In one embodiment, a path for parking is planned in operating an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV). The operations comprises: determining a plurality of sample points; determining a plurality of candidate paths connecting a start point and an end point for parking, each of the candidate paths passing through one of the sample points; determining a cost associated with each of the plurality of candidate paths; determining one or more candidate paths from the plurality of candidate paths that meet a boundary check requirement; selecting as the planned path a candidate path associated with a lowest cost that meets the boundary check requirement; determining a speed profile based on the planned path and an environment of the ADV; and generating driving signals based at least in part on the speed profile to control operations of the ADV to perform parking along the planned path.