Week 22: Debugging, Progress & The Final Event

This week, I continued investigating the logo issue that appeared after the latest application upgrade. My initial investigation showed that the logo request was returning a 403 Cloudflare hotlinking error, while other CouchDB requests in the same session were working correctly. However, Dr. Shawn pointed out that this explanation did not fully make sense because the previous application version worked correctly without the issue.

Therefore, instead of assuming the problem was caused by Cloudflare, we decided to compare the previous and current versions of the application. I will use GitHub to revert and compare the changes step by step to identify which modification introduced the logo issue.

For the Rank Judge module, I continued testing the swipe functionality for disabling participants. During the weekly meeting, Dr. Shawn suggested supporting both directions: swipe left to disable and swipe right to re-enable a participant in case a judge accidentally disables someone. He also advised me to complete the project as early as possible so there would be enough time for testing and fixing any bugs before my internship ends.

The biggest highlight of the week was attending my final live competition on 8th and 9th August. It was a meaningful experience because it was my last event as a technical assistant during my internship. Throughout the event, I continued supporting the technical setup with Liang Yao and assisting with any issues that occurred during the competition.

Challenge This Week & Solutions

The main technical challenge was identifying the actual cause of the logo issue. Although the error response pointed towards Cloudflare, the fact that the previous application version worked correctly suggested that something in my latest changes might have caused the problem. The solution, instead of relying only on the error message, I will compare the working previous version with the current version using GitHub. By reverting and comparing the changes step by step, I can identify which specific change caused the logo to stop appearing.

Another challenge was completing the Rank Judge module within the limited time remaining in my internship while still leaving enough time for proper testing. For solution, I will continue testing the swipe behaviour and implement both disable and re-enable actions based on Dr. Shawn’s feedback.

Reflection

This week was especially meaningful because it marked the end of my live-event experience. I honestly feel a little sad that it was my final event because I found the technical support work interesting and enjoyable.

Throughout these events, I learned much more than just technical skills. I became better at troubleshooting problems on the spot, thinking quickly, finding solutions under pressure, staying alert, and working respectfully as part of a team. My communication with clients, judges, and event staff also improved significantly from one event to another.

I am very grateful to Dr. Shawn for trusting me and giving me the opportunity to experience these real-world competitions. Each event gave me a different challenge and helped me become more confident and capable. Looking back, it has been one of the most valuable parts of my internship.

Next Week’s Plan

1. Complete the Rank Judge and Rank Emcee modules as soon as possible.
2. Continue debugging and identifying the root cause of the logo issue.
3. Perform thorough testing before submitting the final changes for Dr. Shawn’s review.
4. Make the most of the remaining time in my internship by completing my project and learning as much as possible.