diff --git a/snippets/longestItem.md b/snippets/longestItem.md
index ca61d93f4..9e277e1d8 100644
--- a/snippets/longestItem.md
+++ b/snippets/longestItem.md
@@ -2,10 +2,10 @@
 
 Takes any number of iterable objects or objects with a `length` property and returns the longest one.
 
-Use `Array.sort()` to sort all arguments by `length`, return the first (longest) one.
+Use `Array.reduce()` to collect the longest element.  Returns [] for empty array.
 
 ```js
-const longestItem = (...vals) => [...vals].sort((a, b) => b.length - a.length)[0];
+const longestItem = (...vals) => [...vals].reduce((a, x) => (a.length > x.length ? a : x), []);
 ```
 
 ```js
diff --git a/test/longestItem/longestItem.js b/test/longestItem/longestItem.js
index d5f7c2528..4d63c3413 100644
--- a/test/longestItem/longestItem.js
+++ b/test/longestItem/longestItem.js
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-const longestItem = (...vals) => [...vals].sort((a, b) => b.length - a.length)[0];
+const longestItem = (...vals) => [...vals].reduce((a, x) => (a.length > x.length ? a : x), []);
 module.exports = longestItem;