in queue... what queue?

[theemathas]

the "in queue" verdict looks strange to me:

• it is definitely not a "queue" because it's clearly not FIFO
• it shouldn't be a "priority queue" because there aren't any reasonable priorities
• it isn't a "queue by received time" because sometimes two consecutive submissions from the same computer (so, different internet connections is out of the question) got judged in the wrong order
• it shouldn't be anything else since it says "in queue"

then, what queue is it?

[lbv]

the "in queue" verdict looks strange to me: (..)
then, what queue is it?

An interesting, but kind of strange question...

I'm not familiar with UVa's OJ infrastructure to know for sure, but have you considered that it may be a standard queue that is simply serviced by more than one judging server? All submissions arrive to the same queue, and some may go to a slower server, while others go to faster ones.

Or what if it's one multi-threaded server? It might start one judging task in one thread, and if it takes too long, it pauses it, moves to another one, and so on...

Anyway, who knows what really happens behind the curtains, but I just thought that if you want to take the term "queue" so literally, it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a reasonable scenario that explains the behaviour you see.