RaceDay Scoring Version 5 launched in 2024 with the ambitious goal of providing a platform capable of timing any size or type of event. This spring we had a customer test our limits. The bad news is RaceDay Scoring was a bit slow for this high end race. The good news is that we have made improvements so now it is lightning fast even for races with 2.5 Million reads (and we now have a new test case!)
Performance Challenges Uncovered
During recent large-scale events, we identified performance bottlenecks with the version 5 of RaceDay Scoring:
- Southern Event:
- One distance, approximately 18,000 attendees.
- Multiple corrals.
- Over 1.5 million start reads, accompanied by extensive testing.
- Midwestern Event:
- Approximately 9,000 participants.
- Diverse event options, including three different courses with several different scoring categories, including team aggregate scoring.
These events highlighted the need for optimization within Version 5.
Issue Resolutions and Performance Improvements
Here are the key performance issues we encountered and the steps we’ve taken to resolve them:
- Scoring Engine Bottleneck: The scoring engine was performing the two larger tasks together; the processing of scoring the reads and the creation of timer dashboard statistics. This created a bottleneck that slowed down read scoring. We resolved this by separating these functions and perform them now in parallel, optimizing the scoring process.
- SQLite Query Optimization: While the move to SQLite in Version 5 significantly enhanced data storage reliability and overall performance, we discovered that our query methods were overly complex. We’ve streamlined and simplified the retrieval of reads for timer dashboards, improving efficiency.
- Memory Reduction: We identified and eliminated unnecessary copy of data in memory during the scoring process, further reducing processing time.
Enhanced Testing and Analytics
In addition to addressing the core performance issues, we’ve implemented:
- Extensive High-Performing Testing: Our testing procedures are now more rigorous and comprehensive.
- Detailed Performance Analytics: We now have access to more detailed performance data, allowing us to identify and address potential issues proactively.
- Real-Time Data Testing Capability: We can now conduct performance testing using real-time data, ensuring accuracy and reliability.
We used the more complex Midwestern event scenario to test our improved performance features and will continue to include such challenging scenarios in our regular testing as we develop new features. This ensures the robustness and scalability of RaceDay Scoring.
Summary
RaceDay Scoring is ready for the largest and most complex events in the endurance community. And we continue to make timing approachable for even the smallest races with our modern, easy to use user interface and automation features. We continue to listen to customer feedback and invest in making RaceDay Scoring and the whole RaceDay product family the obvious choice for races and timers.
