How does TopCoder evaluates code?

Question

If you are familiar with TopCoder you know that your source-code gets a final "grade/points" this depends on time, how many compiles, etc, one of the highest weighted being performance. But how can they test that, is there some sort of simple code (java or c++) to do it that you could share for me to evaluate and hopefully write my own to test the programs I write for University?

This is sort of a follow up question to this one where I ask if shorter code results in best performance.

P.S: Im interested in both of how topcoders knows performance and writing code to test performance.

Chrisse

Answer 1

They have a test framework that tests your code and measures the time it takes to run those tests. Once you submit your code, TopCoders machines will run a certain number of tests cases against it.

There is no human involved in measuring the performance. They test automatically how much time is spent only in your code.

Usually competitors have local test frameworks that gives them a pretty good idea of the performance of their code. Writing a simple test framework should not be a too difficult task.

Grecian

Thanks for your answer, do you happen to have any source where i could learn about test frameworks – Chrisse

Exactly what competitions are you talking about here: Algorithm, Marathon Match or something else? – Grecian

I haven't done any algorithm competitions, but a lot Marathon Match competitions. This is the test framework that I used for Marathon Match 54 : tuomaspelkonen.com/topcoder-source-code/test-framework – Grecian