How a job works¶

Two ways to get a report¶

Way A: one step

Upload and start grading together. The simplest path.

Create a job
Way B: two steps

Upload first, then start grading later, within 24 hours. Use it for big uploads, or to check everything arrived before you commit to grading.

Upload only · Grade an upload

Either way you get a job id like qcjob_yLrQuj9XZ2LxIBbVN6f8S2.

Keep the job id: it's your receipt

Every other script uses it. If you lose it, List your jobs finds it again.

The statuses a job moves through¶

flowchart LR
    A([awaiting_upload]) --> B([uploaded])
    B --> C([queued])
    C --> D([grading])
    D --> E([complete])
    C -.-> F([failed])
    D -.-> F
    A -.-> G([cancelled])
    B -.-> G
    C -.-> G

Status	What it means	What you do
awaiting_upload	The job exists, but the data hasn't arrived yet	Nothing: the upload is in progress
uploaded	Your data is stored safely. Not graded yet.	Way B: grade it within 24 hours
queued	Grading has been requested; waiting for a slot	Wait
grading	Our pipeline is grading your data	Wait: minutes for a small zip, longer for a big one
complete	Done: the report is ready	Get the report
failed	It could not be graded. The `reason` says why.	See Troubleshooting
cancelled	You cancelled it before grading started	Nothing

Timing¶

Status changes about once a minute

Our servers check for new work about once a minute, so a status can take a minute or two to change. Checking more often than every 60 seconds won't speed it up.

You don't need to keep your computer on

Once the upload has finished, the job runs on our side. Close the laptop, come back tomorrow, and look it up by its id.

A real run, start to finish¶

This is what one job looked like on the development server, using the two-step way:

upload        →  status: uploaded     (stays here until grade is called)
grade         →  status: queued       (returned in about 2 seconds)
a minute later   status: queued
a minute later   status: grading
…                status: grading
done          →  status: complete     verdict: REJECTED

complete with REJECTED is a normal outcome: the job finished and was graded, and at least one episode didn't pass. The report explains why.