From One Year to Weeks: Optimizing Program Graph Sharing in a Compiler

The author spent over a year tackling a compiler's program graph serialization problem. The initial solution was messy and unmaintainable. By collaborating with others and reframing the problem as finding the Lowest Single Common Ancestor (LSCA) in the graph, they leveraged existing LCA algorithm libraries and clever lazy programming techniques. The result is an elegant, linear-time solution, a third the length of the original, effectively resolving performance bottlenecks.