 Unique topological ordering criterion

A finite nonempty Directed acyclic graph has a unique topological sort exactly when it has a Hamiltonian path. A Hamiltonian path forces the relative order of every consecutive pair and therefore of all vertices. Conversely, in a unique topological sort, every consecutive pair must have a forward edge: if such an edge were absent, swapping that adjacent pair would preserve all edge constraints and produce a second topological sort. The consecutive edges give a Hamiltonian path. Consequently one may compute any topological sort and test its consecutive edges, taking $O(n^2)$ time on an adjacency matrix representation.