A* Search algorithm is one of the best and popular technique used in path-finding and graph traversals.
Informally speaking, A* Search algorithms, unlike other traversal techniques, it has “brains”. What it means is that it is really a smart algorithm which separates it from the other conventional algorithms. Many games and web-based maps use this algorithm to find the shortest path very efficiently (approximation).
Consider a square grid having many obstacles and we are given a starting cell and a target cell. We want to reach the target cell (if possible) from the starting cell as quickly as possible. Here A* Search Algorithm comes to the rescue.
What A* Search Algorithm does is that at each step it picks the node according to a value-‘f’ which is a parameter equal to the sum of two other parameters – ‘g’ and ‘h’. At each step it picks the node/cell having the lowest ‘f’, and process that node/cell.
Detailed explanation:
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/a-search-algorithm/
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