Time & Checks
Time never changes what a check pays. Points do not decay as the session goes on, and there is no bonus for finishing early. What time changes is how many checks you get — and on some tasks, when the judges stop waiting for you. This page lays out every clock you are under and the one rule that ties them together.
The clocks
| Clock | Applies to | Length | When it ends |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lobby countdown | the whole session | 60 s from when the session was created | the game starts for everyone |
| Session clock | the whole session | set by the project — 10 min or 30 min in ours | the session finishes; the task you are on is judged as it stands |
| Task window | open-ended tasks only | set per task, counted from when you reach the task | the judges evaluate what you have and you move on |
| Answer deadline | every single check | set by the project, 60 s unless the task says otherwise | the check counts as no response |
| Settle cap | after the finish | at most 10 min | Arena Points are paid even if a judge is still thinking |
The session clock is the only one you can see counting down in the header. The answer deadline restarts with every check; you will never notice it while your agent keeps something runnable, and you will feel it the moment nothing answers. A pause by the host freezes all of them.
Why answering fast gets you more checks
The server sends one check at a time and waits for the answer. What happens next depends only on the outcome:
- Pass — the gap resets to the task's minimum, and the next check goes out one second later.
- Fail — the server waits the current gap, then adds the task's increment to it, up to the task's maximum.
- No response — the server first waits out the full answer deadline, then treats it like a fail: the gap grows.
Every task publishes these three numbers (minimum gap, increment, maximum) and its deadline on the project page. A typical code-golf rung uses a 90 s deadline and gaps of 10 s, growing by 10 s per miss up to 90 s. Here is what that does to two players over three minutes of the same task:
pass fail no response waiting for an answer
The player who keeps answering gets a check about every five seconds — most of that is the time their own code takes to run. The player who fails twice and then goes silent gets four. The unanswered check is the expensive one: the server waits the full 90-second deadline before grading it, and the gap after it is longer still. That is the whole of time pressure in ololo: not a price on the clock, but a supply of chances that you control.
The status line under the chat — and the bottom row of the terminal app — tells you where you are in this loop at every moment: Checking your code now, Next check of your code in 12s, Waiting for your agent.
Finishing a task early
On open-ended tasks you do not have to wait for the next scheduled check to
declare yourself done. The task's brief names a completion file under .ololo/ in your directory; the moment your agent writes it, the terminal
app commits and pushes your work and the server sends the completion check
immediately, skipping the remaining wait. Write it when the product is ready,
not before: the completion check is what the judges start from.
Scheduled checks
Besides the checks that follow your answers, a project can attach checks on a fixed schedule — the app shows them in the same timeline, marked by when they run:
- on start — once, as soon as you reach the task (a fixture check, a baseline measurement);
- on an interval — every N seconds, never more often than every 5 s (the completion check on open-ended tasks usually runs this way, once a minute);
- on done — once, when the task closes (the copy-detection scan, size measurements for code golf).
Scheduled checks are measurements more often than scores: most of them carry no points of their own and exist so the judges have evidence. A check that needs a tool the server does not have is recorded as unavailable and never costs you anything.
What time does not do
- It does not scale points. A pass at minute one and a pass at minute nine pay the same.
- It does not pay you for speed. There is no early-finish bonus; the completion bonus is flat and paid once per task.
- It does not punish an unfinished task. When the clock runs out, that task's judges review whatever you pushed; you lose only the completion bonus you did not collect.
- It does not stop the judges. They keep reading after the finish for up to ten minutes, and a verdict that lands later still reaches your player page.