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During my time on SE, I've asked more than one question that hit the Hot Network Questions list (3 that I know of, each from a different SE site; same linked account). Other than analyzing the number of views over time and my own memory, is there a query I can call to get a list of these questions?

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    I fear this is not possible. According to this answer, "we could not even re-build the lists at a particular point in the past". So essentially it also means there is no way to get a list required to find what you want.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Aug 3, 2014 at 18:32
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    It feels like that should have changed by now @Shadow; it looks like it's now cached network wide in the network DB, which means that backups should give you a bit and there might be a history somewhere. It might be interesting to investigate the impact of the list on the sites (someone did this for the workplace?) and the question itself, so keeping the history might be useful.
    – ben is uǝq backwards
    Commented Aug 3, 2014 at 19:37
  • @ben maybe they have internal log, I doubt they will expose it or make it public. But guess only a dev/CM can give real answer anyway.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Aug 3, 2014 at 20:11
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    related: Does Stack Exchange record when particular question enters and leaves hot list?
    – gnat
    Commented Aug 22, 2014 at 17:13
  • A recent question on the same topic: How do I view "Hot Network Question" history associated with a given account? (Since 2019 it is recorded when a post enters the HNQ list.)
    – Martin
    Commented Jun 16, 2022 at 7:09

2 Answers 2

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Although this wouldn't take into account the previous questions, you could create a script that records all the hot questions.

AFAIK, the homepage of SE opens a web socket to auto update the page. This project might give you insight on how how to do this...

Anyway, if SE were to dig up previous values and add it somewhere, this seems to be a good idea:

(Notice the "top" boxes by the first two questions...)

There also might be a good spot for this on the new SO profile...

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Despite my optimism in the comments you can't do this, except by constantly polling it as suggested Annonomus Penguin.

Kasra has commented to this effect, far more recently than Waffles:

We currently do not record anything about when a question enters/leaves the hot question list. The list is calculated on the fly each time (and heavily cached)

There's a feature request to track when a question arrives and leaves the hot questions list and another to get a weekly digest, which might contain additional interesting information for you. But, there's nothing currently like what you're asking for.

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