hot path

noun

UK /hɒt pɑːθ/

US /hɑːt pæθ/

The part of a computer program that runs the most often, so it needs to be very fast.

The game's drawing loop is a hot path, so the programmers made it as quick as possible.

SYNONYMS

critical path fast path frequent code path performance-critical path

RELATED WORDS

optimization profiling bottleneck cache latency

OTHER MEANINGS

2. A route or trail that many people or vehicles use often.

The shortcut behind the school became a hot path for students walking home.

3. In networking, the main route that most data packets travel through.

Engineers monitored the hot path to keep the network from slowing down.

4. A commonly used sequence of steps in a workflow that should be made as smooth as possible.

Checking out a purchase is the hot path of any online store.