<p>Given an <code>m x n</code> grid of characters <code>board</code> and a string <code>word</code>, return <code>true</code> <em>if</em> <code>word</code> <em>exists in the grid</em>.</p>

<p>The word can be constructed from letters of sequentially adjacent cells, where adjacent cells are horizontally or vertically neighboring. The same letter cell may not be used more than once.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong class="example">Example 1:</strong></p>
<img alt="" src="https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/11/04/word2.jpg" style="width: 322px; height: 242px;" />
<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> board = [[&quot;A&quot;,&quot;B&quot;,&quot;C&quot;,&quot;E&quot;],[&quot;S&quot;,&quot;F&quot;,&quot;C&quot;,&quot;S&quot;],[&quot;A&quot;,&quot;D&quot;,&quot;E&quot;,&quot;E&quot;]], word = &quot;ABCCED&quot;
<strong>Output:</strong> true
</pre>

<p><strong class="example">Example 2:</strong></p>
<img alt="" src="https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/11/04/word-1.jpg" style="width: 322px; height: 242px;" />
<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> board = [[&quot;A&quot;,&quot;B&quot;,&quot;C&quot;,&quot;E&quot;],[&quot;S&quot;,&quot;F&quot;,&quot;C&quot;,&quot;S&quot;],[&quot;A&quot;,&quot;D&quot;,&quot;E&quot;,&quot;E&quot;]], word = &quot;SEE&quot;
<strong>Output:</strong> true
</pre>

<p><strong class="example">Example 3:</strong></p>
<img alt="" src="https://assets.leetcode.com/uploads/2020/10/15/word3.jpg" style="width: 322px; height: 242px;" />
<pre>
<strong>Input:</strong> board = [[&quot;A&quot;,&quot;B&quot;,&quot;C&quot;,&quot;E&quot;],[&quot;S&quot;,&quot;F&quot;,&quot;C&quot;,&quot;S&quot;],[&quot;A&quot;,&quot;D&quot;,&quot;E&quot;,&quot;E&quot;]], word = &quot;ABCB&quot;
<strong>Output:</strong> false
</pre>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Constraints:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><code>m == board.length</code></li>
	<li><code>n = board[i].length</code></li>
	<li><code>1 &lt;= m, n &lt;= 6</code></li>
	<li><code>1 &lt;= word.length &lt;= 15</code></li>
	<li><code>board</code> and <code>word</code> consists of only lowercase and uppercase English letters.</li>
</ul>

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Follow up:</strong> Could you use search pruning to make your solution faster with a larger <code>board</code>?</p>

class Solution:
    def exist(self, board: List[List[str]], word: str) -> bool:
        self.ROWS = len(board)
        self.COLS = len(board[0])
        self.board = board

        for row in range(self.ROWS):
            for col in range(self.COLS):
                if self.backtrack(row, col, word):
                    return True

        # No match found after all exploration
        return False

    def backtrack(self, row: int, col: int, left_str: str) -> bool:
        # We have found the match for each letter in the word
        if len(left_str) == 0:
            return True
    
        if (
            row < 0
            or row == self.ROWS
            or col < 0
            or col == self.COLS
            or self.board[row][col] != left_str[0]
        ):
            return False

        # Mark the current cell as "visited", and change it back after searching its all children
        self.board[row][col] = "visited"
        for direction_r, direction_c in [(0, 1), (-1, 0), (0, -1), (1, 0)]:
            # DFS
            if self.backtrack(row + direction_r, col + direction_c, left_str[1:]):
                return True

        # revert the change
        self.board[row][col] = left_str[0]
        # After searching all directions, failed to find a match
        return False
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