutions and abandons a path as soon as it can't succeed, then reverts. It systematically explores possibilities.
Under the hood
Prunes the search space by rejecting partial solutions early; exponential worst case but often practical with good pruning.
Examples
Sudoku, N-Queens, permutations, constraint satisfaction, pathfinding.
Think of it like...
Like solving a maze by trying a path and retracing your steps when you hit a wall.