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Find the Longest Path

Find the Longest Path

switchbg
1 HN recommenders · discussed 2021–2026
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About this video

Find the Longest Path is a comedic song by Daniel J. Barrett, a Billy Joel parody that describes the NP-hard longest path problem in informal terms.

Why it appears in the archive

HN shares it as a fun, memorable way to explain the longest path problem and as an entry in lists of programming and math songs.

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From the Hacker News discussion

wpasc · 2021-07 · rec

Haha please do, a video would be great. Your song reminded me of the song: "Find the Longest Path" which you may get a kick out of: [VIDEO]

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seniorsassycat · 2021-11 · reference

Stan Rogers has a knack for writing songs that sound older than himself, this song shows he doesn't need nautical themes to do it. Some other programming and math songs Kill -9 [LINK] Find the longest path [VIDEO]

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saghm · 2026-05 · reference

Finding the longest path in a graph is itself a pretty well-described NP-complete problem: [LINK] Alternately, you can listen to a Billy Joel parody that describes the problem in decidedly less academic terms: [VIDEO]

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