GSoC 2026 - Cronjob Optimization: Progress Tracker

[PrasannaMishra001]

Contributor: @PrasannaMishra001
Project: Cronjob Optimization
Mentors: @Ankitsinghsisodya , @carlosabcs
Period covered: May 2026 to date. This discussion tracks everything I have worked on from the cron project itself, the features and fixes that shipped alongside it and the proposal items that were already solved by other contributors, which I tracked and coordinated around instead of duplicating.

1. Cronjob Optimization (the main project)

The four cron jobs mainly in scope are update_ranks.py, assign_badges.py, aggregate_feedback.py, build_problem_rec_model.py.

1.1 Unit test foundation (proposal weeks 1 to 3)

• feat(cron): add unit test infrastructure and aggregate_feedback/utils tests #9883 (issue [FEATURE] Add unit test infrastructure for cron scripts #9882) : reusable MockCursor and MockConnection, typed fixtures, first 34 tests, reviewed in depth by Ankit and every finding addressed
• feat(cron): add update_ranks unit tests #9889 (issue [FEATURE] Add unit tests for update_ranks.py ranking logic #9888) : ranking logic, cutoffs, tie handling, also fixed a package shadowing bug where the cron database folder masked the pipelines one in CI
• feat(cron): add assign_badges unit tests #9920 (issue [FEATURE] Add unit tests for assign_badges.py #9890) : full coverage of the badge diff logic including per badge failure isolation and rollback

1.2 Query and reliability cleanups

• fix(cron): parameterize coder_of_the_month queries #9900 (issue [FEATURE] Parameterize string-built queries in coder_of_the_month.py #9899) : removes f-string SQL, converts the admin exclusion to NOT EXISTS
• fix(cron): replace bare except clauses with typed except #9901 (issue [CLEANUP] Replace bare except: clauses with typed except Exception: in cron scripts #9293, taken over from a stale PR with maintainer approval) : approved by @pabo99
• fix(cron): merge user rank with upsert instead of full reinsert #9903 (issue [FEATURE] Avoid full delete and reinsert of User_Rank in update_ranks #9902) : keeps one transaction, churn proportional to what actually changed, replaces the proposal's shadow table swap after research showed the swap breaks atomicity and loses foreign keys
• refactor(cron): name acl/role magic numbers with constants #9940 (issue [FEATURE] Replace acl_id/role_id magic numbers in cron scripts with named constants #9939) : merged

1.3 Observability

• add structured phase logging to crons #9914 (issue [FEATURE] Emit structured per-phase logs from cron scripts #9913) : every cron phase now emits phase, status, duration and error class as JSON fields, scoped to the emit side so it feeds the New Relic work without duplicating it

1.4 Built and verified locally, waiting on predecessors

• Ranking audit plus churn circuit breaker on top of fix(cron): merge user rank with upsert instead of full reinsert #9903 : validates the freshly built ranking and rolls back before a bad run can reach users, proven with a forced failure where the table hash stayed identical
• NOW() session variable fix for assign_badges : behavior proven equivalent on both affected badges, raises after feat(cron): add assign_badges unit tests #9920
• Recommendation model evaluation harness : precision, recall, MAP and NDCG at k for the recommender cron, existing score byte identical

1.5 Proposal items or related cronjob issues already solved by others (tracked)

These were in my proposal but other contributors landed/got merged them between proposal writing and the coding period, so I verified each against main and re-scoped instead of redoing:

• Optimize update_problem_accepted_stats to eliminate per-problem UPDATE queries #9420 correlated subquery rewrite in update_problem_accepted_stats
• Get_user_problems optimization  #9862
• Batch inserts in update_user_rank and update_author_rank to reduce DB round-trips #9502
• Make assign_badges resilient to per-badge failures #9236
• fix: use parameterized query in assign_badges.get_current_owners #9286
• Fix transaction handling and error propagation in update_users_stats #9166 and Fix: make update_schools_stats use single atomic transaction like update_users_stats #9525
• cron: add execution time logging to update_ranks #9811, add aggregate_feedback summary logging #9722 and Added and logged EXPLAIN for queries #9744

Active ones I coordinate with rather than tke on are school of the month queries (#9873), incremental aggregate_feedback (#9607), New Relic integration, coder of the month restructuring (#9814, #9391), Submissions indexes (#9125).

2. System Settings feature (parent issue #8319)

Admin controlled site settings, first use case of turning the EphemeralGrader IDE on and off with a consistent user facing message.

• Add System_Settings table and Migration #8905 : merged
• Added DAO layer for System_Settings table #8918 : merged
• Add backend API endpoints for system settings management #8906 with caching and payload exposure
• feat: add admin ui, client gating for system settings #8938 the disabled grader now renders the generic view unavailable component
• add view unavailable component #9919 generic view unavailable component (issue [FEATURE] Add a generic "View unavailable" component #9897) : approved by @pabo99

3. Navbar modernization

• Add icons to navbar Help menu #9801 icons, titles and subtitles for the Help menu : merged
• Extract NavbarItem component for help menu #9871 extracting reusable NavbarItem component (issue [FEATURE] Refactor navbar help submenu into a reusable NavbarItem component #9870) : includes the external link marker and Storybook entries
• extend navbar item style to remaining submenus #9967 extend the item style to the Contests, Courses, Problems and Ranking submenus (issue [FEATURE] Extend the navbar item style with icons and descriptions to remaining submenus #9962)
• build navbar menus from a single configuration #9968 with per entry visibility rules (issue [FEATURE] Build the navbar menus from a single configuration with visibility rules #9966) : groundwork for access levels per profile

4. Other contributions merged in this period

• fix: block GET for clone, open, and accept endpoints #9429 block GET on clone, open and accept endpoints (security)
• fix #9386: return contest_alias in clarification create response #9432 return contest_alias in the clarification create response
• Add automatic programming language detection to the Ephemeral grader editor. #9070 automatic programming language detection in the code editor