Cheating Duke $70,265 with Flight Routing Algorithms

Name: Cheating Duke $70,265 with Flight Routing Algorithms
Availability: InStock
Author: ThePhillipLin

by ThePhillipLin·Mar 16, 2026·3 points·0 comments

Visit Project View on HN

AI Analysis

●●SolidRabbit HoleBig Brain

Accidental 2.8-billion state search tree from a 30-minute scheduling tangent.

Strengths

•Genuine optimization journey from greedy → DFS → Boolean logic solvers.
•Handles real constraints: prerequisites, lab-lecture pairs, time conflicts.
•Working tool at dukesolver.philliplin.dev with actual Duke course data.

Weaknesses

•Duke-specific—limited applicability to other universities' systems.
•More compelling as a writeup than as a reusable product.

Post Description

If you've scraped evaluation data and course attributes, finding the best possible schedule should be easy. If I'm graduating early, the best possible one SHOULD be easy, so I sat down for a QUICK coding problem.

(It turns out, not quick."avoid time conflicts" is a great way to accidentally build a 2.8-billion state search tree.) You can try the tool at dukesolver.philliplin.dev