Constraint Programming (CP) is a powerful paradigm for solving complex combinatorial problems where traditional algorithms may be inefficient or infeasible. Instead of writing explicit procedures to find solutions, CP allows us to declare constraints that define the rules of the problem, letting a solver explore the solution space intelligently.

This approach is especially useful in scheduling, routing, resource allocation, and optimization tasks that developers often face in real-world applications.

In this talk, Jakob will introduce the core ideas of Constraint Programming and show how it differs from other problem-solving techniques such as greedy algorithms or brute force search.

We will then explore Google’s open-source OR-Tools framework, which provides state-of-the-art solvers and an approachable API for implementing CP in C#.

By walking through examples, we will see how to model problems declaratively, apply constraints, and let the solver do the heavy lifting.