How can Amazon deliver toilet paper in 2 days? This isn't a simple problem. At the very last stretch, Amazon loads your toilet paper into a van. But that van has dozens of other deliveries. So Amazon needs to find the shortest route between every house. Finding that shortest route is the traveling salesman problem.

• Add houses: Click somewhere empty to add a house
• Move houses: Click and drag to move it around
• Remove houses: Just click a house and it's gone

Unlike most traveling salesman visualizers, this one updates in real-time. Explore how minor movements can cause massive changes.

Select an algorithm from the dropdown menu.

• Brute Force: Checks every possible path, guarantees shortest path
• Greedy: Each house connects with the next closest house
• Annealing: Gradually improves through random changes, avoids local mins
• 2-opt: Chooses random path, then uncrosses intersections
• Speedy: Custom algorithm, combines greedy, annealing, and 2-opt
• BOGO: Chooses random path, odds of finding shortest path is 1:(n - 1)!

Some take way too long to finish. Others find paths that are way too long. Choose wisely or you'll have to wait until the heat death of the universe for an answer.

Find the shortest route through some bustling suburbs, or test the limits of the algorithms on a lifeless, theoretical void. The choice is yours!

Learn the specifics behind each algorithm.

Check out the code on Github (and star the repo).

Now start exploring! Ready, set, go…