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Error messages: Submission timed out
Once in a while, you can encounter the following error:
Submission timed out. Please try again.
This page tries to clear some of the confusion that occurs when the error happens.
First of all, don't worry. This doesn't mean that your code is wrong. However, it doesn't mean that your code is correct either. Instead, your code wasn't even tested. The very process of submitting the code timed out. This can happen under heavy load, if all worker pools are exhausted, all queues are full, or some other behind the scenes detail gave up.
The actual source of the problem [isn't fully known yet][issue-18]. Sometimes, it's background jobs not processing items from the job queue. Sometimes, it's another, completely unrelated process on the same machine, that takes too much resources from a Codewars virtual machine.
First of all, relax. Even if the submission timed out, your code is usually saved. However, you can copy your code into your clipboard and reload the kata submission page in order to check this: if the code is still there, you can come back later. If it isn't, paste it and try to submit it again – maybe it was just a lost server connection and you can go on.
If the problem persists you can notify Jake or at least report the incident in [the aforementioned issue topic (#18)][issue-18]. You can also check the status page. Note that at least at the moment of writing this text (2015-04-07), the status page isn't always accurate. Also have a look at the dashboard. People usually post issues or comments about "submission timed out" if this happens.
Again, this error doesn't solely happen to you, and it doesn't have anything to do with your code. Please do not comment on katas in this case, as "Submission timed out" comments clutter the comment page, and the kata author can't do anything to fix this error.
That, on the other hand, is a code related error. It means that your code wasn't able to perform the necessary operations in the given time. The time limit varies between languages, but it's usually ~6s. Therefore, this is an error you can fix. You need to perform optimizations on your code. This includes memoization, dynamic programming or even better algorithms and depends on the kata. If you get stuck, submit a comment on the specific kata and mark it as "Question".
Sure.
| Error message | Interpretation / meaning |
|---|---|
| Submission timed out | The Codewars platform has some problems. Try again later. Your code wasn't checked. |
| Process timed out | Your code is too slow and has exceeded the time limit. Try another approach, algorithm, or optimize. |
If you want to link a user to this page, feel free to use the following snippets:
@---: This error is not kata related. Instead, it is caused by some hiccup in the Codewars system, don't worry. It's usually fixed after a while. For more information, see [this page on the github wiki](https://github.com/Codewars/codewars.com/wiki/Error-messages:-Submission-timed-out).[issue-18]: https://github.com/Codewars/codewars.com/issues/18 " "Issue #18: Submission Timeouts / Poor messaging""