A game board consists of $64$ squares that alternate in color between black and white. The figure below shows square $P$ in the bottom row and square $Q$ in the top row. A marker is placed at $P.$ A step consists of moving the marker onto one of the adjoining white squares in the row above. How many $7$-step paths are there from $P$ to $Q?$ (The figure shows a sample path.)

$\textbf{(A) }28 \qquad \textbf{(B) }30 \qquad \textbf{(C) }32 \qquad \textbf{(D) }33 \qquad \textbf{(E) }35$
Notice that, in order to step onto any particular white square, the marker must have come from one of the $1$ or $2$ white squares immediately beneath it (since the marker can only move on white squares). This means that the number of ways to move from $P$ to that square is the sum of the numbers of ways to move from $P$ to each of the white squares immediately beneath it(also called the Water Fall Method). To solve the problem, we can accordingly construct the following diagram, where each number in a square is calculated as the sum of the numbers on the white squares immediately beneath that square (and thus will represent the number of ways to remove from $P$ to that square, as already stated).

The answer is therefore $\boxed{\textbf{(A) }28}$.
~ edited by Dream9