What problem does the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) aim to solve?

The Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) focuses on determining the shortest possible route that allows a salesperson to visit a set of specific locations or cities and return to the origin point. The essence of TSP is to find the most efficient path that minimizes the total travel distance or cost while ensuring that each location is visited exactly once. This problem is significant in operations research, logistics, and computer science as it encompasses various practical applications, such as vehicle routing and circuit board manufacturing.

In the context of the other options, the maximum distance between points is not relevant to TSP since the goal is not to maximize distance but to minimize it. Minimizing time spent in each city does not align with TSP because it is concerned primarily with the travel route rather than the duration of stops. Choosing popular destinations does not address the optimization aspect of the problem; TSP deals with the order and path taken rather than the selection of locations based on popularity.