Let's say, there's a problem 33. Search in Rotated Sorted Array.
I've written a solution, submit it and get "Runtime: 11 ms, faster than 16.63% of Java online submissions for Search in Rotated Sorted Array.".
Ok, apparently my solution sucks. I check other submissions and see that ideally it should run in 5ms.
I don't want to peek yet and keep trying to improve my solution, I make sure it's really logN, there's no unnecessary overhead anywhere, but the code runs 10 ms the fastest.
Finally, I give, up, check the "sample 5 ms submission" and, surprise!!!, it looks pretty much the same (just prettier :). I spend a couple more hours to try to fix mine...
In the end, I simply copy-paste the "sample 5 ms submission" and it RUNS 11ms!!! The same 11ms as my solution was running about 6 hours of my effort ago! WTF???
I actually noticed it a couple days ago, and knew to check it, but then the difference would be +-1ms (or rather +- 5-10%), then I'd check sample and if it took same time, would move on. But this time it was 2 times difference.
Is it a known issue? Is it something temporary?