--- title: Did you know that Dijkstra came up with his famous... description: In 1956, Dutch programmer and mathematician Edsger W. Dijkstra conceived his famous shortest-path algorithm in just 20 minutes while sitting at a café in... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/did-you-know-that-dijkstra-came-up-with-his-famous-algorithm-in-about-20-minutes--cmhow4bqb twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Did you know that Dijkstra came up with his famous algorithm in about 20 minutes? | daily.dev og:description: In 1956, Dutch programmer and mathematician Edsger W. Dijkstra conceived his famous shortest-path algorithm in just 20 minutes while sitting at a café in... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/did-you-know-that-dijkstra-came-up-with-his-famous-algorithm-in-about-20-minutes--cmhow4bqb og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/cmHow4bqB.png og:image:alt: Did you know that Dijkstra came up with his famous algorithm in about 20 minutes? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Did you know that Dijkstra came up with his famous algorithm in about 20 minutes? **[freeCodeCamp](https://daily.dev/sources/freecodecamp)** · 2 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary In 1956, Dutch programmer and mathematician Edsger W. Dijkstra conceived his famous shortest-path algorithm in just 20 minutes while sitting at a café in Amsterdam with his girlfriend. Working at the Mathematical Centre in Amsterdam, he was looking for a problem to demonstrate the power of the new ARMAC computer — one accessible to non-specialists yet computationally challenging. Without pencil or paper, he mentally designed an algorithm that would go on to power GPS navigation, network routing, social media, supply chains, and robotics. The story highlights how a moment of quiet reflection led to one of the most impactful algorithms in computer science history. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [E.W.Dijkstra Archive: Home page](https://daily.dev/posts/e-w-dijkstra-archive-home-page-ddlfzoqxk) · Hacker News · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [E.W.Dijkstra Archive: Home page](https://daily.dev/posts/e-w-dijkstra-archive-home-page-nrnxu0pdu) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/did-you-know-that-dijkstra-came-up-with-his-famous-algorithm-in-about-20-minutes--cmhow4bqb) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Did you know that Dijkstra came up with his famous algorithm in about 20 minutes?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/did-you-know-that-dijkstra-came-up-with-his-famous-algorithm-in-about-20-minutes--cmhow4bqb","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/did-you-know-that-dijkstra-came-up-with-his-famous-algorithm-in-about-20-minutes--cmhow4bqb"},"datePublished":"2026-07-21T12:14:31.819Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T12:14:47.197Z","description":"In 1956, Dutch programmer and mathematician Edsger W. 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