Asks the question "Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, what is the shortest possible route that visits each city and returns to the origin city?" This classic problem is computer science classrooms to teach algorithm design and optimization techniques.

Useful for creating single-line drawings for use with pen plotters, laser cutters, CNC machines, and more.

Articles:

• Travelling salesman problem on Wikipedia
• Traveling Salesman Problem from Google OR-Tools

Notable software:

• StippleGen from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories can calculate TSP paths.